The competitiveness of a country and entire regions today is strongly connected to its broadband adaptation. Broadband is not only playing a critical success role in the economy, it connects consumers, businesses, governments and facilitates social interaction. Many studies have been carried out...

Across Europe, policymakers and market forces are striving to deploy next generation access (NGA) networks and ensure ubiquitous access to superfast broadband services. Due to scale economies and sunk costs, the roll-out of NGA is expected to be profitable only for large-scale providers and in...

Broadband internet expansion is a topic of widespread discussion in Germany right now. But the country still has not met its own targets. Almost 100 percent of households are supplied with broadband connections with up to six megabits per second, yet Germany has lots of room to catch up when it...

In this paper we study how the coexistence of access regulations for legacy (copper) and fiber networks shapes the incentives to invest in network infrastructure. To this end, we develop a theoretical model explaining investment incentives by incumbent telecom operators and heterogeneous...

In this paper we study how the coexistence of access regulations for legacy (copper) and fiber networks shapes the incentives to invest in network infrastructure. To this end, we develop a theoretical model explaining investment incentives by incumbent telecom operators and heterogeneous...

Well-developed infrastructure systems and services are vital means of enhancing the connectivity of Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) member economies. In essence, efforts by APEC to enhance connectivity through infrastructure should be considered regional public goods since these create...

There are growing infrastructure needs in the APEC region as their economies have expanded. However, both developing and developed economies face infrastructure gaps because of the mismatch between infrastructure demands and supplies. Developing countries require developing and constructing new...

This paper briefly shows the current status of infrastructure development and infrastructure needs in the APEC region. It also summarizes the major contents of the Multi-Year Plan on Infrastructure Development and Investment (MYPIDI), approved as a part of the annexes to the APEC's 21st Leaders'...

Studies in the social capital literature have documented two stylised facts: first, a decline in measures of social participation has occurred in many OECD countries. Second, and more recently, the success of social networking sites (SNSs) has resulted in a steep rise in online social...

Does Facebook make people lonely and unhappy? Empirical studies have produced conflicting results about the effect of social networking sites (SNS) use on individual welfare. We use a representative sample of the Italian population to investigate how actual and virtual networks of social...