The growth of Internet access enabled the creation of functions (e.g., e-commerce and search) that were initially convenient but which a small number of firms used to achieve winner-takes-all, through the application of ICTs, network externalities and two-sided markets. They turned themselves...

Opinion polls suggest Scotland will reject independence, opening the way to a review of economic governance in the United Kingdom, a complex quasi-federal, asymmetric system of administrations and parliaments, the result of ad hoc changes over decades. One party wants telecommunications...

The Scottish Government published proposals for the administration of an independent Scotland, its case for a vote in favour of independence in September 2014 and an outline of its manifesto in the Scottish parliamentary elections in 2016. Opinion polls continue to show that only about one...

The Smith Commission is charged with the rapid development of proposals for increased devolution of powers to the Scottish Parliament. One area very poorly covered in the past has been the interaction of devolved government with the regulatory state. While further powers will be devolved, there...

The Scottish National Party (SNP) government in Scotland has published an outline of how it wishes economic and competition regulation to operate in the event that it is successful in persuading the residents of Scotland to vote in September 2014 for independence in March 2016. It envisages a...

If the plebiscite in Scotland, due in autumn 2014, results in its independence from the United Kingdom, it is expected to become a member state of the European Union (EU). One consequence of this is that Scotland would be required, by the acquis communitaire, to create a considerable number of...

The Smith Commission completed its work in short order, producing an agreement that would see significant further powers devolved to the Scottish government and parliament. Amongst the arrangements were some additional powers for the Scottish government concerning the work of the Office of...

Telecommunications was one of the first markets to become part of what today comprises the regulatory state, shifting risks and rewards towards the private sector, subject to regulation. Parliamentary has oversight of policies, the regulator and subventions from HM Treasury, which are necessary...

International mobile roaming has been subject to market interventions since the 1990s, first requiring operators to be provide customers with roaming, then trying to limit the increasing prices, that were seemingly immune to the effects of competition. The European Commission, in trying to...

Corruption has been identified as a significant issue in telecommunications, seen in bribery and nepotism over many years, raising questions as to whether there are comparable problems with the Internet. Complex systems of Internet governance have excluded the issue, failing to put in place any...