The policy world is awash with worries about spectrum shortages as demand for wireless services grows. Using data on more than 69,000 licenses from every FCC spectrum auction since 1996, this paper disentangles and quantifies the factors that differently contribute to license value. I find that,...

The United States now spends around $7 billion on universal service programs-subsidies intended to ensure that the entire country has access to telecommunications services. Most of this money supports telecommunications service in high cost (primarily rural) areas, and the High Cost fund is...