This paper presents a review of empirical methods used to assess the behavioral, economic, and political outcomes of Internet and social media usage. Instead of merely surveying the various impacts of the Internet, we examine the methods adopted to identify these impacts. We describe two main...

This paper assesses whether and how ISPs can offer service enhancements for particular types of traffic and customers without harming competition among content creators and distributors. The paper will use the recent paid peering agreement between Netflix and Comcast as a case study. The paper...

Using the classical Hotelling model, this paper analyzes the incentive for a CATV service provider to bundle broadband internet services when entering the broadband internet services market. In addition, the effect of such service bundling by an entrant on the market incumbent with ownership...

There is significant debate over whether there remains a last-mile broadband bottleneck. In this paper, we explore what might be the nature of this bottleneck and review options for regulatory responses. Building on our work in CommAct2021, we expand on our discussion of the need for a reformed...

The digital dividend is the amount of spectrum that is freed up by the switch over from analogue TV to digital terrestrial TV in the UHF band. Drawing from a research project (Braulke et al. 2010) commissioned by the Austrian regulator RTR, this article prioritizes, analyses and evaluates the...

The paper provides an historical account of the policy debate that took place in the United States after the 2007 release of the OECD's broadband statistics. It explains why and in what context such a debate occurred (lack of relevant statistics from the FCC, dissatisfaction of some stakeholders...

In some technology sectors in India, particularly in software services, public policies and private initiative have yielded rapid growth and good private and social returns. But this has not been true for the case of the Internet, more so for broadband. There is strong belief among technologists...

We evaluate the impact of a major European state aid program for broadband deployment applied to rural areas in the German State of Bavaria in the years 2010 and 2011. Using difference-in-differences estimation strategies, we find that aided municipalities have – depending on broadband quality...

The purpose of this Policy Paper is to examine empirically the relative impact that a regulatory mandate like network neutrality would have on high-cost areas and to compare that relative burden to lower-cost urban areas. We find areas that are, on average, high-cost could be disproportionately...

When the Internet was in its nascency, the Federal Communications Commission rejected calls to impose traditional "common carrier" regulation designed for a monopoly telephone world. Instead, the agency classified broadband Internet access as an "information service" under Title I of the...