Arrow (1962) showed that a secure monopolist (unconcerned with preemption) has a weaker incentive than would a competitive firm to invest in a patentable process innovation. This paper shows that the ranking can be reversed for product innovations. Only the innovator sells the new product, a...

Inflated retail prices and termination rates for international telecommunications have spawned traffic re-routing practices, including call turnaround (e.g., callback) and re-origination via third countries. The US and other liberalized countries that allow telecom competition favor such...

The no-surcharge rule (NSR) prohibits merchants from charging different prices to consumers that use credit cards instead of cash. We show that, while an NSR raises card company profits, it may reduce both cash and card transactions. If the card company can offer rebates to its cardholders, it...

Contes tability theory suggests that threat of entry may prevent monopolistic pricing e ven in a concentrated market because, if exit from the market is easy, monopolis tic pricing would induce hit and run entry. This paper shows that, despite easy exit, hit and run entry is unprofitable if...

Under network effects, we analyze when a firm with the largest market share of installed-base customers prefers incompatibility with smaller rivals that are themselves compatible. With incompatibility, consumers realize that intra-network competition makes the rivals' network more aggressive...

One of the most important and most contentious issues for regulation and competition raised by the 1996 Telecommunications Act is when to authorize the regional Bell companies to offer long-distance services. The Department of Justice (DOJ) adopted a standard requiring that a Bell's local market...

The U.S. telecom industry has long been evolving from regulated monopoly to competition in various services such as telephony and video. This trend is accelerating with the spread of digital transmission and the Internet. Digital Crossroads provides a timely and sweeping treatment of the entire...