This short essay examines the current conditions in the US telecommunications sector (April 1999). We examine the impact of technological and regulatory change on market structure and business strategy. Among others, we examine the impact on pricing of digitization and the emergence of internet...

Non-uniform pricing equilibria are shown to dominate uniform pricing equilibria in free entry, monopolistically competitive markets with identical consumers. The non-uniform pricing equilibrium is welfare optimal. Comparisons of Cournot and non- uniform pricing equilibria in terms of the...

The Telecommunications Act of 1996 invites entry in the local telecommunications networks whereby entrants will lease parts of the network ("unbundled network elements") from incumbents "at cost plus reasonable profit." A crucial question in the implementation of the Act is the appropriate...

A model of franchising competition in locationally differentiated products is constructed. A franchisor (upstream firm) collects a marginal transfer fee per unit of output sold by a franchisee (downstream firm). For example, the marginal transfer fee can be realized as a markup on variable...

We present a model where producers of complementary goods have the option to practice mixed bundling. In the first stage of a two- stage game, firms choose between a mixed bundling and a non- bundling strategy. In the second stage, firms choose prices. We show that mixed bundling is a dominant...