Local loop unbundling has been widely promulgated by policy-makers as a significant factor stimulating broadband uptake and therefore an essential component of a developing 'information economy'. Whilst empirical evidence is sparse and at best equivocal in respect of a consistent positive and...

Bronwyn Howell recently attended the International Telecommunications Society Asia-Pacific conference held in Taipei Taiwan on 26-28 June 2011. A copy of her presentation is attached.

Fast internet access is widely considered to be a productivity-enhancing factor. However despite promises of substantial gains from its deployment the evidence from recent empirical studies sugests that the productivity gains may not be as large as originally hypothesised. If substantiated these...

Structural separation between network and retail functions is increasingly being mandated in the telecommunications sector to countervail the market power of incumbent operators. Experience of separation in the electricity sector offers insights for telecommunications. Despite apparent...

A popularly-held tenet in health economics is that as a consequence of the presence of insurance subsidies for treatment costs health care markets differ so significantly from hypothetical 'perfect competition' that competition and antitrust laws possibly should not be enforced in health care...

Bronwyn Howell presented 'The Theory of the Firm: New Insights on Cooperatives and Non Profit Organisisations' at the LEANZ Study Day, Wellington June 2012.

Recent weeks have seen considerable controversy regarding the government's decision to unbundle the local loop. First Bronwyn Howell's select committee submission criticised the robustness of the analysis underpinning the unbundling decision suggesting that the case for both greater broadband...

Both the Australian and New Zealand governments have committed to spend substantial sums in order to bring forward the nationwide deployment of ultra-fast fibre-to-the-home (FTTH) broadband networks. With deployment proceeding apace two significant questions have arisen regarding the economic...

This State of E-New Zealand paper revisits the relative international measures of New Zealand's preparedness to utilise and capitalise upon the economic and social benefits promised by the use of technology. In the previous paper the authors concluded that New Zealand remained at the forefront...

AbstractNew Zealand offers a through-provoking case study of the effects of different competition and regulatory policies on broadband diffusion rates. Despite having one of the highest rates of Internet connection and usage in the OECD widely available broadband infrastructure and low prices...