The United Kingdom (UK) has spent less on infrastructure compared to other OECD countries over the past three decades. The perceived quality of UK infrastructure assets is close to the OECD average but lower than in other G7 countries. Capacity constraints have emerged in some sectors, such as...

This paper reviews the book “Infrastructure and Poverty in Sub-Saharan Africa” by Antonio Estache and Quentin Wodon. The authors summarize the political debate on infrastructure policy in Africa in a very compelling and knowledgeable way and make a convincing case for pro-poor subsidies....

Utility subsidies are often defended as promoting universal service. However, specific support formulas may be poorly targeted and/or designed. The U.S. high cost loop support (HCLS) program (formerly referred to as the Universal Service Fund (USF)), has been a key component of the FCC's USF...

The purpose of this paper is to identify the factors that affect the creation of new firms. We take into consideration economic, political, social and technological factors which should also help governments realize the areas that we found to have the greatest impact.The study relies on data...

This paper investigates the impact of the copper access regulation on broadband adoption in each technology (xDSL on copper infrastructure, FTTx on fiber infrastructure and cable modem). We modelize adoption with a logistic function. Using a 15 European countries dataset we find a negative...

The net neutrality debate is now gathering steam in Europe, both at the Commission level and in member states. Against this background, four European telcos commissioned a report from AT Kearney [ATK], to support their opposition to net neutrality regulation. This report, 'A Viable Future Model...

The local authorities, in particular via Delegations of Public Utility (DPU), develop telecommunications infrastructures which often duplicate infrastructures of the incumbent operator. Such infrastructures are financed partly by public subsidies which must allow competition to develop, even in...

This paper compares and contrasts the processes used by the European, United Kingdom and Scottish parliaments in considering broadband policies, legislation, regulatory systems and outcomes, within a complex triple-tiered governance system. Broadband is of increasing importance due to the...

There is still hardly any empirical evidence on how divergent broadband technologies, and, by extension, bandwidth levels, influence GDP growth, or on the extent of spatial externalities at a regional level. Our study aims to assess the economic benefits of high-speed broadband networks within...