Sustaining Competition in Network Industries Through Regulatory and Pricing Access
 

November 5, 1993
Sponsored by the Columbia Institute for Tele-Information. Co-sponsored by The Institute for Advanced Studies, Princeton University.

Summary Program

This conference focused on issues of market structure and performance in network industries. The wave of consolidation in the airline industry, for example, has raised concerns about the viability of competition and the market power wielded by large carriers. Even in unregulated industries such as hardware and software, vendors of computer services, trade associations, and government agencies struggle to define terms of interconnection. How do we maximize the benefits of competition, systems integration, and synergies among related commodities? This conference addressed these issues from different methodological perspectives and industry vantage points. The common problems of competition in network industries, which require policies regulating and pricing access to integral components of the network, were addressed. Standards encouraging the efficient use of resources in the short run and fostering competition and technological change in the long run were sought and identified.


Historical Perspectives on Interconnection and Deregulation Policies Historical Perspectives on Interconnection between Competing Local Exchange Companies
David Gabel, Queens College
David Weiman, Yale University

Deregulation of Networks: What Has Worked and What Hasn't?
William Shepherd, University of Massachusetts

  • Discussants:
    • Robert Willig, Princeton University
    • Richard Clarke, AT&T
Perspectives on the Regulation and Pricing of Access in Network Industries Bargaining with a Monopoly: Deregulated Interconnection in New Zealand
Milton Mueller, Rutgers University

Pricing and Inte rconnection in Local Telephone Markets
Bridger Mitchell, The RAND Corporation
Ingo Vogelsang, Boston University

  • Discussants:
    • Gerald Brock, George Washington University
    • James Schlichting, FCC

Pricing Access and Regulating Standards in Telecommunications and Computer Industries
Microsoft Plays Hardball: Use of Nonlinear Pricing and Technical Incompatability to Exclude Rivals in the Market for Operating Software
Frederick Warren-Bolton, MiCRA
Glenn Woroch, University of California at Berkeley

One-Way Networks, Two-Way Networks Compatability and Anti-Trust Nicholas Economides, New York University
Lawrence White, New York University

  • Discussant:
    • Janusz Ordover, New York University

Deregulation and Competition in Surface and Air Transport Industries
Access and Competition Policy in the US Rail Freight Industry: Potential Applications to Telecommunications
Curtis Grimm, University of Maryland
Robert Harris, University of California

Airline Hubs: Cost and Demand
Steven Berry, Yale University
Pablo Spiller, University of Illinois

  • Discussants:
    • Steven Morrison, Northeastern University
    • Chris Doyle, Cambridge University



Organized by:
David Gabel, Queens College
David Weiman, Yale University