Telecommunications Demand in Theory and Practice

Telecommunications Demand in Theory and Practice, which builds upon the author's seminal 1980 book, Telecommunications Demand: A Review and Critique, provides comprehensive analyses of the determinants and structure of telecommunications demands in the United States and Canada. Theory and empirical application receive equal emphasis with a heavy focus on the developments and econometric research since the divestiture of AT&T in 1984. For the first time, a detailed theoretical analysis of business telecommunications demand on subscriber and usage consumption externalities is presented.
Telecommunications Demand in Theory and Practice is without peer in the documentation and analysis of price elasticities of demand for telecommunications services. This new book also includes a comprehensive bibliography with over 500 entries related to telecommunications demand and pricing. Telecommunications Demand will appeal to both academic and consulting economists, telecommunications industry analysts and regulators, and to teachers of courses in applied econometrics and regulated industries.

1/Introduction and Overview.- I. Background.- II. Recent Methodological Developments.- III. Conferences and Special Volumes.- IV. Plan of Book.- 2/The Theory of Telephone Demand I: Basic Results.- I. Some Basic Considerations.- II. Recent Contributions to the Theory of Telephone Demand.- III. Consumption Externalities and Communities of Interest.- IV A Framework for Analyzing Telephone Demand.- V. Relationships Between Price and Income Elasticities for Access and Usage.- VI. Option Demand.- 3/The Theory of Telephone Demand II: Extensions of Basic Results.- I. The Duration and Distance Dimensions of Telephone Demand.- II. Time-of-Day Pricing.- III. Operator-Handled Versus Direct-Dialed Calls.- IV. Some Further Dynamics.- V. The Usage of Price Deflated Revenues.- VI. Firm vs Market Elasticities.- VII. Logistic Approaches to Forecasting.- VIII. Concluding Comments.- 4/Business Telecommunications Demand.- I. Some Basic Considerations.- II. A General Model of Business Demand.- III. Some Specific Models of Business Demand.- IV. Business Demand From the Point of View of the Local Exchange Company.- V. Wrap-up and Summary.- 5/Recent Studies of Residential Access Demand.- I. The 1983 Perl Study.- II. Southwestern Bell’s Residential Access Demand Model: Taylor and Kridel (1990).- III. Bell Canada’s Residential Access Demand Model.- IV Train, McFadden, and Ben-Akiva (1987).- V. Evaluation.- 6/Recent Studies of Toll Demand.- I. Toll Demand in Ontario and Quebec.- II. Point-to-Point Toll Demand.- III. The Demand for Interstate Access Minutes.- IV. The Demand for Bypass of the LEC.- V. Wrap-up.- 7/The Demand for Local Calls and Related Local Services.- I. Local Calling and the Choice Between Flat-Rate and Measured Service.- II. Bypass Via EAS: Kridel (1988).- III. Results Fromthe GTE Measured-Service Experiment: Park, Wetzel, & Mitchell (1983).- IV. The Demand for Custom-Calling Features.- 8/Business Telephone System Demand.- I. Total-Bill and Socio-Demographic Effects.- II. Business Telephone System Demand.- III. Total-Bill Effects.- IV. Socio-Demographic and Other Characteristics of Telecommunications Demand.- 9/Consumption Externalities.- I. The Network Externality and the Optimal Pricing of Telecommunications Services.- II. An Alternative Measure of the Network Externality.- III. Distributional Equity.- IV. Some Remaining Questions.- V Call Externalities.- VI. Empirical Evidence Regarding Consumption Externalities.- VII. Conclusions.- 10/Price Elasticities in the Hearing Room: The Promise and Limits of Econometric Analyses of Telecommunications Demand.- I. The Structure of an Econometric Study.- II. Econometrics in the Hearing Room: Some Guiding Precepts.- III. Some Pitfalls in Using Econometric Models.- 11/Evaluation and Conclusions.- I. What We Appear to Know About the Structure of Telecommunications Demand.- II. Problem Areas.- III. Demand Analysis in a Competitive/Partially Regulated Environment.- Appendix 1/The Pre-1980 Empirical Literature on Telephone Demand: Access, Local Service, and Interstate Toll.- I. The Demand for Access.- II. The Demand for Local Use.- III. Long-Haul (Interstate) Toll Demand.- Appendix 2/The Pre-1980 Empirical Literature on Telephone Demand: Intrastate Toll, WATS and Private Line, Coin, Etc..- I. Intrastate Toll Demand.- II. WATS and Private Line.- III. Coin Stations.- IV. Vertical Services.- V. The Impact of Service-Connection and Other Nonrecurring Charges.- VI. International Demand.- VII. Yellow-Pages Advertising.- VIII. Noneconometric Approaches to Forecasting Telephone Demand.- Appendix 3/Network Externality and the Demand for Residential Long-Distance Telephone Service: A Comment.- I. A Model of Toll Demand.- II. Isolation of the Network Externality.- III. Conclusions.