Ralf Dewenter

Calling party pays or receiving party pays? The diffusion of mobile telephony with endogenous regulation

This paper analyzes the impact on mobile telephony diffusion patterns of the two predominant payment regimes, calling party pays (CPP) and receiving party pays (RPP), for mobile termination services. By applying instrumental variable techniques to panel data we account for a possible interdependency of penetration rates and regulatory interventions. For this purpose we use data on political and institutional factors to instrument endogenous regulatory decisions. We conclude from our empirical analysis that there is no significant impact of either RPP or CPP on penetration rates. Therefore an application of RPP in order to obviate regulation of termination fees would be feasible.

Media bias and advertising: Evidence from a German car magazine

Abstract This paper investigates the existence of a possible media bias by analyzing the impact of automobile manufacturers’ advertisements on automobile reviews in a leading German car magazine. By accounting for both endogeneity and sample selection using a two-step procedure, we find a positive impact of advertising volumes on test scores. The main advantage of our study is the measurement of technical characteristics of cars to explain test scores. Due to this kind of measurement, we avoid serious biases in estimating media bias caused by omitted variables.

Mobile Number Portability in Europe

This paper examines the causes and effects of mobile number portability (MNP) and provides a survey of its implementation in Europe. We first examine the competitive effects and the costs of introducing MNP. Next, we discuss how to charge for MNP. We argue that a price cap regime starting from the average cost of porting is likely to provide appropriate incentives. Finally, we review the recent experience with implementing MNP in Europe. Differences in the speed of porting and porting charges appear to explain part of the differences in the use of MNP across countries.

Do expert reviews really drive demand? Evidence from a German car magazine

A wide range of media provide information on many products based on reviews or expert opinions. A natural question is, whether these reviews and expert opinions have any effect on sales. A small but growing literature in economics and marketing science deals with this issue, by testing the relevance of such product information for goods such as financial instruments, wine, books and movies. However, most of these products have in common that quality is very difficult to measure. It is always also a matter of taste whether these products can be seen as high- or low-quality goods. Based on a unique data set, we test whether test scores published in a major German car magazine have significant impact on registrations of new cars in Germany. We find that test scores for certain cars have statistically significant impact on the number of new cars sold by several leading manufacturers on the German car market.

Rational Addiction to News

Quarterly data of magazine circulation are used to analyse the consumption behaviour of the readers of German popular magazines in a panel framework using OLS, 2SLS and generalized method of moments techniques, in order to test the rational addiction hypothesis in respect with goods without any biological dependency.

Media Markets with Habit Formation

The aim of this paper is to analyse the pricing behaviour of print media firms when consumption on reader markets is addictive or habituated. However, not only the reader but also the advertising market has to be considered by a publisher optimising profits. Because print media markets are highly concentrated a monopoly-monopoly model is built, where both markets are of monopolistic structure. Moreover, a monopoly-duopoly model is considered, where only the reader market is monopolistic but the advertising market is of duopolistic structure. To compare the results from the models regarding habit effects, simple static models are presented as a benchmark.

Quality Provision in Interrelated Markets

This paper analyses the quality provision of interrelated market firms under different market structures both theoretically and empirically. A theoretical model is built, where a media firm offers newspapers in a primary market and advertising space in the secondary market. Furthermore, the media firm is assumed to choose a continuous quality level for advertisements. To test the hypotheses from the theoretical model empirically, we use data on German regional newspapers. The theoretical outcomes as well as the empirical results support the hypothesis that a monopolist provides a higher quality than a duopolist.

The Effects of Regulating Mobile Termination Rates for Asymmetric Networks

This paper examines mobile termination fees and their regulation when networks are asymmetric in size. It is demonstrated that with consumer ignorance about the exact termination rates (a) a mobile network’s termination rate is the higher the smaller the network’s size (as measured through its subscriber base) and (b) asymmetric regulation of only the larger operators in a market will, ceteris paribus, induce the smaller operators to increase their termination rates. The results are supported by empirical evidence using data on mobile termination rates from 48 European mobile operators from 2001 to 2003.This paper examines mobile termination fees and their regulation when networks are asymmetric in size. It is demonstrated that with consumer ignorance about the exact termination rates (a) a mobile networks termination rate is the higher the smaller the networks size (as measured through its subscriber base) and (b) asymmetric regulation of only the larger operators in a market will, ceteris paribus, induce the smaller operators to increase their termination rates. The results are supported by empirical evidence using data on mobile termination rates from 48 European mobile operators from 2001 to 2003.

The Economics of Media Markets

Media and especially mass media like newspapers or magazines are characterised by a number of peculiarities which are interesting from both a theoretical and empirical point of view. The interrelationship of reader and advertising markets, high sunk costs and large economies of scale are typical features. This paper reviews the existent literature on media markets and their peculiarities and lines out areas for further research.

Net Neutrality and the Incentives (Not) to Exclude Competitors

Abstract This paper analyses the incentives of a vertical integrated Internet service provider (ISP) to block competitors from content markets. Using a simple model we find that the ISP does not block competing content providers as long as the contents are differentiated sufficiently. Exclusion only takes place when the competitor offers perfect homogeneous content and the ISP has a local monopoly over its Internet access customers or if network effects are strong. In this case, however, the abuse of market power can at least in Europe be prohibited by competition authorities. That is, according to our model there is no need for a regulation of net neutrality.