Dokument: Five Essays on Scholarly Communication and Mobile Telecommunications

Titel:Five Essays on Scholarly Communication and Mobile Telecommunications
Weiterer Titel:Five Essays on Scholarly Communication and Mobile Telecommunications
URL für Lesezeichen:https://docserv.uni-duesseldorf.de/servlets/DocumentServlet?id=36541
URN (NBN):urn:nbn:de:hbz:061-20151208-135929-8
Kollektion:Dissertationen
Sprache:Englisch
Dokumententyp:Wissenschaftliche Abschlussarbeiten » Dissertation
Medientyp:Text
Autor: Muck, Johannes [Autor]
Dateien:
[Dateien anzeigen]Adobe PDF
[Details]19,37 MB in einer Datei
[ZIP-Datei erzeugen]
Dateien vom 08.12.2015 / geändert 08.12.2015
Beitragende:Prof. Dr. Haucap, Justus [Gutachter]
Prof. Dr. Heimeshoff, Ulrich [Gutachter]
Dewey Dezimal-Klassifikation:300 Sozialwissenschaften, Soziologie » 330 Wirtschaft
Beschreibungen:This thesis analyzes competition problems in two different communication markets. Part A focuses on the market for scholarly communication, whereas part B analyzes mobile telecommunications markets.
Both markets differ from classical homogeneous products markets in an important aspect. Products in the market for scholarly communication, i.e., academic publications, are intangible and, therefore, assessing their quality is difficult. At the same time, the quality of academic publications is one of the key parameters over which competition between researchers typically takes place. Employment of academic personnel, i.e., post-docs and professors, is usually based on an assessment of their achievements as researchers as reflected by the quality of their scientific publications (Müller-Camen and Salzgeber 2005, p. 277, Schulze, Warning, and Wiemann 2008). Since assessing the quality of a single publication is very laborious and time-consuming, the quality of a publication is typically substituted by the quality of the journal in which it was published, although this approach has been increasingly criticized in recent years (see, e.g., Frey 2005, Frey and Rost 2010). The quality of academic journals, on the other hand, is easier to infer due to the existence of publicly available journal rankings such as, for instance, the Journal Ranking of the Handelsblatt (Handelsblatt 2011) or the ranking of the German Economic Association (GEA) (Schneider and Ursprung 2008).
On the other hand, in markets for mobile telecommunications, product quality can be measured by objective criteria such as, for instance, the extent of network coverage, the quality of voice transmission, or the speed of data transmission. Instead, two distinct features characterize mobile telecommunication markets. These are, first, sequential market entry which follows from the sequential issuing of licenses necessary to take up operations and which leads to market structures in which one large (typically formerly state-owned) incumbent network operator faces competition from several smaller entrants. The second key characteristic of mobile telecommunication markets is the existence of network effects. Asymmetric market shares resulting from sequential market entry raise concerns about the existence and the extent of first mover advantages, i.e., sustainable competitive advantages due to early market entry. Since in most countries mobile telecommunications markets are regulated, potential first mover advantages should be taken into account by national regulatory agencies when designing regulatory measures in order to provide a level playing field for all network operators. One source of first mover advantages that has received considerable attention in the extant literature are tariff-mediated network effects. These occur if networks price discriminate between calls originating and terminating on their own network (on-net calls) and those terminating on a competitor’s network (off-net calls). Since - in the past and to a lesser extent still today - on-net calls were priced below off-net calls, consumers had an incentive to join the largest network since this maximized the probability of making an on-net call and, hence, minimized the telephone bill.

This thesis analyzes competition problems in two different communication markets. Part A focuses on the market for scholarly communication, whereas part B analyzes mobile telecommunications markets.
Both markets differ from classical homogeneous products markets in an important aspect. Products in the market for scholarly communication, i.e., academic publications, are intangible and, therefore, assessing their quality is difficult. At the same time, the quality of academic publications is one of the key parameters over which competition between researchers typically takes place. Employment of academic personnel, i.e., post-docs and professors, is usually based on an assessment of their achievements as researchers as reflected by the quality of their scientific publications (Müller-Camen and Salzgeber 2005, p. 277, Schulze, Warning, and Wiemann 2008). Since assessing the quality of a single publication is very laborious and time-consuming, the quality of a publication is typically substituted by the quality of the journal in which it was published, although this approach has been increasingly criticized in recent years (see, e.g., Frey 2005, Frey and Rost 2010). The quality of academic journals, on the other hand, is easier to infer due to the existence of publicly available journal rankings such as, for instance, the Journal Ranking of the Handelsblatt (Handelsblatt 2011) or the ranking of the German Economic Association (GEA) (Schneider and Ursprung 2008).
On the other hand, in markets for mobile telecommunications, product quality can be measured by objective criteria such as, for instance, the extent of network coverage, the quality of voice transmission, or the speed of data transmission. Instead, two distinct features characterize mobile telecommunication markets. These are, first, sequential market entry which follows from the sequential issuing of licenses necessary to take up operations and which leads to market structures in which one large (typically formerly state-owned) incumbent network operator faces competition from several smaller entrants. The second key characteristic of mobile telecommunication markets is the existence of network effects. Asymmetric market shares resulting from sequential market entry raise concerns about the existence and the extent of first mover advantages, i.e., sustainable competitive advantages due to early market entry. Since in most countries mobile telecommunications markets are regulated, potential first mover advantages should be taken into account by national regulatory agencies when designing regulatory measures in order to provide a level playing field for all network operators. One source of first mover advantages that has received considerable attention in the extant literature are tariff-mediated network effects. These occur if networks price discriminate between calls originating and terminating on their own network (on-net calls) and those terminating on a competitor’s network (off-net calls). Since - in the past and to a lesser extent still today - on-net calls were priced below off-net calls, consumers had an incentive to join the largest network since this maximized the probability of making an on-net call and, hence, minimized the telephone bill.
Lizenz:In Copyright
Urheberrechtsschutz
Fachbereich / Einrichtung:Wirtschaftswissenschaftliche Fakultät » Volkswirtschaftslehre
Dokument erstellt am:08.12.2015
Dateien geändert am:08.12.2015
Promotionsantrag am:13.03.2015
Datum der Promotion:24.08.2015
english
Benutzer
Status: Gast
Anmelden
Aktionen
In den Korb
E-Mail senden
Statistik