Suchergebnisse

AbstractThis paper responds to the U.S. Federal Communications Commission's request for guidance in designing a national broadband plan. We argue that the U.S. market for Internet services is working well overall, as evidenced by nearly ubiquitous coverage, rapid adoption, large investments, and increasing speeds. Still, the market is not working well for all people in all places, and we offer a framework for considering policies intended to mitigate those issues. The core of the paper consists of nine recommendations. Two of our recommendations are general. First, the government should ensure that its interventions do more good than harm. Second, the government should define clear, measurable, goals that do not benefit particular firms, technologies, or regions. The remaining seven recommendations provide specific guidance for a U.S. broadband plan. They include: liberalizing spectrum, gathering and analyzing data on broadband demand, targeting resources to where they are most needed, defining broadband access to maximize social gain, designing mechanisms that will achieve the government's broadband goals at the lowest social cost, vigorous antitrust enforcement, and designing policies to facilitate rigorous evaluation.

The U.S. government has a long history of supporting private sector research and development (R & D). The economic justification for government R & D support is clear. Primarily because of knowledge spillovers, profit-maximizing firms invest less than the socially optimal level of R & D. This market failure creates the possibility that government can help mitigate the underinvestment problem. Public-private technology partnerships are the newest approach to funding R & D. Technology partnerships include public funding of industry-led R & D projects and private research consortia, and collaborations between industry and government scientists. These programs hope to generate research that yields commercial products and innovations. This article discusses the rise of these programs, the theory supporting them, the types of research projects they must fund to be successful, the technical and political obstacles they face in funding these projects, and the evaluations of the largest partnership programs. This article concludes with policy recommendations, recognizing that these programs have potential but must overcome significant hurdles.