Discussion paper

DP2440 The Evolution of Markets Under Entry and Standards Regulation - The Case of Global Mobile Telecommunications

We analyse the effects of government policies, such as entry regulation and standard setting, on the evolution of an industry, the global mobile telecommunications markets during 1981-1997. Among other results, we find that countries that issue first licenses at later dates converge rather slowly and only partially, compared to early-moving countries. We find that introducing competition has a strong immediate impact on the diffusion rate, but a rather weak impact afterwards. Sequential entry is preceded by pre-emptive behaviour. These findings are consistent with the presence of consumer switching costs. Concerning standards, we find that setting a standard has a significant positive impact on diffusion for the analogue technology, but not for the digital technology. This suggests that the network advantages from having a single standard are offset by the benefits derived from the battle for developing more efficient digital systems.

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Citation

Gruber, H and F Verboven (2000), ‘DP2440 The Evolution of Markets Under Entry and Standards Regulation - The Case of Global Mobile Telecommunications‘, CEPR Discussion Paper No. 2440. CEPR Press, Paris & London. https://cepr.org/publications/dp2440