15.020
Economics of Energy, Innovation, and Sustainability
Covers energy and environmental market organization and regulation. Explores economic challenges and solutions to transforming energy markets to be more efficient, accessible, affordable, and sustainable. Applies core economic concepts - consumer choice, firm profit maximization, and strategic behavior - to understand when energy and environmental markets work well and when they fail. They also conduct data-driven economic analysis on the trade-offs of real and proposed policy interventions. Topics include renewable generation sources for electricity, energy access in emerging markets, efficiency programs and fuel efficiency standards, transitioning transportation to alternative fuels, measuring damages and adaptation to climate change, and the effect of energy and environmental policy on innovation. Expectations and evaluation criteria differ for students taking graduate version; consult syllabus or instructor for specific details.
Fall 2003 · Competition in Telecommunications
Topics
- Course Introduction and Competitive Structure of Telecoms Industry: The Effect of Convergence
- What Caused the Telecom Crash? Is there Light at the End of the Tunnel?
- The Economics of Networks and Regulation
- Regulation, Deregulation and the Telecom Act of 1996
- Competition for Residential Local and Long Distance
- Are Spectrum Auctions a Good Idea?
- Future Competition in Telecommunications
- Mobile Handset Market Value Chain
- Will Telecom and IT be a Growing Industry or like a “Water Utility?”
- Student Presentations
- Last Day of Class
Readings
- Some of the readings refer to the optional (but recommended) course textbook: Dodd, Annabel, The Essential Guide to Telecommunications , 3rd ed. This text introduces technologies relevant to the telecommunications marketplace, and is strongly recommended for students that are new to the industry.
- Newton’s Telecom Dictionary by Harry Newton and Ray Horak is an industry classic that helps readers understand many technologies and acronymns.
- Steve Rosenbush from USA Today published Telecom Business Opportunities which contains many interesting anecdotes about firms in their early years.
- Hausman. Competition in U.S. Telecommunications Services Four Years after the 1996 Act .
- Morgan Stanley Dean Witter. Equity Research: Global Communications Primer. March 27, 2001, pp. 3-20 and 45-54.
- Hausman. Regulated Costs and Prices in Telecommunications.
- Hausman. A Consumer-Welfare Approach to the Mandatory Unbundling of Telecommunications Networks.
- Hausman. The Effect of Sunk Costs in Telecommunication Regulation. Hausman. Taxation by Telecommunications Regulation. Hausman. Regulated Costs and Prices in Telecommunications. Hausman. A Consumer-Welfare Approach to the Mandatory Unbundling of Telecommunications Networks.
- Latour, Almar. Local-Phone Companies Face Siege in an Industry in Turmoil . Wall Street Journal (August 13, 2003).
- Morgan Stanley Dean Witter. Equity Research: Global Communications Primer . March 27, 2001, pp. 76 – 83.
- Hausman. Valuation and the Effect of Regulation on New Services in Telecommunications. Hausman. Does Bell Company Entry into Long-Distance Telecommunications Benefit Consumers?
- Morgan Stanley Dean Witter. Equity Research: Global Communications Primer. March 27, 2001, pp. 183-203.
- Hausman. Mobile Telephone.
- Hausman. From 2G to 3G: Wireless Competition for Internet-Related Services.
- Pringle, David, and Evan Ramstad. European Telecom Firms Face Price War from 3G Cell Phones. Wall Street Journal (August 13, 2003).
- Hausman. Cellular, 3G, Broadband and WiFi.
- Furchgott, Ray. Wi-Fi Moves from Storeroom to Store . New York Times , August 25, 2003.
- Is the ‘Wi-Fi’ Wireless Internet Boom about to Turn into a Bust? The Economist , June 26, 2003.
- Kahn, Gabriel, Cris Prystay. ‘Charge It,’ Says Your Cellphone. Wall Street Journal (August 13, 2003).
- Convergence: A Strategic Analysis . A supplement to Network World , May 8, 2000.
- Isenberg, David S. Rise of the Stupid Network . Computer Telephony , August 1997, 16-26.
- Klempere, Paul. The Wrong Culprit For Telecom Trouble . Financial Times, November 26, 2002.
- Batista, Elisa. Spectrum Auction Faces Delay . Wired News , June 18, 2002.
- LEC #: 15 · TOPICS: Future Competition in Telecommunications · READINGS: Hausman. Future Competition in Telecommunications .
- Batson, Andrew. China Considers New Standard for Next Wave of Mobile Phones . Wall Street Journal (August 28, 2003).
- Morgan Stanley Dean Witter. Equity Research: Global Communications Primer. March 27, 2001, pp. 24-75 and 213-221.
- LEC #: 18 · TOPICS: Will Telecom and IT be a Growing Industry or like a “Water Utility?” · READINGS: Carr, Nicholas G. IT Doesn’t Matter . Harvard Business Review (May 2003).
- Competition in U.S. Telecommunications Services Four Years after the 1996 Act , with R. Crandall. In Deregulation of Network Industries. Edited by S. Peltzman and C. Winston. 2000.
- Regulated Costs and Prices in Telecommunications . In International Handbook of Telecommunications. 2003.
- A Consumer-Welfare Approach to the Mandatory Unbundling of Telecommunications Networks , with J. Gregory Sidak. Yale Law Journal (1999).
- The Effect of Sunk Costs in Telecommunication Regulation. In The New Investment Theory of Real Options and its Implications for Telecommunications Economics. Edited by J. Alleman and E. Noam. 1999.
- Taxation by Telecommunications Regulation . Tax Policy and the Economy 12 (1998).
- Valuation and the Effect of Regulation on New Services in Telecommunications . Brookings Papers on Economic Activity: Microeconomics (1997).
- “Does Bell Company Entry into Long-Distance Telecommunications Benefit Consumers?” with G. Leonard and J.G. Sidak. Antitrust Law Journal 70 (2002).
- Mobile Telephone . In Handbook of Telecommunications Economics. Edited by M. Cave, et. al. North Holland, 2002.
- From 2G to 3G: Wireless Competition for Internet-Related Services . Edited by R. Crandall and J. Alleman. Broadband, Brookings, 2002. Presented at Brookings Conference, October, 2001.
- Cellular, 3G, Broadband and WiFi, Shann Memorial Lecture. University of Western Australia, March 2003.
- Residential Demand for Broadband Telecommunications and Consumer Access to Unaffiliated Internet Content Providers , with H. Sider and J. G. Sidak. Yale Journal on Regulation 18 (2001).
- Cable Modems and DSL: Broadband Internet Access for Residential Customers , with J. Gregory Sidak, and Hal J. Singer. American Economic Review 91 (2001).
- Competition and Regulation for Internet-related Services, in Korea Institute for Industrial Economics and Trade, Industrial Competitiveness and Competition Policy in the Era of Telecommunication Convergence . 2001. (Also translated into Korean in a book)
- Future Competition in Telecommunications. Edited by S. Bradley and J. Hausman. Harvard, 1989.
- Most of the readings for the course are available for free online (on the class server or on external websites). Some of the articles and papers may require minimal online payments (ex. on The Economist or Harvard Business Review websites). Rather than assembling a course packet and make students pay for all readings, including optional ones, we opted for giving you the option to purchase only the documents you intend on reading.
- The optional (but recommended) text for this course is Annabel Dodd’s, The Essential Guide to Telecommunications , 3rd ed. This text is available at the campus bookstore, and can be found on reserve at the library. This text introduces technologies relevant to the telecommunications marketplace, and is strongly recommended for students that are new to the industry. Other texts will be kept on reserve at the library are:
- Newton’s Telecom Dictionary by Harry Newton and Ray Horak is an industry classic that helps readers understand many technologies and acronyms.
Prerequisites & course information
Prereq: 14.01 or 15.011 G (Fall) Not offered regularly; consult department 3-0-9 units Credit cannot also be received for 14.43[J] , 15.0201[J]
Sources
- Course catalogue ↗2026–2027
- MIT OpenCourseWare ↗Fall 2003
- MIT OCW calendar ↗
- MIT OCW readings ↗
- MIT OCW syllabus ↗
- Historical MIT OpenCourseWare offering. Named reading entries and schedule topics are automatically extracted from the linked source pages.