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Abstract:
The frequency distribution of personal given names offers important evidence about the information economy. This paper presents data on the popularity of the most frequent personal given names (first names) in the UK over the past millennium. The popularity of a name is its frequency relative to the total name instances sampled. The data show that the popularity distribution of names, like the popularity of other symbols and artifacts associated with the information economy, can be helpfully viewed as a power law. Moreover, the data on name popularity suggest that historically distinctive changes in the information economy occurred in conjunction with the Industrial Revolution.

Information economy, new economy, personalization, symbolic economics, power law

Abstract:
The effects of information and communication technologies (ICTs) on the information economy and society is an issue that is attracting increasing attention. Marketing and brand management scholarship is exploring the implications of ICTs for brand proliferation and product differentiation. Communications researchers are considering the future of mass media in cyberspace, the effects on democracy and regulation of new Internet peer-to-peer computer software, and the appropriate code for regulating speech across different media. Macroeconomists are struggling to adjust national accounts to adequately recognize the price and output effects of ICTs and to understand new trends in total factor productivity measurements.
In addition, studies of economic growth in pre-industrial Europe are starting to emphasize the economic history of trading costs, transaction costs, and market integration, all factors related to information and communications.

To better understand such questions concerning the effects of information and communication technology on daily life, this paper explores over the past millennium given names of a large number of persons. Analysts have long both condemned and praised mass media as a source of common culture, national unity, or shared symbols. Given names, however, indicate a large decline in shared symbolic experience over the past two centuries, a decline that the growth of mass media does not appear to have affected significantly. Study of first names also shows that action and personal relationships, along with time horizon, are central aspects of effective communication across a large population. The observed name brand differentiation and preference for personalization over the past two centuries and the importance of personal activity and personal relationships to effective communication are aspects of the information society that are likely to have continuing significance for industry and social development, economic statistics, and public policy.

names, given names, first names, national accounts, information economy, information society, symbols, culture, shared, common, information, information technology, communication, communications, technology, technologies, economic growth, economic history, economic development, media, mass media, productivity, personalization

Abstract:
Understanding of the future for media industries can benefit from a look backwards. In the era before radio and television, print media alone were highly successful in creating new consumer visions and aspirations, building national brands, and establishing significant brand equity. The advent of radio and television did not change total advertising spending as a share of total economic output, nor did it change significantly total advertising spending per adult media hour. Even rudimentary media technologies are sufficient to support highly salient brands, and constraints on the extent of advertising revenue do not appear to be linked to media technology. In order for media industries as a whole to grow relatively rapidly, branding efforts must shift toward collaborative market-building to develop user routines, comfort, and trust in new types of media interactions and transactions.

Media, brands, branding, convergence, print, radio, television, internet

Abstract:
In the deliberations of scholars, policy analysts, and policy makers, television has exceptional power and influence. Yet the historical record shows that television has not changed the economics of attention for large populations in the course of their daily lives. This contrast is not merely a fluke or just ironic. It points to a major impediment to the development of information societies. State-owned-and-controlled media can be an important policy lever for overcoming this opposition and promoting the growth of more diverse media environments and more diverse ways of interacting with media.

media, convergence, television, policy, attention, time, broadcasting, Internet, e-government

Abstract:
Communication is a constitutional aspect of all human societies. While communication using sound waves (speech) is a well-explored area of constitutional law, communication using radio has received much less attention from constitutional lawyers. Nonetheless, the relationship between constitutional law and radio communications is rapidly increasing in importance. In considering radio regulation, too often policy-makers have focused on radio spectrum management and interference among radio signals. The most important questions are not whether to have open access to spectrum (a commons approach), or spectrum auctions, or spectrum property rights, or no property rights. Much more important is to examine the relationship of fundamental political choices to constitutional aspects of radio regulation.

Clearly across the world there is a diversity of instantiations of constitutional law. But world experience has highlighted key questions and issues that any self-conscious system of constitutional law should consider. This paper argues that there are three key constitutional questions that radio regulation should address. First, what is a good separation and balance of powers in radio regulation? Second, how should radio regulation be geographically configured? Third, how should radio regulation understand and respect personal freedom? Most persons understand revolutionary ideas that answer these three questions. The challenge is to recognize this common knowledge and apply it to radio regulation.

separation of powers, federalism, human rights, spectrum, radio, communications, regulation

Abstract:
Telecom regulation thus far has tended to treat telephony interconnection architecture merely from the perspective of technical feasibility. This means that interconnection regulations have been closely tied to the structure of the incumbent's network. This approach may hinder beneficial developments for both voice services and Internet services. Regulation of voice interconnection might more beneficially focus on promoting the development of independently owned entities (which I call service interconnection points or SIPs) that are focal points for voice telephony interconnection and accessing new wide-area services.

Abstract:
Telecom regulation thus far has tended to treat telephony interconnection architecture merely from the perspective of technical feasibility. This means that interconnection regulations have been closely tied to the structure of the incumbent's network. This approach may hinder beneficial developments for both voice services and Internet services. Regulation of voice interconnection might more beneficially focus on promoting the development of independently owned entities (which I call service interconnection points or SIPs) that are focal points for voice telephony interconnection and accessing new wide-area services.

Abstract:
This paper considers how to regulate the price that an access provider charges for shifting customers between different service providers. In determining regulated prices, cost is typically the focus of discussion. Debate revolves around how to determine what are relevant costs (used and useful? historical or forward looking?) and how those costs should be allocated to the particular service to be priced (cost incremental to what basis? how should overhead/indirect/common costs be allocated?) While such debates can be useful, their relationship to consumer welfare is largely through highly abstract general equilibrium principles of welfare economics. Regulators should also consider the implications of pricing for consumer welfare with respect to much closer observation of real competitive processes. Using U.S. long distance telephone service as an example, this paper shows that evidence concerning customer acquisition costs, customer switching costs, and churn among service providers is important in determining regulated prices. Attention to such factors highlights for regulators trade-offs involved in promoting different forms and dimensions of competition.

Abstract:
The price that a regulated access provider charges for shifting customers between service providers has significant welfare implications. Typical regulatory approaches to pricing, such as pricing based on fully allocated cost or incremental cost, ignore the characteristics of consumer demand. A theoretical alternative, Ramsey pricing, considers only the elasticity of demand for given products. This paper directs attention to the competitive process. Using U.S. long-distance telephone services as an example, this paper shows how empirical evidence concerning customer acquisition costs, customer switching costs, and churn among service providers can help to inform price regulation. Attention to such factors highlights for regulators trade-offs involved in promoting different forms and dimensions of competition.

Abstract:
Implementing a regulatory regime that helps to unlock the potential for new network services remains a difficult but crucially important task. Rather than merely stating an abstract commitment to promote competition, regulators should look for simple, significant policy actions that foster a propitious structure for the most beneficial forms of competition. This paper argues that regulators should establish a geographically comprehensive lattice of competing, independently owned network interconnection points from which telephony operators are required to provide zero-price telephony call termination. Other forms of intrusive regulation of inter-company interconnection and access, such as mandatory collocation, loop unbundling, and line sharing, should be avoided or rapidly phased out. These actions would provide a needed framework for telecommunications capacity markets and bandwidth trading, encourage the rapid development and roll-out of new, broadband network services, and foster a more even geographic diffusion of such services.

Abstract:
Law, economics, and public policy scholars have largely neglected government communications. Research on media law and development, as well as considerations of future regulatory frameworks for communications, should recognize that the future might benefit from a much broader and more significant role for government communications. The development of the Internet potentially can provide ubiquitous, low cost, multi-media communications capabilities. Cheaper, more capable channels provide governments with an important new tool for providing
government services, enhancing democratic political discourse, and promoting private economic development. Consideration of this possibility can enrich discussion of important legal, economic, and regulatory issues.

e-government, communications, media, First Amendment, Internet, regulation

Abstract:
Law, economics, and public policy scholars have largely neglected government communications. Research on media law and development, as well as considerations of future regulatory frameworks for communications, should recognize that the future might benefit from a much broader and more significant role for government communications. The development of the Internet potentially can provide ubiquitous, low cost, multi-media communications capabilities. Cheaper, more capable channels provide governments with an important new tool for providing government services, enhancing democratic political discourse, and promoting private economic development. Consideration of this possibility can enrich discussion of important legal, economic, and regulatory issues.

electronic government, communications, regulation, convergence, free speech, campaign finance, media

Abstract:
An acceleration in the growth of communications bandwidth in use and a rapid reduction in bandwidth prices have not accompanied the U.S. economy's strong performance in the second half of the 1990s. Overall U.S. bandwidth in use has grown robustly throughout the 1990s, but growth has not significantly accelerated in the second half of 1990s. Average prices for U.S. bandwidth in use have fallen little in nominal terms in the second half of the 1990s. Policy makers and policy analysts should recognize that institutional change, rather than more competitors of established types, appears to be key to dramatic improvements in bandwidth growth and prices. Such a development could provide a significant additional impetus to aggregate growth and productivity.

bandwidth, telecommunications, productivity, new economy, leased lines, pricing

Abstract:
Library book circulation per user has no strong, long-run trend. From 1856 to 1978, library users borrowed from U.S. public libraries about 15 books per user per year. From 1978 to 2004, book circulation per user declined approximately 50%. The growth of audiovisuals circulation, estimated at 25% of total circulation in 2004, accounts for about half of this decline. These figures depend on estimates and disparate samples of libraries with varying circulation and user accounting methods. Nonetheless, these figures are of sufficient quality to suggest that historically established institutions significantly stabilize borrowing behavior.

books, circulation, libraries, users, social networks

Abstract:
The history of the occupations "author" and "photographer" provides an insightful perspective on copyright and creativity. The concept of the romantic author, associated with personal creative genius, gained prominence in the eighteenth century. However, in the U.S. in 1900 only about three thousand persons professed their occupation to be "author." Self-professed "photographers" were then about ten times as numerous as authors. Being a photographer was associated with manufacturing and depended only on mastering technical skills and making a living. Being an author, in contrast, was an elite status associated with science and literature. Across the twentieth century, the number of writers and authors grew much more rapidly than the number of photographers. The relative success of writers and authors in creating jobs seems to have depended not on differences in copyright or possibilities for self-production, but on greater occupational innovation. Creativity in organizing daily work is an important form of creativity.

Copyright, authors, writers, photography, intellectual property, occupations

Abstract:
This paper documents, from 1925 to the present, some important historical facts about personal activity and commercial efforts to attract personal attention. First, increases in personal time spent with media as the primary focus of activity match closely increases in total personal discretionary time. Second, the share of advertising spending in total economic output (GDP) has been roughly constant long-term. Third, real advertising spending per person-hour spent with media has been roughly constant long-term. These historical facts suggest that the traditional approach of buying personal attention through media advertising will not support relatively rapid growth in the digital economy, even with significant changes in media technology such as higher bandwidth and greater interactivity. The growth of the digital economy is likely to depend instead on growth of discretionary time and integration of digital technology into new forms of socializing, transacting, and spending time.

personal activity, attention, media, time, Internet, advertising, new media, new economy, digital economy

Abstract:
This paper documents, from 1925 to the present, some important historical facts about personal activity and commercial efforts to attract personal attention. First, increases in personal time spent with media as the primary focus of activity match closely increases in total personal discretionary time. Second, the share of advertising spending in total economic output (GDP) has been roughly constant long-term. Third, real advertising spending per person-hour spent with media has been roughly constant long-term. These historical facts suggest that the traditional approach of buying personal attention through media advertising will not support relatively rapid growth in the digital economy, even with significant changes in media technology such as higher bandwidth and greater interactivity. The growth of the digital economy is likely to depend instead on growth of discretionary time and integration of digital technology into new forms of socializing, transacting, and spending time.

media, advertising, communications, time, digital economy

Abstract:
Federal transfers to Russia's agro-industrial complex fell from 10 percent of GDP in 1992 to 3 percent of GDP in 1993, and were slated to be only 2 percent of GDP in 1994. But the basic framework for agricultural policy has not changed since the Soviet era and federal transfers have tended to impede rather than enhance market-oriented reform.

Galbi analyzes the role of federal agricultural credits and subsidies in Russia since the Gaidar reforms of January 1992.
Pressure on the budget has led to a significant reduction in federal transfers to the agro-industrial complex. Transfers fell from 10 percent of gross domestic product (GDP) in 1992 to 3 percent of GDP in 1993, and budget transfers for 1994 are only about 2 percent of GDP.

But the nature of federal transfers to the agro-industrial complex has not changed significantly since 1992, and federal transfers have tended to impede market-oriented reform rather than enhance it. So reform in the agriculture sector has been driven largely by a budget squeeze on the implementation of policies that hinder the development of market-oriented agriculture.

Galbi provides an overview of federal agro-industrial programs, describing four types of support in detail:
° Credits and subsidies to promote private farms.
° Credits associated with state procurement of agricultural products.
° Subsidies for agricultural inputs.
° General subsidies to agricultural producers.

He shows the difficulty of using federal transfers to support agriculture when institutions are unstable, the government's administrative and regulatory capabilities are weak, and information needed for effective credit allocation is unavailable.

He also shows the extent to which the framework for agricultural policy has not changed since the Soviet era.

This paper - a product of the Office of the Vice President, Development Economics - is part of an ongoing research on Russian monetary and credit policy.

Abstract:
Developments over the past seventy years in law governing radio use demonstrate the importance of judiciously articulating the Commerce Clause. In the absence of such articulation, an expedient and widely acclaimed solution to a regulatory crisis involving AM radio service in the mid-1920s led to apparent federal authority over all radio use. Statutory law governing jurisdiction in radio regulation changed significantly without significant legislative deliberation. Case law ignored the written text of statutory law and converted weak precedent into doctrine through repetition and dicta. To foster a better federal-state balance in radio regulation, courts should read existing Commerce Clause precedent with renewed appreciation for the eighteenth century meaning of commerce as intercourse. Doing so provides a coherent, relevant, and practical basis for Commerce Clause law in the twenty-first century.

relational economic geography, spectrum policy, radio frequency management, federalism, wireless, communications, mobile telephony, telephone service

Abstract:
This paper considers sex discrimination in the early English cotton factories. Intrinsic differences between men and women offer a less compelling explanation for sex discrimination than much of the literature suggests. A labor sorting model offers an alternative explanation of how discrimination could be transmitted from established labor markets to the new factory labor market. While the relevance of this model to the early factory workforce has not been recognized in the literature, the historical evidence indicates that it might provide an economic rationale for discrimination between men and women in the early English cotton factories.

Abstract:
Women's experience of child labor in factories in early nineteenth century England may have increased their psychological susceptibility, both in life-cycle and social-historical trajectories, to non-wage earning roles as mothers. This paper uses as a primary source an official examination into the punishment of a ten-year old female factory worker. From this text arises an interrelated collection of stories - the story of that girl and her mother in a psychological and relational struggle under the circumstances of their lives, an alternative story of how other girls coped, and an account of how these personal dynamics fit into the broader social history of women in nineteenth century England. This history offers important insights into the effect of deprivation and brutality on the development of gender.

Industrial revolution, factory workers, child labor, child labour, division of labor, division of labour, women, girls, gender, discrimination, human capital, cotton, factories, England

Abstract:
This article suggests that women's experience of child labour in factories in early nineteenth century England increased women's psychological susceptibility, both in life-cycle and social-historical trajectories, to non-wage earning roles as mothers. The analysis uses as a primary source of insight an official examination into how a ten-year old female factory worker was punished in a particular instance. Drawing upon this text, I put together a different set of stories -- the story of that girl and her mother in a psychological and relational struggle under the circumstances of their lives, an alternative story of how other girls coped, and an account of how these personal dynamics fit into the broader social history of women in nineteenth century England. This history offers important insights into the effect of deprivation and brutality on the development of gender.

Abstract:
The reconstruction of the international order after World War I put great emphasis on social reforms through the International Labor Organization (ILO). Three types of arguments were used to promote social reform. The first asserted that international economic competition meant that social reform had to be coordinated internationally in order to maintain the relative competitiveness of countries. The second proposed that social reform was necessary to preserve the stability of states, and hence the stability of the international system. The third appealed for international action on the basis of common notions of human dignity. The idea that common concern about human dignity demanded international action became an assertion of human rights. While this understanding of human rights has helped to inform the pursuit of social justice, the history of the founding and program of the ILO in the interwar period shows that other arguments for social reform have also been historically influential.

International law, human rights, labor, International Labour Organization, social reform

Abstract:
Libraries tend to be associated with books, but in practice they have lent a variety of media to meet the interests and media practices of their users. Early in the twentieth century, public libraries circulated images, e.g. photographs, prints, and lantern slides. They also lent music scores and player piano rolls. Early in the twenty-first century, audio recordings and video disks account for roughly 25% of public libraries' total circulation. Libraries have adapted to media change in the past and they are likely to continue to adapt to media change in the future.

media, audiovisuals, libraries, circulation, holdings, videos

Abstract:
The demand for text messaging relative to telephony, the amount of time spent participating in virtual worlds or digital games relative to television viewing, and the value of camera phone services all depend on how persons make sense in communication. Three models for communication are information transfer, storytelling, and presence. While analysis of communication has tended to employ the first two models, the third model provides a better orientation for recognizing and organizing useful knowledge about sensuous choices in communication. Making sense of presence of another like oneself is a good that drives demand for a wide range of communication services. From study of living organisms, artistic masterpieces, and media history, this work documents knowledge about this good. Providing means for persons to make sense of presence encompasses competition among communication services with different sensory qualities. Competition to support this good offers enduring opportunities to create high industry value.

This work includes images of artistic masterpieces. The terms of permission that I received to use these images do not give me permission to include this work in the SSRN database. However, you may contact the author for access to the paper.

Communication, sense, neuroeconomics, presence, text messaging, email, instant messaging, telephony, photography, camera phones, virtual worlds, games

Abstract:
The U.S. growth experience in the 1990s and the perceptions of a new economy contrast sharply with trends in bandwidth use and pricing across the 1990s. Dramatic increases in bandwidth use and dramatic reductions in bandwidth prices that were predicted to occur in the second half the 1990s did not occur. While bandwidth in use has grown strongly throughout the 1990s, the growth rate has not significantly increased in the second half of 1990s. Reductions in bandwidth prices, in sharp contrast to reductions in computer prices, have not accelerated in the second half of the 1990s. With respect to communications bandwidth, the development of a new economy, and any associated impact on macroeconomic growth and productivity, appear to be still yet to come. Dramatic changes in bandwidth growth and pricing are likely to depend on stuctural changes of the sort outlined in the author's papers on transforming network interconnection and transport, which are available on SSRN.

Abstract:
To best promote benefits to persons as consumers and creators of communication, information, and network services, regulators should seek to transform communications industry structure in a way that supports the most beneficial forms of competition. Recent experience with long-distance calling, leased lines, Internet peering, and local telephony illustrates that industry performance depends strongly not just on whether there is more or less competition, but also on the type of competition that develops. This evidence is explored in more detailed in a number of the author's papers, available on http://www.erols.com/dgalbi/telpol/think.htm and http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/cf_dev/AbsByAuth.cfm?per_id=33627

What are the most beneficial changes in industry structure that feasible regulatory policies could advance? This paper argues that a geographically comprehensive lattice of competing, independently owned network interconnection points, which I refer to as SIPs, provides a better basis for good long-term industry performance than intrusive regulation of inter-company interconnection and access, such as mandatory collocation, loop unbundling, and line sharing. To help promote the development of such a competitive industry structure, local telephone service providers should be required to provide zero-price termination for all telephone calls delivered to selected SIPs. Thus telephone call termination (including mobile call termination and terminating fax and modem calls over voice channels) becomes a simple regulatory obligation fulfilled from SIPs rather than a variety of wholesale services subject to ad hoc regulatory action and intense political and regulatory lobbying (non-customer-oriented competition). The focus of telephony regulation would shift from promoting telephony competition to promoting an industry structure that facilitates telecommunications capacity markets and bandwidth trading, the development of new broadband services, and the rapid and even geographic spread of new services.

Abstract:
The share of children employed in English cotton factories fell significantly before the introduction of effective child labor legislation in the early 1830s. The early factories employed predominantly children because adults without factory experience were relatively unproductive factory workers. The subsequent growth of the cotton industry fostered the development of a labor market for productive adult factory workers. This effect helps account for the shift towards adults in the cotton factory workforce.