Does Practice Follow Principle? Applying Real Options Principles to Proxy Costs in US Telecommunications

REAL OPTIONS: THE NEW INVESTMENT THEORY AND ITS IMPLICATIONS FOR TELECOMMUNICATIONS ECONOMICS, pp. 49-76, James Alleman, and Eli M. Noam, eds., Kluwer Academic Publishers, 1999

28 Pages Posted: 8 Feb 2010

See all articles by Mark A Jamison

Mark A Jamison

University of Florida - Warrington College of Business Administration, Public Utility Research Center

Date Written: 1999

Abstract

In this paper, I analyze whether current US practices in estimating incremental costs for telecommunications companies provide efficient investment incentives to regulated incumbent local exchange companies (ILECs). The implementation of the Telecommunications Act of 1996 (Act) has raised this issue.1 In implementing the Act, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) and many state Public Utility Commissions (PUCs) are using incremental cost studies, with some mark-up for shared costs, for establishing prices for interconnection, reciprocal compensation, unbundled network elements (UNEs), 2 and universal service. 3 Regulators use these incremental cost estimates, which come from proxy cost models, 4 to set ceilings on these prices. This is a significant change in regulatory practices. Before the Act, regulators used incremental cost studies to set price floors for competitive or potentially competitive services.

Suggested Citation

Jamison, Mark A., Does Practice Follow Principle? Applying Real Options Principles to Proxy Costs in US Telecommunications (1999). REAL OPTIONS: THE NEW INVESTMENT THEORY AND ITS IMPLICATIONS FOR TELECOMMUNICATIONS ECONOMICS, pp. 49-76, James Alleman, and Eli M. Noam, eds., Kluwer Academic Publishers, 1999, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=1549692

Mark A. Jamison (Contact Author)

University of Florida - Warrington College of Business Administration, Public Utility Research Center ( email )

PO Box 117142
Gainesville, FL 32611
United States
352-392-6148 (Phone)
352-392-7796 (Fax)

HOME PAGE: http://warrington.ufl.edu/purc/facultyinfo.asp?WEBID=1217

Do you have negative results from your research you’d like to share?

Paper statistics

Downloads
26
Abstract Views
924
PlumX Metrics