Supply Side Incentives

Abstract

This chapter considers the relationship between nondiscrimination rules and supply-side incentives to invest in infrastructure. We encountered the issue throughout chapter 6. This chapter frames and evaluates the oft -made claim that government-imposed commons management will significantly impair incentives to invest in infrastructure. The impact of rules requiring nondiscriminatory sharing of infrastructural resources on the supply-side incentives to provide, maintain, and improve those resources is complex, context-specific, and not amenable to generalized, a priori conclusions. Yet policy debates are muddled with assertions about purported effects on incentives; such assertions typically are hyperbole.

Keywords: infrastructure, commons, open access, public goods, forced sharing, nondiscrimination, incentives, incentives to invest

JEL Classification: D4, D5, D6, H4, H5, H54, K00, L4, L5, L9, O1, O3, Q2, R4