Copyright (c) 2009 All rights reserved. http://works.bepress.com/nicola_matteucci Recent documents in Nicola Matteucci en-us Tue, 10 Nov 2009 05:08:44 PST 3600 http://works.bepress.com/nicola_matteucci/20 http://works.bepress.com/nicola_matteucci/20 Fri, 10 Jul 2009 09:22:58 PDT Nicola Matteucci Media Economics & Policy http://works.bepress.com/nicola_matteucci/19 http://works.bepress.com/nicola_matteucci/19 Thu, 09 Jul 2009 08:32:19 PDT Nicola Matteucci Media Economics & Policy Paper for the 4th EPIP Annuale Conference http://works.bepress.com/nicola_matteucci/18 http://works.bepress.com/nicola_matteucci/18 Tue, 05 May 2009 09:26:07 PDT The deployment of next generation communications (NGC) progresses unevenly, frequently suffering from insufficient interoperability. Interoperability remains a fundamental driver for NGC diffusion, but existing theories remain vague on how to ensure its provision. Since interoperability features increasing returns and public good regimes, its market provision may be hampered. At the same time, public efforts might be ineffective when colliding with private operators' incentives. Sometimes, the policy instruments used might even distort technological diffusion and competition in a way incompatible with a market-neutral approach. This paper aims to investigate these issues. Nicola Matteucci Media Economics & Policy http://works.bepress.com/nicola_matteucci/17 http://works.bepress.com/nicola_matteucci/17 Tue, 24 Feb 2009 05:40:04 PST The quest for interoperability of interactive TV has been a major concern of the EU Institutions. Its policy foundations were built on the enabling role of open standards, whose peculiar standardization process should guarantee affordable and widespread IPRs availability. After having received considerable public support and financial funds, the ITV roll-out appears disappointing, and the diffusion of the main concerned standard, the MHP, stagnates. We conduct a comprehensive analysis of the main markets facts and passages of the ITV policy, to derive a multifaceted assessment of its technological, economic and institutional drivers. Several important issues stand out. Beside the inner complexity of the policy, a few normative inconsistencies and conflicting aims adversely impacted its feasibility. Several logical ambiguities also dampened the correct choice of instruments. In particular, the existing literature clarifies two main points: open standards cannot be uncritically assimilated to open source software, and the role of open standards along the broadcasting value chain is largely unexplored. Consequently, their effects here might differ from those experienced in traditional ICT markets. Finally, a certain evidence of regulatory capture of the EU policy-maker emerges. Nicola Matteucci Media Economics & Policy http://works.bepress.com/nicola_matteucci/16 http://works.bepress.com/nicola_matteucci/16 Mon, 10 Nov 2008 06:45:16 PST Elad Harison Media Economics & Policy http://works.bepress.com/nicola_matteucci/15 http://works.bepress.com/nicola_matteucci/15 Sun, 09 Nov 2008 08:09:42 PST Digital switch-over is receiving a growing attention world-wide. Its importance is not limited to the business sphere. There is also a strong public rationale in promoting a fast and efficient switch-off of the analogue signal. Digital transmissions are more efficient, and free up valuable portions of the TV spectrum that can be profitably used for other TLC and multimedia services. The transition to digital proves particularly difficult in the terrestrial platform (DTT). First, DTT features as the incumbent platform in most countries, so that during the switch-over, transmissions are necessarily simulcast (in analogue and digital). Moreover, coordination problems are likely to arise, both from the supply-side (among broadcasters) and in the market (between broadcasters and viewers). While the first type of problem can be tackled with centralised spectrum management, the market coordination appears more difficult to work out. In particular, since network markets typically display "chicken-egg" coordination failures, broadcasters and viewers need to align their strategies and incentives. Typically, broadcasters want to invest in DTV only if there is a sizeable audience developed, to justify their investment. On the other side, viewers refrain from switching to digital if the new services do not pay-off, in terms of better technology and more attractive content. Consequently, Governments, Antitrust and Regulatory Bodies have designed a variety of initiatives to guide the transition and to easy coordination: additional spectrum slots, compulsory deadlines for the analogue switch-off (sunset dates), investment incentives and consumer subsidies. However, because of the novelty of the problem, the policy-maker needs sound guidance, since some instruments may jeopardise the market and stifle emerging competition. One additional reason for caution is that a policy-neutral approach to digital switch-over and multiplatform competition needs to be guaranteed, as stated in the EU NRF. We construct a simulation model of a market of heterogeneous users and firms to analyze the switch-over process from the analogue platform and the adoption of digital TV (henceforth, DTV). The paper identifies the relationships between different degrees of content variety and market dynamics (in terms of the analogue and digital market shares). The switching costs and the variety of content (both in the "traditional" analogue and in the "advanced" digital platforms) are the key-variables affecting the rate of diffusion of DTV and the duration of the transition to digital broadcasting. The model can provide instrumental policy tools as it assists in evaluating the most appropriate deadline for the switch-off, the role of the switching costs (and thereby the optimal subsidization policy) and the trade-off between the price and the offered contents (for broadcasters). A few empirical policy cases are then examined (mostly from US and EU) and confronted with the theoretical predictions of the model. Implications for regulatory efficacy and effectiveness are drawn. Finally, the paper derives useful lessons regarding the DTV market structure, the competition between broadcasters (in terms of price and product differentiation) and the possible emergence of monopolies in the digital and analogue markets. Elad Harison Media Economics & Policy http://works.bepress.com/nicola_matteucci/14 http://works.bepress.com/nicola_matteucci/14 Sun, 09 Nov 2008 07:52:49 PST Nicola Matteucci Innovation, Growth and Development http://works.bepress.com/nicola_matteucci/13 http://works.bepress.com/nicola_matteucci/13 Sun, 09 Nov 2008 07:43:36 PST Nicola Matteucci Media Economics & Policy http://works.bepress.com/nicola_matteucci/11 http://works.bepress.com/nicola_matteucci/11 Sun, 09 Nov 2008 07:32:38 PST Notwithstanding the severe price shocks that have been shacking its value chain, coffee remains a fundamental component of the Ethiopian economy and export. Nevertheless the prolonged price decline has substantially weakened its production basis and prospects, so that appropriate financial services are urgently needed to sustain rural communities. To gather focused evidence on the financial supply and demand of small Ethiopian coffee producers, in 2005 we carried out an original survey interviewing 120 farmers from the Jimma zone (Oromia regional state); further, the statistical analysis was complemented by "focus group" discussions and individual interviews with "key-experts" of the coffee value chain. Several important findings emerge from this study. First, there is a strong evidence of an overall gap between demand and supply of financial services across the different sources (formal and informal ones). Second, informal financial services (loans) are very costly, while those from microfinance institutions (MFI) and cooperatives often appear not tailored to the farmers' needs (in relation to timing, length and amounts). Concerning saving products, their diffusion is still very limited, because they have been recently introduced, but in the future they could become an important component for strengthening the microfinance outreach; currently, they also stand as a substitute for risk-insurance products, totally absent in the Ethiopian coffee production chain. Regarding policy recommendations, the main priorities appear those of enlarging the outreach of MFI and financially active cooperatives. More generally, a need emerges for demand-oriented financial services and suitable "bottom-up" agricultural development and policy-making. Anne Bastin Innovation, Growth and Development http://works.bepress.com/nicola_matteucci/10 http://works.bepress.com/nicola_matteucci/10 Sun, 09 Nov 2008 07:22:15 PST Ce papier discute des raisons économiques qui sous-tendent l'exclusivité des contrats dans les marchés multimédia. Il montre comment les accords exclusifs dans la distribution des contenus en Europe fonctionnent comme des barrières à l'entrée et/ou des stratégies d'accroissement des coûts des concurrents pour les nouveaux opérateurs de télédiffusion payante. La suppression des clauses exclusives, récemment validée par la Commission européenne, peut être économiquement justifiée lorsqu'elle engendre un impact positif sur l'innovation technologique et le développement de platesformes de transmission alternatives pour la distribution de services multimédia. Les récentes décisions européennes semblent encourager une nouvelle « approche d'accès ouvert » pour la distribution des contenus à forte valeur ajoutée dans l'industrie multimédia.This paper challenges the traditional economic reasons supporting copyright licensing exclusivity in dealership agreements in media markets. It argues that, in Europe, exclusive dealings in content distribution acted as barriers to entry and/or raised rivals' cost strategies against new Pay-TV operators. The removal of exclusive dealing clauses, as recently implemented by the European Commission, can be economically justified when it generates positive impacts on technological innovation and on the development of alternative transmission platforms for the delivery of multimedia services. Recent European Antitrust decisions seem to encourage a new 'open access approach' for premium content distribution in the media industry. Nicola Matteucci Media Economics & Policy