Market Structure, Investment, and Technical Efficiencies in Mobile Telecommunications

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Elliott, Jonathan T.; Houngbonon, Georges V.; Ivaldi, Marc; Scott, Paul T.
• 署名单位: Johns Hopkins University; Universite de Toulouse; Universite Toulouse 1 Capitole; Toulouse School of Economics; New York University
• 刊物名称: JOURNAL OF POLITICAL ECONOMY
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0022-3808
• DOI: 10.1086/734132
• 发表日期: 2025
• 页码: 1401-1459
• 关键词: Vertical Integration; economies; QUALITY; consolidation; uncertainty; monopoly; demand; prices; 5G

摘要

We develop a model of competition in prices and infrastructure among mobile network operators. Although consolidation increases market power, it can lead to more efficient data transmission due to economies of scale, which we derive from physical principles. After estimating our model with French consumer and infrastructure data, equilibrium simulations reveal that while prices decrease with the number of firms, so do download speeds. Our framework also allows us to quantify the impact of spectrum allocation. The marginal social value of spectrum exceeds firms' willingness to pay in our model as well as observed prices in spectrum auctions.