|
on Information and Communication Technologies |
| By: | Vergara, Sebastián; Grazzi, Matteo |
| Abstract: | The diffusion of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) is becoming a central policy issue for developing countries, being identified by international policy-makers and scholars as an important driver of knowledge, innovation and economic growth. We analyze ICT access patterns in seven Latin American countries. In particular, we study the socio-economic determinants of the presence of computers and Internet connection at household level. Descriptive data show that ICT diffusion is concentrated in narrowly defined segments of income and educational groups in each country. Across countries, there is also evidence that the lower is the ICT diffusion, the higher is the inequality of that diffusion. Econometrically, we model the probability that a household has or has not adopted computer technologies and Internet access. The results confirm that variables such as income, education and rural/urban areas are key determinants of ICT diffusion. Additionally, there is evidence of geographical network effects and complementarities between Internet uses at different locations. |
| Keywords: | ICT Access; Sample selection; Latin America |
| JEL: | O54 C24 L63 |
| Date: | 2011–04–29 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:33266&r=ict |
| By: | Thomes, Tim Paul |
| Abstract: | This paper investigates the upcoming business model of online streaming services allowing music consumers either to subscribe to a service which provides free-of-charge access to streaming music and which is funded by advertising, or to pay a monthly flat fee in order to get ad-free access to the content of the service accompanied with additional benefits. Both businesses will be launched by a single provider of streaming music. By imposing a two-sided market model on the one hand combined with a direct transaction between the streaming service and its flat-rate subscribers on the other hand, the investigation shows that it can be highly profitable to launch a business which is free-of-charge for subscribers if advertising imposes a weak nuisance to music consumers. If this is the case, and by imposing an endogenously determined level of advertising which will be provided by homogeneous advertisers, the analysis shows that the monopolistic streaming service increases the price for its flat-rate subscribers in order to stimulate free-of-charge demand and to capture higher revenues from advertisers. An extension of the model by illegal file-sharing reveals that an increase in copyright enforcement shifts rents from music consumers to the monopolistic provider, moreover a maximal punishment for piracy will be welfare-maximizing. -- |
| Keywords: | Advertising media,Music industry,Online streaming,Piracy |
| JEL: | D42 L12 L82 |
| Date: | 2011 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:zewdip:11039r&r=ict |