Networks in Telecommunications addresses fundamental issues in discussions of regulatory policy by offering an integrated framework for understanding the economics and law of networks. It extends theories on network design associated with the mathematics of graph theory, which provides insights into the complex, systemic interrelationship between network components. It also applies the principles of transaction cost economics to analyze decisions about the appropriate boundaries of proprietary network architecture. The book introduces network theory to the study of the economics and law of telecommunications. The discussion opens up the black box of the cost function in telecommunications. The analysis also goes beyond the 'network externalities' approach that focuses primarily on the size of networks. The book highlights the effects of network architecture and the tradeoffs inherent in network design.
Author Biography:
Daniel F. Spulber is the Elinor Hobbs Distinguished Professor of International Business and Professor of Management Strategy at the Kellogg School of Management, where he has taught since 1990. He is also Professor of Law at the Northwestern University School of Law (Courtesy). Founding editor of the Journal of Economics and Management Strategy, Professor Spulber has received eight National Science Foundation grants, three Searle Fund grants, and two Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation grants for economic research. Founder of Kellogg's International Business and Markets Program, his current research is in the area of international economics, industrial organization, management strategy, and law. He is the author of 11 other books, including The Theory of the Firm: Microeconomics with Endogenous Entrepreneurs, Firms, Markets, and Organization (2009), Global Competitive Strategy (2007), Market Microstructure: Intermediaries and the Theory of the Firm (1999), and Deregulatory Takings and the Regulatory Contract: The Competitive Transformation of Network Industries in the United States (with J. Gregory Sidak, 1997), all from Cambridge University Press, and Management Strategy (2004), The Market Makers (1998), and Regulation and Markets (1989). Christopher S. Yoo is Professor of Law and Founding Director of the Center for Technology, Innovation, and Competition at the University of Pennsylvania Law School. He is also Professor of Communication at the Annenberg School for Communication at the University of Pennsylvania (Courtesy). Formerly Professor of Law at Vanderbilt University, he was also Founding Director there of the Technology and Entertainment Law program. Professor Yoo earlier clerked for Justice Anthony M. Kennedy of the Supreme Court of the United States and Judge A. Raymond Randolph of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit. He coauthored The Unitary Executive: Presidential Power from Washington to Bush (2008) (with Steven G. Calabresi) and has written more than two dozen book chapters and articles in the Columbia, New York University, University of Pennsylvania, Cornell, and Northwestern University law reviews, as well as the Harvard Journal of Law and Technology and the Yale Journal of Regulation, among others. Professor Yoo's research focuses primarily on how technological innovation and economic theories of imperfect competition are transforming the regulation of the Internet, representing a leading voice in the debate over network neutrality.
