DotEcon was commissioned by MasterCard Europe to review a recent ECB study on “Social and Private Costs of Retail Payment Instruments”. The ECB study provides a valuable attempt at collecting data on the usage and costs of different payment systems … Continue reading
Publications
December 2012 : Review of ECB study
November 2012 : The Auction Bumper Edition …
Our Autumn 2012 issue is focused on auctions. We look at the lessons from the Danish 800MHz auction and the Swiss multi-band auction completed earlier this year, and take a critical look at some of the problems that arise when lot structures get too complex. Continue reading
August 2012 : Fibre, net neutrality and competition safeguards
In our Summer 2012 issue you can find articles about fibre to the home networks, net neutrality and ways of protecting downstream competition through appropriate safeguards in spectrum auctions. Continue reading
March 2012 : Water, social networks and mobile telcos …
In our Spring 2012 issue we discuss the trading of water to improve efficiency. We look at the value of social networks, and ask whether mobile telecommunications is over-regulated. Continue reading
February 2012 : Collecting revenue from spectrum
This paper looks at raising revenues as an objective of awarding spectrum through auctions. The potential for raising revenue through spectrum auctions was highlighted by the Indian government setting revenue-raising as an explicit objective for the award of 3G and … Continue reading
September 2011 : Smart grids, costly cash and 4G spectrum auctions …
Our Autumn 2011 edition covers the incentive issues around the move towards smart grids, the cost of paying, and the differences between the Spanish and Italian auctions of 4G spectrum. Continue reading
July 2011 : Costly cash meta-study
Commissioned by MasterCard Europe, DotEcon reviewed a number of studies into the cost of payment systems, particularly the cost of using cash. This meta-study draws on research undertaken by central banks, academics and other stakeholders over the last decade. The … Continue reading
May 2011 : Digital pirates, how to hand out Olympic tickets, cheap on-net calls and pricing thin air …
Our Spring 2011 issue looks at copyright and the Digital Economy Act, the role of on-net discounts in competition between mobile networks, spectrum pricing and what one might learn from auction theory for allocating tickets to the 2012 Olympic Games. Continue reading
April 2011 : How strong are merchant constraints on interchange fees?
This paper examines the ability of merchants to affect their customers’ choice of payment method. We demonstrate that merchants have a number of ways for steering their customers away from payment methods that are ‘expensive’ for the merchant, and that … Continue reading
February 2011 : Funding pharmacies, next generation access networks, and an auction that raises US$23 billion for the Indian Government
Our Winter 2011 edition contains articles on the potential reform of the ways in which community pharmacies are funded; the fine detail of the European Commission’s Recommendation on regulated access to Next Generation Access Networks; a look at the auction rules behind the two Dot-Econ designed Indian spectrum auctions which raised $23 billion for the Indian Government and finally, a digest of DotEcon’s competition and regulatory activity. Continue reading