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Universal Service Obligations and Competition with Asymmetric Information

Author

Listed:
  • Poudou Jean-Christophe

    (University of Montpellier 1, jpoudou@univ-montpl.fr)

  • Roland Michel

    (Université Laval, michel.roland@ecn.ulaval.ca)

  • Thomas Lionel

    (Université de Franche-Comté, lthomas@univ-fcomte.fr)

Abstract

A regulator imposes a universal service obligation (USO) on a vertically integrated firm that owns an essential network. The regulator has imperfect information about the network's fixed cost. Network access is provided to licensed competitors. The USO consists in a constraint on market coverage and is compensated through a mix of public funds and transfers from entrants. We first use a basic adverse selection model to show that, because of informational rents, a sufficiently high shadow cost of public funds can lead to a lower coverage with the USO than without it. We then show that this result tends to be robust in various realistic extensions of the basic model.

Suggested Citation

  • Poudou Jean-Christophe & Roland Michel & Thomas Lionel, 2009. "Universal Service Obligations and Competition with Asymmetric Information," The B.E. Journal of Theoretical Economics, De Gruyter, vol. 9(1), pages 1-25, October.
    • Handle: RePEc:bpj:bejtec:v:9:y:2009:i:1:n:35
    DOI: 10.2202/1935-1704.1581
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    Cited by:

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