Brookings Institution

Robert W. Crandall

Policy Options in a Competitive World

The U.S. Steel Industry in Recurrent Crisis

Clifford Winston

Vikram Maheshri

"Proposes deregulating entry into the legal profession to open up competition among and improve innovation by lawyers, reduce social costs of high legal fees, and make more efficient use of the nation's labor resources, while lowering legal costs and providing consumers with a wider range of legal services"--Provided by publisher.

First Thing We Do, Let's Deregulate All the Lawyers

Discusses the effectiveness of government regulations designed to reduce air pollution and recommends changes in air pollution policies and laws.

The Economics and Politics of Clean Air

Controlling Industrial Pollution

Kenneth Flamm

Since 1971 competition has begun to replace regulation as a governing force in the telecommunications industry. The breakup of the national telephone monopolies, technological advances, and the worldwide network in telecommunications have brought a revolution in the telecommunications equipment and services industries. These changes have forced legislators and regulators to rethink public policy toward communications. The papers in this book were first presented at a conference organized by Robert Crandall and Kenneth Flamm, pulling together a group of industry professionals and scholars to address the far-reaching implications of the upheaval in the communications industry. The contributors analyze the effects of this increasing competition on standardization, technical innovation, and international rivalry. Changing the Rules offers possible policy options and analyzes their potential effects on the future market structure and the competitive positions of the U.S. computer and communications industries.

Technological Change, International Competition, and Regulation in Communications

Changing the Rules

The 1996 Telecommunications Act was an attempt to increase competition among telecommunications providers in the United States by reducing regulatory barriers to market entry. This competition was expected to drive innovation in the telecommunications sector and reap economic benefits for both American consumers and telecommunications providers. The legislation, however, had a markedly different impact. While many of the more aggressive providers enjoyed sharp short-term rises in stock market values, they soon faced sudden collapse, leaving consumers with little or no long-term benefit. In Competition and Chaos, Robert W. Crandall analyzes the impact of the 1996 act on economic welfare in the United States and how the act and its antecedents affected the major telecommunications providers. He argues that the act was far too stringent, inviting the Federal Communications Commission and state regulators to micromanage competitive entry into local telecommunications markets. Combined with the bursting of the dot.com and telecom stock market bubbles, this aggressive policy invited new and existing firms to invest billions of dollars unwisely, leading to the 2001–02 collapse of equity values throughout the sector. New entrants into the market invested more than $50 billion in unproductive assets that were quickly wiped out through massive failures. The 1996 act allowed the independent long-distance companies, such as MCI and AT&T, to live a few years longer. But today they are a threatened species, caught in a downward spiral of declining prices and substantial losses. The industry is preparing for an intense battle for market share among three sets of carriers: the wireless companies, the local telephone carriers, and the cable television businesses. Each has its own particular advantage in one of the three major segments of the market—voice, data, and video—but none is assured a clear path to dominance. Although the telecom stock market collapse is now history and the survivors are investing once again, Crandall concludes that the regulators have failed to adapt to the chaos to which they contributed.

Robert W. Crandall

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