| “The Role of Constituency Interests and Ideology in Voting: Early Cable Regulation and the Vote on S.2653,” presents a public choice theory of cable regulation. I develop a model where the politician maximizes his utility subject to a reelection constraint, which requires the politician to take into account political opposition from a given policy. I test the comparative statics results of this model by examining an early attempt by Congress to regulate cable. Probit analysis of this vote suggests that both cable and broadcast interests were effective in gaining political support for their respective positions. Both ideology and constituency interests enjoy explanatory power.; “The Role of Congress in Shaping Early FCC Cable Policy,” studies the extent to which the relevant FCC oversight committees influenced early FCC cable policy. As FCC policy became more anti-cable, the oversight committees generally became more liberal and contained more members from major television markets. The cable win-rate on operation applications before the FCC from 1966 to 1970 is lower when a politician from the broadcast market in question sits on an oversight committee. From 1966 to 1968, cable win-rates are lower when a politician from the relevant market sat on an oversight committee, and were higher from 1969–1970 when a politician from the relevant market sat on an oversight committee. Probit analysis confirms this finding.; “Technology & Copyright Protection: The Effect of Digital Media on the Recording Industry,” examines how the quality gap between authorized and unauthorized copies of sound recordings can affect the level of musical variety. Firms producing differentiated music are monopolistic competitors. When copying is introduced, the quality gap between authorized and unauthorized copies affects the short-run consumption of authorized copies and long-run musical variety. To test the model, the introduction of compact discs acts as a proxy for an increase in the quality gap. Results suggest that when compact discs were introduced consumers made fewer copies of musical recordings, increasing the level of musical variety. These results may be useful in assessing how consumer adoption of MP3, CD burners, and Napster is likely to affect the level of musical variety. |
