Market structure, regulation and the speed of mobile network penetration

Yan Li and Bruce Lyons

International Journal of Industrial Organization, 2012, vol. 30, issue 6, 697-707

Abstract: The speed of market penetration (i.e. diffusion) is an important summary measure of how well the market works for potential consumers of a new product. This paper identifies the structural features associated with rapid diffusion of mobile telephony. We use a sample of thirty countries over the 16years in which average penetration rose from 2% to 97% of the population (earlier studies observed only the initial years of diffusion during which there was typically only one or two networks). We find that both the number of networks and the history of market structures matter for the speed of consumer uptake. The market structure effect does not appear to work exclusively through the level of prices. Digital technology, standardization, privatization and independent regulation are also important positive factors, and we identify the speed and dimensions of catch-up.

Keywords: Competition; Market structure; Privatization; Independent regulator; Mobile network; Diffusion (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: L13 L51 L96 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2012
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (19)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0167718712000926
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:indorg:v:30:y:2012:i:6:p:697-707

DOI: 10.1016/j.ijindorg.2012.08.004

Access Statistics for this article

International Journal of Industrial Organization is currently edited by P. Bajari, B. Caillaud and N. Gandal

More articles in International Journal of Industrial Organization from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().