Telecommunications Investment and Traffic in Developing Countries: The Effects of International Settlement Rate Reforms

Scott J Wallsten

Journal of Regulatory Economics, 2001, vol. 20, issue 3, 307-23

Abstract: In 1997 the FCC ordered sharp decreases in international settlement rates (bilaterally negotiated telecommunication rates) between the U.S. and other countries. Developing countries, which received about $35 billion in net settlement payments from U.S. carriers between 1985 and 1998, claim that payments finance telecom investment and that reduced rates, and therefore payments, will harm investment. Using a panel dataset of 179 countries from 1985-1998, I find settlement rates negatively correlated with international telecom traffic, suggesting that reduced rates will stimulate traffic. I also find no evidence that payments finance investment as measured by telephone penetration and telecommunications equipment imports. Copyright 2001 by Kluwer Academic Publishers

Date: 2001
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (7)

Downloads: (external link)
http://journals.kluweronline.com/issn/0922-680X/contents link to full text (text/html)
Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

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:kap:regeco:v:20:y:2001:i:3:p:307-23

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.springer. ... on/journal/11149/PS2

Access Statistics for this article

Journal of Regulatory Economics is currently edited by Menaham Spiegel

More articles in Journal of Regulatory Economics from Springer
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().