Quantifying the benefits of entry into local phone service
利用1999-2003年纽约州家庭数据，评估本地电话竞争对消费者福利的影响，发现平均用户每月获益2.33美元，主要来自企业差异化和新套餐引入而非价格效应。
Local telecommunications competition was an important goal of the 1996 Telecommunications Act. We evaluate the consumer welfare effects of entry into residential local telephone service in New York State using household‐level data from September 1999 to March 2003. We address the prevalence of nonlinear tariffs by developing a discrete/continuous demand model that allows for service bundling and unobservable provider quality. We find that the average subscriber to the entrants' services gains a monthly equivalent of $2.33, or 6.2% of her bill, in welfare from competition. These gains accrue primarily from firm differentiation and new plan introductions rather than from price effects.