Researcher ORCID Identifier
http://orcid.org/0000-0002-6531-951X
Document Type
Article
Department
Pomona College, Economics (Pomona)
Publication Date
11-17-2023
Keywords
Multimarket contact, Telecommunications, Internet, Broadband, Product quality, L13, L15, L96
Abstract
I investigate the effect of competition on quality in the internet service provision industry: I examine both local competition within markets and multimarket contact among firms across markets. This industry offers an ideal setting, as quality is both objective and measurable. I use data from speedtest.net from 2008 to 2014 to estimate a reduced-form model of the effects of local competition and multimarket contact on realized consumer download speeds. I find that increased multimarket contact leads to decreased download speeds, which is consistent with the mutual forbearance hypothesis. I also find that duopolies lead to faster download speeds than do monopolies, but that further increases in the number of competitors decrease speeds.
Rights Information
© 2023 Kyle Wilson
Terms of Use & License Information
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
DOI
10.1007/s11151-023-09928-8
Recommended Citation
Wilson, Kyle, "Local Competition, Multimarket Contact, and Product Quality: Evidence From Internet Service Provision" (2023). Pomona Faculty Publications and Research. 499.
https://scholarship.claremont.edu/pomona_fac_pub/499
Comments
Open access funding provided by SCELC, Statewide California Electronic Library Consortium. The author did not receive support from any organization for the submitted work. Originally published by Springer Link in Review of Industrial Organization.