Current Information Economy Links
A debate over spectrum policy in the George Mason Law Review:
Philip J. Weiser & Dale Hatfield, Spectrum Policy Reform and the Next Frontier of Property Rights (PDF), 15 George Mason Law Review 549, (Vol 15, No. 3, Spring 2008).
Thomas W. Hazlett, A Law & Economics Approach to Spectrum Property Rights: A Response to Professors Weiser & Hatfield (PDF), 15 George Mason Law Review 975, (Vol. 15, No. 4, Summer 2008).
Philip J. Weiser & Dale Hatfield, Spectrum Policy Reform and the Next Frontier of Property Rights (PDF), 15 George Mason Law Review 1025, (Vol 15, No. 4, Summer 2008).
Thomas W. Hazlett, A Rejoinder to Weiser and Hatfield on Spectrum Rights (PDF), 15 George Mason Law Review 1031 (Vol. 15, No. 4, Summer 2008).
Thomas W. Hazlett, Optimal Abolition of FCC Spectrum Allocation (PDF), 22 Journal of Economic Perspectives 103 (Vol. 22, No. 1, Winter 2008)
On November 2, 1920, U.S. radio broadcasting edged into the marketplace when Westinghouse’s KDKA station in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, aired reports of the presidential election held that day. By year-end 1922, some 500 broadcast stations were on the air. “Priority in use” airwave rights were enforced by the Department of Commerce. But on July 8, 1926, Commerce Secretary Herbert Hoover announced that, in response to conflicting court opinions, the Department would no longer enforce broadcasting rights. Stations became free to jump wavelengths, and many did. Within seven months, some 200 new stations emerged. The resulting chaos demanded a remedy. In November 1926, the Chicago Tribune’s WGN obtained a court injunction against an interloper, protecting its use of a frequency under common law. But neither policymakers nor the large commercial stations saw this as the preferred solution. In December 1926, Congress passed a statute requiring all broadcasters to waive any vested rights in frequencies, and in February 1927 the Radio Act established the Federal Radio Commission. Evolving into the Federal Communications Commission in 1934, the agency would administratively determine what use could be made of airwaves according to “public interest, convenience, or necessity”—a standard put forward by the fledgling National Association of Broadcasters. Read the full article (PDF)
(Copyright 2008, American Economic Association; reproduced with permission of the Journal of Economic Perspectives)
Thomas W. Hazlett & Anil Caliskan, Natural Experiments in U.S. Broadband Regulation (PDF), GMU Law & Economics Working Paper No. 08-04 (Feb. 2008).
Seminar on "The Crisis in Public Safety Communications," Federal Communications Law Journal, March 2007, featured four papers presented at a December 2006 conference jointly sponsored by the Information Economy Project and the Mercatus Center at George Mason University.
Fundamental Reform in Public Safety Communications Policy, By Jon M. Peha (PDF)