Demand for Communications Services – Insights and Perspectives

Essays in Honor of Lester D. Taylor

This volume grew out of a conference organized by James Alleman and Paul Rappoport, conducted on October 10, 2011 in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, in honor of the work of Lester D. Taylor, whose pioneering work in demand and market analysis has had profound implications on research across a wide spectrum of industries.  In his Prologue, Eli M. Noam notes that demand analysis in the information sector must recognize the “public good” characteristics of media products and networks, while taking into account the effects of interdependent user behavior; the strong cross-elasticities in a market; as well as the phenomenon of supply creating its own demand.  The second Prologue, by Timothy Tardiff and Daniel Levy, focuses more specifically on Taylor’s body of work, in particular its practical applications and usefulness in analyses of, and practices within, the Information and Communications Technology  (ICT) sector (known in Europe and elsewhere as the Telecommunications, Media, and Technology (TMT) sector).  The remainder of the book is organized into four parts:  Advances in Theory; Empirical Applications; Evidence-Based Policy Applications; and a final Conclusion.  The book closes with an Appendix by Sharon Levin and Stanford Levin detailing Taylor’s contributions using bibliometrics. Not only featuring chapters from distinguished scholars in economics, applied sciences, and technology, this volume includes two contributions directly from Lester Taylor, providing unique insight into economics from a lifetime in the field.

 “What a worthy book! Every applied researcher in communications encounters Lester Taylor’s work. Many empirical exercises in communications can trace their roots to Taylor’s pioneering research and his thoughtful leadership. This book assembles an impressive set of contributors and contributions to honor Taylor. No surprise, the collection extends far and wide into many of the core topics of communications and media markets. The emphasis is where it should be–on important and novel research questions informed by useful data. —Shane Greenstein, Professor of Management and Strategy, Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern University

“For more than 40 years, Lester Taylor has been a leader in the application of consumer modeling, econometric techniques and microeconomic data to understand residential and business user behavior in telecommunications markets. During that time, he inspired a cadre of students and colleagues who applied this potent combination to address critical corporate and

regulatory issues arising in the telecommunications sector. This volume collects the recent product of many of these same researchers and several other devotees who go beyond empirical analysis of fixed line service by extending Prof. Taylor’s approach to the next wave of services and technologies. These contributions, including two new papers by Prof. Taylor, offer an opportunity for the next generation to learn from his work as it grapples with the pressing issues of consumer demand in the rapidly evolving digital economy.” — Glenn Woroch, Adjunct Professor of Economics, University of California, Berkeley