Standards and Public Policy

by Edited by Shane Greenstein , Victor Stango

• ISBN13: 9780521864503
• ISBN10: 052186450X
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2007-01-22
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Summary

Technological standards are a cornerstone of the modern information economy, affecting firm strategy, market performance and, by extension, economic growth. While there is general agreement that swift movement to superior technological standards is a worthwhile goal, there is much less agreement on the central policy questions: Do markets choose efficient standards? How do standards organizations affect the development of standards? And finally, what constitutes appropriate public policy toward standards? In this volume, leading researchers in public policy on standards, including both academics and industry experts, focus on these key questions. Given the dearth of applied work on standards and public policy, this volume significantly advances the frontier of knowledge in this critical but understudied area. It will be essential reading for academic and industrial researchers as well as policymakers.

Table of Contents

List of figures	p. vii
List of tables	p. viii
List of contributors	p. x
Introduction	p. 1
Standard setting in markets: the browser war	p. 18
Competition through institutional form: the case of cluster tool standards	p. 60
The economic realities of open standards: black, white, and many shades of gray	p. 87
Coordination costs and standard setting: lessons from 56K modems	p. 123
Promoting e-business through vertical IS standards: lessons from the US home mortgage industry	p. 160
Intellectual property and standardization committee participation in the US modem industry	p. 208
Manipulating interface standards as an anticompetitive strategy	p. 231
Delay and de jure standardization: exploring the slowdown in Internet standards development	p. 260
Standardization: a failing paradigm	p. 296
Standards battles and public policy	p. 329
Switching to digital television: business and public policy issues	p. 345
Should competition policy favor compatibility?	p. 372
Index	p. 389
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