Who Pays for Universal Service? ― When Telephone Subsidies Become Transparent

Analyzes the demand for residential telephone service, calling patterns, and telephone expenditures across a variety of developed countries, with detailed data for the US, Canada, and the UK. Offers an estimate of the social cost of universal service policies for the US, arguing that universal service policies are unnecessary and that eliminating such policies would save the economy $7 million a year. Crandall is senior fellow in economic studies at the Brookings Institution. Waverman is visiting professor at the London Business School. The authors have written a previous book on the telecommunications industry. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

Robert W. Crandall is a senior fellow in the Economic Studies program at the Brookings Institution, where his research has focused on telecommunications and cable television regulation, industrial organization and policy, and the changing regional structure of the U.S. economy. His previous books include Broadband: Should We Regulate Internet Access? (Brookings, 2002), Telecommunications Liberalization on Two Sides of the Atlantic (Brookings, 2001) and Who Pays for Universal Service? (Brookings, 2000). Leonard Waverman is professor of economics and director of the Centre for International Studies at the University of Toronto.