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What causes the megabyte price drop in the mobile industry?

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  • François Jeanjean

Abstract

Mobile industry is characterized by a sharp fall in megabyte price which highly benefits to consumers. This article aims to identify the main parameters that lead to such a fall and shows that the growth of traffic is by far the main cause. It proposes a parametric model that explains the growth of traffic from investment. Using a 20-countries wireless market dataset to calibrate the model, it shows that investment actually drives the exponential growth of traffic. As the growth of revenues are much lower, the price of megabyte decreases sharply. The role of competition is ambiguous. On the one hand it reduces margin and thus prices, on the other hand, as the relationship between investment and competition turns to be inverted-U shaped, it may reduce investment and therefore slow down the fall in unit price. Copyright Associazione Amici di Economia e Politica Industriale 2015

Suggested Citation

  • François Jeanjean, 2015. "What causes the megabyte price drop in the mobile industry?," Economia e Politica Industriale: Journal of Industrial and Business Economics, Springer;Associazione Amici di Economia e Politica Industriale, vol. 42(3), pages 277-296, September.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:epolin:v:42:y:2015:i:3:p:277-296
    DOI: 10.1007/s40812-015-0013-6
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Philippe Aghion & Nick Bloom & Richard Blundell & Rachel Griffith & Peter Howitt, 2005. "Competition and Innovation: an Inverted-U Relationship," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 120(2), pages 701-728.
    2. Lars-Hendrik Roller & Leonard Waverman, 2001. "Telecommunications Infrastructure and Economic Development: A Simultaneous Approach," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 91(4), pages 909-923, September.
    3. Houngbonon, Georges Vivien & Jeanjean, Francois, 2014. "Is there a level of competition intensity that maximizes investment in the mobile telecommunications industry?," 25th European Regional ITS Conference, Brussels 2014 101384, International Telecommunications Society (ITS).
    4. Kenneth Arrow, 1962. "Economic Welfare and the Allocation of Resources for Invention," NBER Chapters, in: The Rate and Direction of Inventive Activity: Economic and Social Factors, pages 609-626, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    5. Anusua Datta & Sumit Agarwal, 2004. "Telecommunications and economic growth: a panel data approach," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 36(15), pages 1649-1654.
    6. Gilbert, Richard J & Newbery, David M G, 1982. "Preemptive Patenting and the Persistence of Monopoly," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 72(3), pages 514-526, June.
    7. Jeanjean, François, 2010. "Competition through Technical Progress," 21st European Regional ITS Conference, Copenhagen 2010: Telecommunications at new crossroads - Changing value configurations, user roles, and regulation 18, International Telecommunications Society (ITS).
    8. Paul M. Romer, 1994. "The Origins of Endogenous Growth," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 8(1), pages 3-22, Winter.
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    Cited by:

    1. Sawadogo, Fayçal, 2021. "Demand price elasticity of mobile voice communication: A comparative firm level data analysis," Information Economics and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 57(C).
    2. Houngbonon, Georges Vivien & Jeanjean, François, 2016. "What level of competition intensity maximises investment in the wireless industry?," Telecommunications Policy, Elsevier, vol. 40(8), pages 774-790.
    3. Ciriani, Stephane & Jeanjean, Francois, 2019. "Competition, technological change and productivity gains: the contribution of information technologies," 30th European Regional ITS Conference, Helsinki 2019 205175, International Telecommunications Society (ITS).
    4. Stéphane Ciriani & François Jeanjean, 2022. "Competition, technological change and productivity gains: a European sectoral analysis," Economics Bulletin, AccessEcon, vol. 42(2), pages 927-946.
    5. Jeanjean, Francois & Lebourges, Marc & Liang, Julienne, 2018. "Mobile investment and traffic per capita tend to increase with license duration," 29th European Regional ITS Conference, Trento 2018 184949, International Telecommunications Society (ITS).
    6. Jeanjean, Francois & Lebourges, Marc & Liang, Julienne, 2019. "The impact of license duration on tangible investments of mobile operators," Telecommunications Policy, Elsevier, vol. 43(9).
    7. Stéphane Ciriani & François Jeanjean, 2020. "Competition, Technological Change and Productivity Gains: A Sectoral Analysis," Intereconomics: Review of European Economic Policy, Springer;ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics;Centre for European Policy Studies (CEPS), vol. 55(3), pages 192-198, May.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Mobile telecommunications; Data traffic growth; Investment; Price of megabyte; D24; L96; O31;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D24 - Microeconomics - - Production and Organizations - - - Production; Cost; Capital; Capital, Total Factor, and Multifactor Productivity; Capacity
    • L96 - Industrial Organization - - Industry Studies: Transportation and Utilities - - - Telecommunications
    • O31 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Innovation; Research and Development; Technological Change; Intellectual Property Rights - - - Innovation and Invention: Processes and Incentives

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