Regulation and competition policy in the ICT sector: essays in industrial economics.

Summary This thesis addresses some of the characteristics of regulatory and competition policies in the Information and Communication Technology (ICT) sector. Several ex-ante regulatory issues are addressed, dealing with investment in fixed telecommunication network infrastructure and the implementation of price squeeze tests by telecommunication regulators in Europe. The paper also examines various competition policy issues, such as the impact of tying products that create switching costs for users or the consideration of access terminals for the analysis of the e-book market under competition law. The impacts of sectoral regulation on competition policy are also analyzed, with an application to the definition and management by competition authorities of the practice of price squeeze in the network industries. Finally, this thesis puts into perspective different advantages and disadvantages of ex-ante and ex-post interventions, respectively by sectoral regulation and competition authorities.