Paul J. J. Welfens and George Yarrow A. Telecommunications in Western Europe: Liberalization, Technological Dynamics and Regulatory Developments 9 Paul J. J. Welfens and Cornelius Graack 1. Introduction 9 2. Liberalization and Market Expansion in Telecommunications 12 2. 1 Global Forces in Telecoms Liberalization 19 2. 2 Privatization and Deregulation in Western Europe 22 2. 3 Politico-economic Deregulation Pressures 26 3. Technological Dynamics 30 3. 1 Digitization 31 3. 2 Integrated Services Digital Network 33 3. 3 Fibre Optics, Fibre to the Home and Optical Networks 35 3. 4 Mobile Communications 38 4. Regulatory Developments 40 4. 1 Regulatory Developments on the EC Level 41 4. 2 National Regulatory Frameworks: Developments and Experiences 46 4. 2. 1 Telecommunications Equipment 47 4. 2. 2 Value-added Services 49 4. 2. 3 Infrastructure 52 5. Prospects and Consequences for Central and Eastern Europe 72 Appendix 78 B. Telecommunications in Systemic Transformation: Theoretical Issues and Policy Options 85 Paul J. J. Welfens 1. Introduction 85 2. Points of Departure in Eastern Europe 90 2. 1 Structure of the Telecoms Industry in an East-West Perspective 94 2. 2 Telecoms Industry as a Strategic Industry for Systemic Transition 97 VI Telecommunications and Energy in Systemic Transformation 3. Theoretical Aspects of the Telecoms Industry 99 3. 1 Some Problems of Uniform Subscriber Pricing 99 3. 2 Competition, Natural Monopoly and Economies of Scope 102 3. 3 External Effects of Telecoms Network Expansion 109 3.

How is the Internet produced as an infrastructure in post-socialist Lithuania? Migle Bareikyte contributes to the growing field of STS and media studies with a distinct focus on Eastern Europe. She situates the Internet development in Lithuania's telecom industry with the exploration of its labor practices, geopolitical imaginaries, and critical negotiations from a bottom-up perspective. Bareikyte further explores how fieldwork-based research can foster new theorizations of media infrastructures. Finally, she argues for a situated investigation of new places and actors beyond the United States and Western Europe-such as post-socialist regions-in order to explore the diversity of media infrastructures.

Global warming is a serious threat to the stability of world climate and to economic prosperity in some regions. The book offers a theoretical analysis which focuses on double dividend issues. Moreover, the ecological tax reform in Germany and the options of modern energy policy are described and evaluated. The volume presents innovative model simulations and analyzes, in the context of the model, the benefits of a modified tax reform, based on a Schumpeterian approach. Finally, implications for the European Union and other countries are discussed.

Deregulation, privatization and internationalization of the telecommunications industry has brought about enormous changes within both the European and world economy. The dynamics of the Internet and the recent wave of innovations in the telecommunications and computer industry have given rise to new opportunities for entrepreneurship, employment and growth. No doubt, the dynamics and imperfections of today`s information markets raise crucial challenges for Western Europe. The changing patterns of innovation in the digital economy have forced governments to consider new strategies to promote innovation, network effects and growth. In response to these developments this text presents new approaches to macroeconomic modelling, growth theory and trade analysis. Still further, the deregulation policies of OECD-countries are analyzed. An indispensible text for academics and professionals who want to deepen their knowledge of how the New Economy revolution continues to change the economy.

Europe's economic and political landscape is changing dramatically. The demise of the socialist CMEA and the USSR has allowed eastern European economies to open up and caused Russia/the CIS to engage in a series of difficult reforms which have been supported by the G-7 and the International Monetary Fund plus the World Bank on the one hand, and, on the other hand, by the EU and the EBRD. While some of the (early) Visegrad countries apparently were rather successful in their transition attempt, systemic transition approaches in other countries - Romania and Bulgaria - and, above all, in Russia largely were a failure. Economic hardship, social unrest, political radicalization and the international spreading of criminal activities can be identified as problems from the failure of Russia's first transition attempt. This book deals - from an international perspective - with the postsocialist countries in Europe, i. e. there is a focus on eastern enlargement and on Russia on the one hand, on the other hand the topic is which international influences and effects will emerge from EU enlargement and the Russian transition. While chapter A exclusively deals with major problems of eastern enlargement and the policy options for dealing with this difficult problem, chapter B is devoted to the Russian transformation crisis. There the analysis has a focus on Russia in its own right but also on the potential negative spillovers of a Russian transformation disaster which could occur in the late 1990s.

Russia has embarked upon a difficult process of systemic transformation and economic opening up. While the initial strong GDP decline seemed to have ended in 1997, the real development was facing even more difficult problems as output declined sharply after the Ruble and banking crisis of August 1998: inflation started to increase again, exports and imports were falling, capital flight increasing and unemployment rising. There is broad disappointment in Russia regarding the transformation failure in 1998 since so many people had hoped that the end of the Soviet command economy would bring democracy, prosperity and international integration. While Poland has been able to double per capita income in the 1990s it has fallen by 50% in Russia and this despite considerable IMF involvement and some (modest) support from other international organizations. What were the reasons for transformation failure in the 1990s? What are the ingredients for long term sustainable transformation? What are the internal and international requirements to avoid a second - possibly tragic - failure of transformation in Russia? An international group of researchers has focussed on these problems during a two-year research project financed by the Alfried Krupp von Bohlen und Halbach Foundation. A series of papers were presented at workshops in Potsdam, Bonn and Moscow in 1999 where this book is devoted to four important issues: the Russian transformation crisis, the topic of restructuring, the need for stabilizing Russia and the requirements for modernizing Russia.

Competition in network industries faces particular problems which are analyzed from both a theoretical and policy perspective. Issues of vertical integration, deregulation and privatization are covered. While competition and privatization are rapidly unfolding in telecommunications in Western and Eastern Europe, energy and railway transportation represent sectors of more gradual liberalization. The different market characteristics of telecommunications, energy and transportation raise consistency problems in the fields of deregulation, investment strategies and internationalization. While transformation policies create opportunities for liberalization in Eastern Europe and Russia the latter shows critical problems in ending monopoly and state ownership. Network industries could be subject to competition and promise major investment opportunities plus consumer benefits.