985数量经济与金融系列讲座第201期：Net Neutrality, Boon or Bane for Free File Sharing Service?

题目：Net Neutrality, Boon or Bane for Free File Sharing Service?

主讲人：Wang, Tong Post doc, Florence School of Regulation, European University Institute

Abstract

In this paper, we establish a simple framework relying on queuing theory to analyze the effect of net neutrality on file sharing users. We find that net neutrality regulation does not necessarily improve consumer surplus as well as the social welfare; it depends heavily on the extra traffic generated by file sharing service and the distribution cost of the content produced by the content provider. Moreover, if we allow the Internet Service Provider charging the Content Provider for content distribution, the Internet Service Provider could obtain the optimal level of the industrial product by successfully manipulating the pricing strategy of the Content Provider.