Document Type
Article
Publication Date
6-26-2017
ISSN
0889-938X
Publisher
Springer Nature B.V.
Language
en-US
Abstract
Net neutrality generates wealth transfers from one type of internet content provider to another. In theory, these transfers might be socially desirable, and could be justified on the basis of informational externalities similar to those cited to justify fair use in copyright law. In practice, however, the conditions that justify fair use do not hold where net neutrality operates. Moreover, the internal subsidization required by net neutrality generates a regressive transfer. The welfare gains that might come from controlling anticompetitive abuse or government coercion through implementation of net neutrality can be achieved by alternative policies with less harmful consequences.
Recommended Citation
Keith N. Hylton,
Law, Social Welfare, and Net Neutrality
,
in
50
Review of Industrial Organization
417
(2017).
Available at:
https://scholarship.law.bu.edu/faculty_scholarship/158
Comments
Published as: "Law, Social Welfare, and Net Neutrality," 50 Review of Industrial Organization 417 (2017).