eBusiness Research Lunch Seminars
NE20-336 (3 Cambridge Center)
Wednesday, September 19, 12-1:30 pm
Lunch Provided
Professor John deFigueiredo
The Internet: Uniting the World, Dividing the House

Abstract

This paper shows how jurisdictional disputes between congressional committees drives the regulation of the Internet. Committees fight over who will retain jurisdiction over Internet issues, and thus obtain a stream of current and future political rents from Internet interest groups. We show in this paper, that ideology and constituency make-up have relatively little bearing on strategies congressmen pursue in their Internet legislative activities. Rather, committee jurisdictional issues explain much of the behavior. We build a formal game theoretic model illustrating how legislators act, and test implications from the model on Internet bills before the 106th Congress, and an in-depth analysis of Internet intellectual property protection. We also illustrate how in high technology industries, where exogenous shocks are common, it is difficult to get legislation passed.

 

For access to presentation materials, please visit the Sponsors Only section.

Students may request materials from Robynne DeCaprio at <decaprio@mit.edu>

 

Calendar for Fall Lunch seminars