Martin Quinn

Católica Lisbon School of Business & Economics

will give a presentation on:

The Economic Effects of Mobile Internet Access: Evidence from Roam-Like-At-Home

joint with Miguel Godinho de Matos and Christian Peukert 

Abstract:

Roam-Like-At-Home rules (RLAH) passed on the 15h of June 2017 stipulate the end of roaming charges for EU residents that travel to countries within the European Economic Area (EEA). In this paper, we use micro-level data from a telecom operator to estimate the welfare effects of mobile internet for travelers. Decomposing the surplus gains by consumer types based on pre-regulation mobile data usage, we highlight important heterogeneity. Users with higher pre-regulation usage experience higher absolute gains, which are mainly driven by the revaluation of existing mobile data usage, and less by additional usage. Conversely, users with lower pre-regulation usage experience higher relative gains, which is mostly driven by additional usage. This suggests that the regulation was at least partially effective in closing a digital divide between locals and visitors. We further show that consumers use mobile data for both information consumption and information provision, and also look into the indirect welfare effects of RLAH for content providers.

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