Cambridge Innovation Institute


                     Statement of Work for UCL Projects

     UCL1 (Spectrum Policy) and UCL2 (Participation in Internet-mediated
                                Interactions)


                    Professor Tilman Borgers (Economics)

       Professor Ingemar Cox (Computer Science/Electrical Engineering)

             Professor Helen Margetts (School of Public Policy)


UCL1.       Spectrum Policy

Project Desciption:


Radio spectrum is used by  the  providers  of  a  variety  of  communication
networks. Government policy towards spectrum use has  four  basic  elements:
(i) it  defines  property  rights,  (ii)  it  brings  property  rights  into
circulation, (iii) it determine how property rights can be traded, and  (iv)
it sets a legal framework in which license owners can allow  others  to  use
the same spectrum. The purpose of this project  is  to  examine  alternative
government policies in this area. Specific questions which we would like  to
investigate are: (i) Do spectrum licenses need  to  be  specific  about  the
application for which they are used  (like  UMTS  licenses),  or  does  that
hinder efficiency of spectrum allocation and innovation? (ii)  Does  bidding
in spectrum  auctions  confirm  auction-theoretic  predictions?  (iii)  Does
unregulated bilateral trading in spectrum licenses  improve  the  efficiency
of spectrum  allocation,  and  does  it  allow  innovators  to  acquire  the
spectrum rights that they need to implement  their  innovations?  (iv)  Will
contracts to compensate for interference lead to efficient spectrum use?


Resource requirements:


This research will require a post-doctoral researcher who can be employed
for one year (or part-time equivalent). The researcher will be supervised
by Tilman Börgers. Current commitments of Börgers do not allow him to carry
out this research himself.



UCL2. Participation in Internet-Mediated Interactions

Project Description:

Widespread use of the internet by individuals and organisations across
society and the economy has the potential to drive innovation in public
policy and economic activity. But if design does not take into account the
factors that determine take-up of on-line transactions then technological
innovation will not drive policy and economic innovation in this way. This
part of the research is aimed at analysing the factors that determine
participation in internet-mediated transactions. For example, when policy-
makers design government portals for citizens or business, they assume
users will prefer an integrated 'joined-up' government approach. Yet
evidence suggests that combining finder sites and search engines on the
Internet at large can provide more effective access to government
information and services and users may prefer to deal with on-line
government in this more disaggregated way. We will investigate government-
citizen (G2C) transactions by designing an experimental finder site which
uses this more disaggregated approach and test user reactions via mystery
shopping exercises. We will also make comparisons with the approach of
private companies and the way in which business-customer (B2C)
relationships have developed on-line. We intend to study how information
(not necessarily government related) is organized and made accessible to
users. This includes a study of incentives in recommender systems, and a
study of commercial auctions of search engine listings."

This part of the research benefits greatly from applying an
interdisciplinary approach to a topic normally studied within disciplines
and sectors, whereas it is anticipated that government can learn from
business, public policy analysts can learn from economists and
technologists can have valuable input to economic and social research.


Resources requested: This work will bring together economists, public
policy analysts and computer scientists - a combination that is rarely
applied to these topics. Staff to be employed and for which salary costs
are requested are:

a public policy post-doctoral researcher (for 1 year or a Phd studentship
for 3 years)

a computer science post-doctoral researcher (for 1 year or part-time
equivalent)

0.5 years of the economics post-doctoral researcher employed to work on
spectrum policy (see above)