Assessing the Economic Benefits and Costs of the FCC’s Imposition of Title II Regulation

A group of prominent economists, including six Georgetown Center for Business and Public Policy leaders and scholars, have released an economic policy vignette assessing the economic merits of the Open Internet Order. They argue the order “represents a radical shift in policy, reversing nearly two decades of consistent, bipartisan ‘light touch’ oversight of the internet” and “fails not only to weigh the costs of its new common carrier regime against likely de minimis benefits, but also fails to apply economic rigor to its evaluation of the record.” The full paper is available at: Assessing the Economic Benefits and Costs of the FCC’s Imposition of Title II Regulation.

Center Founder and Executive Director John W. Mayo, Senior Industry and Innovation Fellow Larry Downes, Visiting Senior Policy Scholar Robert E. Litan, Academic Director Jeffrey T. Macher, and Senior Policy Scholars Robert J. Shapiro and Glenn A. Woroch, authored the piece with Ev Ehrlich, Gerald R. Faulhaber, Michael Mandel, Bruce Owen, James E. Prieger,  Hal J. Singer, and Lawrence J. White. The piece was originally submitted as an Amicus Brief in United States Telecom Association, et al., Petitioners v. Federal Communications Commission and United States of America, Respondents, in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit.

To speak with Mayo, Downes, Litan, Macher, Shapiro, or Woroch, contact Brynn Lampert at (202) 687-5254 or bb844@georgetown.edu.