Cultural quotas in broadcasting I: a model

This paper develops a Hotelling location model in which two radio stations choose combinations of local and international content to play, given consumers with preferences distributed over those combinations. Station revenue derives from sales of advertising time, the demand for which depends negatively on the price and positively on the station’s market share and consumers get disutility from advertising and from a less-than-ideal broadcast mix of local and international content. In this setting we show that the laissez-faire solution involves less than (socially optimal) maximal differentiation

A high-rise on Main Street: Hotelling with mobile consumers

This note considers Hotelling’s (1929) model of locational choices by two firms and subsequent price competition in a setting where atomistic consumers locate first. It is shown that any equilibrium in pure strategies involves either one or two mass points with all surplus captured either by the consumers or by firms, respectively.

Cultural quotas in broadcasting II: policy

This paper considers the application of ‘cultural quotas’ to radio broadcasting: a requirement that a minimum percentage of broadcast content be of local origin. Using a Hotelling location model derived in Richardson (2004) we show that, while the laissez-faire solution involves less than (socially optimal) maximal differentiation, a quota reduces the differentiation between the stations even further. While a cultural quota may raise consumer welfare, the reduced station diversity and advertising levels monotonically lower overall social welfare. We consider two other policies – a limit on advertising and a publicly provided non-commercial station – and show that both also reduce diversity, compared to the laissez-faire solution. An advertising cap is not as effective as the quota in achieving greater airplay for local content for least welfare cost but a public station can be, depending on the magnitude of its associated fixed costs

Phase Locked Loop Test Methodology

Phase locked loops are incorporated into almost every large-scale mixed signal and digital system on chip (SOC). Various types of PLL architectures exist including fully analogue, fully digital, semi-digital, and software based. Currently the most commonly used PLL architecture for SOC environments and chipset applications is the Charge-Pump (CP) semi-digital type. This architecture is commonly used for clock synthesis applications, such as the supply of a high frequency on-chip clock, which is derived from a low frequency board level clock. In addition, CP-PLL architectures are now frequently used for demanding RF (Radio Frequency) synthesis, and data synchronization applications. On chip system blocks that rely on correct PLL operation may include third party IP cores, ADCs, DACs and user defined logic (UDL). Basically, any on-chip function that requires a stable clock will be reliant on correct PLL operation. As a direct consequence it is essential that the PLL function is reliably verified during both the design and debug phase and through production testing. This chapter focuses on test approaches related to embedded CP-PLLs used for the purpose of clock generation for SOC. However, methods discussed will generally apply to CP-PLLs used for other applications

Fair Trade

This paper deals with the behavior of fair trade organizations in an oligopolistic setting in which the vertically integrated fair trade firm produces a commodity which is a weak substitute for another commodity. Profit-maximizing oligopolists are vertically disintegrated and produce for both markets and the fair trade firm can charge a premium to consumers due to a "warm glow effect" that depends on the wage paid to fair trade producers. We show that trade integration will unambiguously increase the size of the fair trade firm. However, the relative size compared to oligopolists shrinks with integration. The effect of a change in substitutability between the two commodities on markets shares depends on the relative market potential. Furthermore, we show that the warm glow effect does not support an expansion of the volume of fair trade.

Cultural quotas in broadcasting II: policy

This paper considers the application of ‘cultural quotas’ to radio broadcasting: a requirement that a minimum percentage of broadcast content be of local origin. Using a Hotelling location model derived in Richardson (2004) we show that, while the laissez-faire solution involves less than (socially optimal) maximal differentiation, a quota reduces the differentiation between the stations even further. While a cultural quota may raise consumer welfare, the reduced station diversity and advertising levels monotonically lower overall social welfare. We consider two other policies – a limit on advertising and a publicly provided non-commercial station – and show that both also reduce diversity, compared to the laissez-faire solution. An advertising cap is not as effective as the quota in achieving greater airplay for local content for least welfare cost but a public station can be, depending on the magnitude of its associated fixed costs

Collisional Formation and Modeling of Asteroid Families

In the last decade, thanks to the development of sophisticated numerical codes, major breakthroughs have been achieved in our understanding of the formation of asteroid families by catastrophic disruption of large parent bodies. In this review, we describe numerical simulations of asteroid collisions that reproduced the main properties of families, accounting for both the fragmentation of an asteroid at the time of impact and the subsequent gravitational interactions of the generated fragments. The simulations demonstrate that the catastrophic disruption of bodies larger than a few hundred meters in diameter leads to the formation of large aggregates due to gravitational reaccumulation of smaller fragments, which helps explain the presence of large members within asteroid families. Thus, for the first time, numerical simulations successfully reproduced the sizes and ejection velocities of members of representative families. Moreover, the simulations provide constraints on the family dynamical histories and on the possible internal structure of family members and their parent bodies.Comment: Chapter to appear in the (University of Arizona Press) Space Science Series Book: Asteroids I

Faddists, enthusiasts and Canadian divas: broadcasting quotas and the supply response

This paper constructs a model of the recorded music market to investigate the consequences of local content requirements in broadcasting for the "internationalization" of domestic music. It models the entry decisions of bands, the contracting decisions of record companies, the airplay decisions of radio stations and the radio listening and recording purchasing decisions of consumers. The paper shows that a local content quota leads, perversely, to the increased internationalization of domestic music. A quota that also requires increased broadcasting of "new" music yields an additional welfare loss but does nothing to a record company's incentives to sign up new bands

Negative gearing Redux

Should the interest paid by landlords on loans used to finance the purchase of rented houses and apartments be tax deductible? There is widespread agreement that interest payments should be deductible at least up to the amount of the landlord’s ‘net rent’ — meaning the actual rent, minus all expenses other than interest payments. In this paper, we revisit Australia’s controversial ‘negative gearing’ (NG) arrangements, under which investors can also deduct negative cash flows — defined as the excess of interest payments over earnings net of depreciation and other non-interest expenses — from their other taxable income. We focus on NG of investments in rental housing, but the principles apply also to other investments, such as equities and bonds

Capital gains, negative gearing and effective tax rates on income from rented houses in Australia

This paper reports estimates of effective tax rates on rental property income in Australia. We consider three capital gains tax regimes – the current Australian system, that which prevailed between 1985 and 1999 and a realisation tax that attempts to mimic an accruals tax. We report estimates for each regime in two scenarios—slow anticipated real capital gains and very rapid unanticipated real capital gains. Our results suggest that negative gearing should be retained and capital gains taxation reformed to approximate an accruals tax. We argue that this desirable package would be no harder to administer than the current regime