Cost-Benefit Analysis Has No Real Role in Spectrum Transactions, Phoenix Center Says
Cost-benefit analysis largely plays no role in spectrum transactions, the Phoenix Center said Monday. The center uses as a case study the proposed reconfiguration of the 900 MHz band, which commissioners agreed to seek comment on in March (see 1903130062).…
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“Cost-Benefit Analysis is (or should be) an important part of regulatory decision-making, though such an analysis is often agonizingly complex and rarely determinative,” said Chief Economist George Ford. In some cases, such an analysis isn’t necessary, he said: “When market transactions determine the outcome, it may be presumed, in the absence of large third-party effects or antitrust concerns, that the benefits of the transaction exceed the costs. Additionally, when all costs are covered, if the transaction occurs it can be assumed that the benefits exceed the costs.”