Thomas Hazlett
Thomas W. Hazlett | |
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Austrian School | |
Influences | Carl Menger Friedrich Hayek |
Information at IDEAS / RePEc |
Thomas W. Hazlett is the Hugh H. Macaulay Endowed Professor of Economics in the John E. Walker Department of Economics at Clemson University where he also directs the Information Economy Project.
Hazlett's essays have appeared in the
Education and career
Hazlett earned a Ph.D. in economics from
Research
Hazlett's research is focused on the public choice and public policy aspects of regulatory measures in the communications sector. His 1990 article, "The Rationality of U.S. Regulation of the Broadcast Spectrum,"[3] presented a "revisionist"[4] explanation as to why radio spectrum is allocated and licensed by regulators. The traditional view, given by the U.S. Supreme Court, was that policy makers were confronted by a "tragedy of the commons" and were forced by circumstances to manage wireless services. Ronald Coase critiqued the idea that government control was inevitable, but argued that policymakers were unaware of market alternatives. Hazlett showed that radio broadcasting actually developed according to common law property rules and that the move to political control was the result of pressure by incumbent radio stations and key policy makers (including Secretary of Commerce Herbert Hoover) to foreclose competitive entry.
As a policy advocate, Hazlett argued for auctions in assigning wireless licenses prior to Congressional approval of the reform in 1993,[5] and has advanced further liberalization in the use of frequencies.[6] In particular, he recommends that TV Band frequencies should be bid into more valuable uses.[7] This idea was considered highly controversial in the broadcast industry when proposed, but it has become widely accepted: while Hazlett's views were "so radical that the economist's suggestion was dismissed as Ivory Tower ranting," wrote a trade journal in 2004, "no one is laughing now."[8] By 2010, the FCC's National Broadband Plan proposed a major shift of TV frequencies to wireless broadband.[9] Hazlett's articles in the Financial Times,[10] as well as Richard Thaler's New York Times article on Hazlett's proposal to repurpose spectrum, may have helped popularize the notion.[11]
Hazlett has also written extensively about regulation in cable TV markets, promoting the consumer advantages of head-to-head competition and advocating the removal of franchise barriers.[12] He served as the economic expert (for the plaintiff) in Preferred Communications v. City of Los Angeles, the 1986 case in which the Supreme Court effectively declared monopoly cable TV franchises to be a violation of the First Amendment. He has written about problems in the development of cable competition and his 1995 article, "Predation in Local Cable TV Markets,"[13] is cited as one of the strongest documentations that predatory pricing occurred.[14]
Other areas of Hazlett's research involve cable TV price controls,[15] the impact of antitrust action against Microsoft,[16] and network neutrality rules. In addition to his book The Fallacy of Net Neutrality, Hazlett's article with FTC Commissioner Joshua D. Wright, "The Law and Economics of Network Neutrality," provides a comprehensive analysis and critique of the 2010 rules adopted by the Federal Communications Commission. Hazlett's 2011 Harvard Law School debate on the subject, with network neutrality supporter and law professor Tim Wu, states his case.
Personal
Hazlett is married and has two teen-aged
In 1992, his attempt to assist in his mother's fight against cancer, impeded by FDA regulations blocking advanced treatments available in Japan and elsewhere, was described in Forbes and later chronicled in Philip K. Howard's book, The Death of Common Sense.
Books
- Hazlett, T.W. and Spitzer, M.L. (1997). Public Policy toward Cable Television: The Economics of Rate Controls. MIT Press. OCLC 36900920
- Hazlett, T.W. and Arrison, S. (2003). Telecrisis: How Regulation Stifles High-Speed Internet Access. San Francisco, Calif: Pacific Research Institute for Public Policy. OCLC 52769516
- Hazlett, T.W. (2011). The Fallacy of Net Neutrality. New York: Encounter Books. OCLC 724661824
- Hazlett, T.W. (2017). The Political Spectrum: The Tumultuous Liberation of Wireless Technology, from Herbert Hoover to the Smartphone. Yale University Press. OCLC 961312417
Other
Rush Limbaugh, who was a friend of Hazlett, credited Hazlett with coining the term "feminazi" to, as Limbaugh stated, "describe any female who is intolerant of any point of view that challenges militant feminism."[18][19]
References
- ISBN 978-0300210507.
- ^ Rosston, Gregory. "Unlocking the Airwaves". Wall Street Journal.
- ^ Hazlett, T.W. (April 1990). "The Rationality of U.S. Regulation of the Broadcast Spectrum," 33 Journal of Law and Economics; abbreviated version reprinted in Benjamin, S.M., Shelanski, H.A., Speta, J.B., and Weiser, P.J. (2012) Telecommunications Law and Policy. Durham, N.C.: Carolina Academic Press.
- ^ "In a pathbreaking paper Thomas Hazlett makes the case for a revisionist view of the history of broadcast regulation." Quotation from Spitzer, M.L. (Nov. 1989). "The Constitutionality of Licensing Broadcasters," 64 N.Y.U. Law Review 990 (Nov. 1989), 1043–1044.
- ^ "Making Money Out of the Air" (December 2, 1987). New York Times.
- ^ Hazlett, T.W. (Spring 2001). "The Wireless Craze, the Unlimited Bandwidth Myth, the Spectrum Auction Faux Pas, and the Punchline to Ronald Coase's 'Big Joke': An Essay on Airwave Allocation Policy" Harvard Hournal of Law & Technology 15: 335–469.
- ^ Hazlett, T.W. (Nov. 2001). "The U.S. Digital TV Transition: Time to Toss the Negroponte Switch," AEI-Brookings Working Paper 01-15.
- ^ McConnell, B. (April 26, 2004). "Radical Thinker" Broadcasting & Cable.
- ^ Federal Communications Commission (2010). National Broadband Plan, Chapter 5: Spectrum.
- ^ Hazlett, T.W. (June 5, 2002). "Abolish Television" Financial Times; Hazlett, T.W. (June 25, 2009). "A Letter to the New FCC Chair, Julius Genachowski" Financial TRimes.
- ^ Thaler, R. (February 27, 2009). "The Buried Treasure in Your TV Dial" New York Times.
- ^ Hazlett, T.W. (July 1986) "Private Monopoly and the Public Interest: An Analysis of the Cable TV Franchise," 134 U. of Pennsylvania Law Review, 1335–1409; Hazlett, T.W. (Winter 2007) "Cable TV Franchises as Barriers to Video Competition," 11 Virginia Journal of Law & Technology, 1–82.
- ^ Hazlett, T.W. (Fall 1995). "Predation in Local Cable Television Markets," Antitrust Bulletin XL 609–44.
- ^ See, for example, Bolton, P., Brodley, J.F., and Riordan, M.H. (1999–2000). "Predatory Pricing: Strategic Theory and Legal Policy," 88 Georgetown Law Journal 2239–2330.
- ^ Hazlett, T.W. (1997), "Prices and Outputs Under Cable TV Reregulation." 12 Journal of Regulatory Economics 173-195.
- ^ Bittlingmayer, G. and Hazlett, T.W. (March 2000). "DOS Kapital: Has Antitrust Action Against Microsoft Created Value in the Computer Industry? 55 Journal of Financial Economics 329–359.
- ^ In 2015
- ^ Rush H. Limbaugh, The Way Things Ought to Be, Pocket Books, 1992 p. 193
- ^ "H.L. Mencken: The Soul Behind the Sass". Reason.com. December 1, 1987. Retrieved October 4, 2021.