James E. Prieger visits ARNIC to discuss mobile broadband use among racial minorities
On October 18th, ARNIC welcomed guest speaker Dr. James E. Prieger, who discussed “The promise of mobile broadband for minority communities.” Dr. Prieger is an economist specializing in regulatory economics, industrial organization, economics of illicit markets, and applied econometrics. He is a Professor at the Pepperdine University School of Public Policy.
Dr. Prieger has written for scholarly journals on a diverse array of policy topics such as the impact of telecommunications regulation on innovation; broadband deployment and the digital divide; the impact of the broadband provisions of ARRA (the 2009 stimulus bill); whether cell phone use causes traffic accidents; the impact of the Americans with Disabilities Act on retail firms; applications barriers to entry in network markets; entrepreneurship, R&D, and economic growth; and the determinants of civic engagement.
With a background in consulting for major telecommunications and other companies on regulatory issues and having presented at panels convened by the FCC, we at ARNIC were especially appreciative to hear Dr. Prieger’s perspective on the digital divide. Topics in his discussion included how mobile broadband connections have diffused exponentially in recent years, yet data (such as the CPS Computer and Internet Use supplement and FCC broadband availability reports) show that racial minorities lag in usage. Dr. Prieger concluded with policy recommendations, and led a a thoughtful conversation among faculty and students at the seminar about greater implications. Thank you, Dr. Prieger, for joining us at ARNIC.
Our next ARNIC seminar will take place on Thursday, November at 12:30 pm in ASC 236. See more details here. For any questions, email sierra.bray@usc.edu.