Deficit Reduction Through Diversity: How Affirmative Action at the FCC Increased Auction Competition
نویسندگان
چکیده
INTRODUCTION ..................................................................................................................................................2 I. THEORY.............................................................................................................................................................4 A. Set-Asides Can Enhance Intragroup Competition Among Strong Bidders................................................6 B. Bidding Credits Can Create Effective Set-Asides ......................................................................................7 C. Bidding Credits Can Create Intergroup Competition ...............................................................................7 D. Affirmative Action Can Increase Expected Revenue When the Government Is Imperfectly Informed About Bidder Valuations ...........................................................................................................................7 E. Affirmative Action Can Destabilize Tacit Collusion..................................................................................9 II. EMPIRICISM .......................................................................................................................................................9 A. Describing the Licenses and the Auction Rules.......................................................................................10 B. The Impact of Affirmative Action.............................................................................................................14 1. Comparing the nationwide and regional results................................................................................14 2. The impact of designated crossover bidding......................................................................................17 3. The impact of the set-aside licenses. ..................................................................................................22 C. Alternative Hypotheses ............................................................................................................................23 1. Hiding in the grass.............................................................................................................................24 2. The designated bidders would have bid anyway................................................................................25 3. Affirmative action might have chilled non-designated bidder participation......................................26 D. Strategic Perversities: Bidding Above Atomistic Reservation Prices .....................................................26 1. Risk of partial aggregation. ...............................................................................................................26 2. Raising rivals’ costs and predatory strategies. ..................................................................................27 3. Reduced retail competition. ...............................................................................................................28 III. APPLICATIONS TO GOVERNMENT PROCUREMENT AND PRIVATE EMPLOYMENT ..............................................29 A. Government Procurement........................................................................................................................29 B. Private Employment ................................................................................................................................31 IV. LEGAL IMPLICATIONS ......................................................................................................................................32 A. Public Affirmative Action ........................................................................................................................32 1. Revenue enhancement is constitutionally insufficient. .......................................................................32 2. Did the FCC’s rules enhance minority or female control of the airwaves ?......................................33 3. Affirmative action costs the government less than is commonly assumed. ........................................34 B. Private Affirmative Action May Deserve Higher Scrutiny.......................................................................35 CONCLUSION ...................................................................................................................................................36 APPENDIX ........................................................................................................................................................37
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