“This is the stupidest system I have ever heard of!” was how one of my students — a telecommunications regulator from South Africa — assessed the Federal Communications Commission’s (FCC) system for subsidizing telecommunication during a presentation of my research center’s flagship international training program a few years ago. My guest lecturer nodded sadly and [...]

What would happen if the US Department of Energy decided to help low-income households afford solar power by giving money to companies that report that they lease solar panels to these households? In all likelihood, fraud would be a difficult and costly problem, and solar companies would benefit more than the households. Despite the obvious [...]

There has been a lot of discussion lately about how the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) should be organized. Several news organizations mentioned that this was a topic of discussion as part of the work of the FCC transition team for President Donald Trump. (Full disclosure: I was a member of the team. My work there [...]