What Makes the Dominant Firm Dominant?

John Haring and Kathy Levitz.  

OSP Working Paper 25 (April 1989) identifies the confluence of circumstances that determine whether the dominant-firm model supplies an accurate description of marketplace reality and, hence, a reliable basis for policmaking. It then examines whether these conditions currently prevail in the markets for long-distance telecommunications services in the United States. The authors conclude that these conditions do not prevail and, thus, that the dominant-nondominant dichotomy provides a questionable basis for assessing regulatory burdens.