By Öner Tulum & William Lazonick ◊ There are widespread claims that a productivity crisis afflicts the U.S. pharmaceutical industry despite the fact that the U.S. institutional environment provides unique advantages for drug R&D. We argue that the explanation for this productivity paradox is the “financialization” of the U.S. pharmaceutical industry. Driven by shareholder-value ideology, the U.S. pharmaceutical industry has adopted a highly financialized business model…
Journal Articles
Global Broadband Benchmarking 2013: Best Practice Lessons for Governments
By Martyn Roetter ♦ Is there a “one size fits all” set of international best practices for broadband policy? No, argues Martyn Roetter, because local circumstances are far too diverse. However, he says that there are many useful lessons to be drawn from experiences in different parts of the world. He reviews successful broadband projects in fifteen countries from five regions: Latin America, Africa, Asia, Europe, and North America. Based on these examples, and acknowledging their differences, Mr. Roetter distills common characteristics of successful (and unsuccessful) broadband policies in the areas of public-private partnerships, public funding of broadband, effectively competitive markets, spectrum management, and the role of government intervention. Ultimately, he concludes that the roles of government and the private sector must be complementary.
The Rise and Demise of Lucent Technologies
By William Lazonick and Edward March ♦ In 1999, as the Internet boom was approaching its apex, Lucent Technologies was the world’s largest telecommunications equipment company. With revenues of $38.3 billion, net income of $4.8 billion, and 153,000 employees for the fiscal year ending September 30, 1999, Lucent was larger and more profitable than Nortel, Alcatel, and Ericsson, its three major global competitors. In fiscal 2006, however, Lucent’s revenues were only $8.8 billion and its employment level stood at 29,800. Both figures were lower than those of its three major rivals. On December 1, 2006, the merger that created Alcatel-Lucent took place, making Lucent a wholly owned subsidiary of Alcatel. In this paper, we analyze the rise and demise of Lucent Technologies from the time that it was spun off from AT&T in April 1996 to its 2006 merger with Alcatel.