ABSTRACT
Cable television price controls have had pronounced effects on the way cable systems deliver their video signals. This has been neatly demonstrated over the past decade or more in a series of experiments that policymakers have fortuitously granted: deregulation in the 1970s and 1980s, reregulation in the 1990s. In each instance, service suppliers have rationally sought to adjust their service menus and even technical delivery mechanisms in rather dramatic fashion. For the most part, quality changes induced by regulatory shifts produced entirely predictable results, but there have been some counterintuitive surprises. In any event, the changing regulatory environment has given researchers ample opportunity to examine the ways in which market forces operate under exogenous pricing constraints.
