ABSTRACT
Interest in the economics of network industries has grown considerably in recent years. At the intellectual level there has been an outpouring of literature that has enhanced the theoretical basis upon which networks and network industries may be analysed.1 New estimation techniques combined with greater sophistication in computer software has enhanced the empirical analysis that can be conducted on network characteristics. This interest in network has taken place at the same time when new ideas have emerged regarding both the nature and causes of spatial economic growth and the importance of public good networks in that growth.2 It has further been enhanced by the need to analyse network based sectors such as transport and telecommunications that have been the subject of major regulatory change (Button and Swann 1989). The complexity of many networks has brought forth more rigorous
methods of economic analysis, many derivations of techniques used in other areas of study, but the empirical work in the field is still relatively limited despite the availability of enhanced computing power. One of the main difficulties in conducting empirical analysis is the paucity of good and apposite statistical data.
