Keith B. Anderson
Executive Summary
In a 2005 Journal of Public Policy & Marketing article, Beard and Abernethy estimate that the Federal Trade Commission's do-not-call regulations could plausibly be increasing the amount the average household pays for long-distance service by $19–$39 per year. However, their approach causes them to overstate the possible costs significantly. An expanded model and more plausible parameter values result in cost estimates of no more than $6–$22 per year. Furthermore, the benefits of the do-not-call regulations—the ability of consumers to avoid the interruptions caused by unwanted commercial telephone calls—suggest that the benefits of avoiding unwanted calls from long-distance providers are greater than the costs of the regulations if consumers value the time taken up by unwanted telemarketing calls at more than $8–$27 per hour.
Biography
Keith Anderson has been an economist in the Division of Consumer Protection of the Bureau of Economics of the Federal Trade Commission since 1993. During this time, his work has focused on identity theft, consumer fraud, and telemarketing. Before1993, he held several positions in the Bureau, including serving as Assistant Director for Regulatory Analysis. From 1989 to 1993, he served as Senior Economic Advisor to the Chairman of the U.S. International Trade Commission. Mr. Anderson has authored several Federal Trade Commission staff studies, including Consumer Fraud in the United States: An FTC Survey (August 2004), and has published papers in several scholarly journals, including Journal of Law and Economics and Journal of Public Policy & Marketing. He has an MA in Economics from Cornell University (1970) and a BS from Washington State University (1968).
Journal of Public Policy & Marketing, Vol. 26, No. 2, Fall 2007
View Table of Contents