PhD collects international prize

Pantelis Koutroumpis, a PhD student working at Tanaka Business School, was awarded first prize for a paper he presented to an international, biennial conference in June.

By Elliott White

The paper, titled “The economic impact of broadband on Growth: A simultaneous approach", examined the relationship between the level of country’s broadband development and economic growth for the European Union country members.

Wealthier countries generally have a higher level of infrastructure development, for example, utilities, roads and telecommunications networks.  Pantelis’ paper focussed on the financial returns from telecommunications infrastructure toward the overall economic growth of a country.

The paper received the Bell Canada 2008 Best Paper Award at the 17th Biennial International Telecommunications Society Conference, in Montreal.  In the event more than 200 papers were presented, prepared by scholars from more than 40 countries.

Explaining his findings, Pantelis said:
“We see a two-way relationship. The results show a strong positive link and suggest that a critical level of investment in telecoms can result in greater rewards for an economy.

“Put simply, once more than half the population has access to broadband, returns to the economy, at least, double - when compared to countries with lower broadband access. This has important implications for regulators and policy makers in the developed and developing world.”

The theme of the conference was “The Changing Structure of the Telecommunications Industry and the New Role of Regulation.”    The event is designed to bring the international community of academics, industry researchers, market analysts, government officials and policy makers together to present original work.  The conferences aim to develop a new vision for the future of the telecommunications industry.

Pantelis is a PhD student in the Tanaka Business School working under the supervision of Tommaso Valletti, Professor of Economics.  He is working in the area of telecommunications economics and regulation within the School’s Organisation and Management Research Group.

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For more information on the event:
 
www.itsworld.org