Abstract :
What is the economic substance behind net neutrality, the populist policy debate du jour? The authors assesses the basic economics behind net neutrality. To be sure, this debate has many arcane facets. For example, a couple years ago the FCC legally exempted US broadband firms - cable modem and DSL providers - from what are known as "common carrier" obligations. Phone companies have lived under these obligations for decades. In brief, common carriers are not responsible for the content of a message; they are responsible for carrying it and not altering it. This ruling recently survived a Supreme Court review (in a case called Brand-X). Why does that matter? It shapes the Internet. Sure, it\´s arcane, but it\´s too important not to understand
