Book Reviews

• Author: John J. McGowan
• DOI: 10.1177/0003603X7401900226
• Published date: 01 June 1974
• Date: 01 June 1974
• Subject Matter: Book Reviews

BOOK REVIEWS 463

Harvey

J.

Levin, The Invisible Resource: Use and Requla-

tion of the Radio Spectrum, Baltimore: The

Johns

Hop-

kins

Press

(1971), 384 pp. and appendices,

$12.00.

Economists'

interest

in the allocation of the radio spec-

trum

dates from the publication of Coase's well-known article

in the Journal of

Law

and Economics decrying the absence

of a

market

in spectrum use rights

and

the rationale

for

pre-

venting allocation through such a market. Since

that

time

several other economists and lawyers have advocated the

adoption of a

market

system with freely transferable

rights

of spectrum use.

At

times one suspects

that

many proponents

of a

market

system in spectrum rights

are

merely

attesting

to

their

discomfort with

any

non-market allocation procedure.

Nevertheless

it

is possible to identify anumber of inefficien-

cies which may characterize the

present

system of adminis-

trative allocation which imposes no charges

for

spectrum use.

These

are:

(1)

that

communications technology

may

be

overly spectrum using; (2)

that

the actual users of the spec-

trum

may

not be the

set

of users which would produce the

largest social benefit; and (3)

that

the level

and

distribution

of resources devoted to spectrum development may be dis-

torted.

Professor

Levin's volume brings together the results of

his own

and

others' research into the

nature

and

effects of

the existing system of spectrum allocation

and

on possible

alternatives to, or improvements in

that

system. Areview

of the allocation system, the subject of the first

quarter

of the

book, leads to the general acceptance of the existence of in-

efficiencies of the types outlined above.

In

marked

contrast

to most economists who have expressed

their

views, however,

Professor

Levin is

not

an

ardent

proponent of the creation

of a market in freely transferable spectrum use rights. Con-

sequently the second

part

of the book is devoted to examin-

ing ways to improve the allocation procedure without resort-

ing to a

market

system. A

third

section is concerned with the

forces shaping changes in the technology of spectrum use

and

possibilities

for

influencing those forces. A final section ex-