After a brief historical overview of its main achievements, this paper examines some of the most relevant characteristics of the Spanish rail system and its performance in recent years. It particularly focuses on the new organizational model emerging from the 2003 Railroad Law which, after...

Alfred Kahn's book, Letting Go: Deregulating the Process of Deregulation, suggested that regulators step aside once they have set basic rules for entry into erstwhile monopolized markets. Unfortunately, communications regulators have not heeded Professor Kahn's advice. I provide an analysis of...

The success of airline deregulation challenged the claims of public choice theory, which asserts that regulation serves the purposes of the regulated firms themselves. One prominent explanation for airline deregulation is that "political entrepreneurs" can, under certain circumstances, challenge...

Regulations governing broadband networks are being considered. Natural experiments conducted with respect to 'open access' rules yield probative marketplace evidence. Using the metric of subscribership, policy regimes are compared. Prior to 1Q2003, cable modem service was unregulated (and has...

Can indirect network effects lead to adoption externalities? If so, when? We show that in markets where consumption benefits arise from hardware/software systems, adoption externalities will occur when there are (i) increasing returns to scale in the production of software, (ii) free entry in...

Internet-based technologies are revolutionizing the stodgy $625 billion global advertising industry. There are a number of public policy issues to consider. Will a single ad platform emerge or will several remain viable? What are the consequences of alternative market structures for a web...

The Stockholm Arlanda airport rail link is a public-private partnership opened for traffic in 1999. This paper addresses costs and benefits of giving a private company control over one section of the otherwise public railway network. The project has reduced the pressure on the public sectors...

This paper deals with railway deregulation and related reforms by means of a case study of Sweden, studying the 1988 split of railway infrastructure from operations and the subsequent steps of vertical and horizontal disintegration to a market characterized by decentralization and intra-modal...

Airline deregulation in Ireland arose from a parliamentary revolt in 1984 against legislation to imprison and fine those selling airline tickets below government approved fares. The revolt was heavily influenced by US airline deregulation in 1978 and the writings of Alfred Kahn. The results were...