This paper illustrates the differences in the ordinary commercial distribution of retail outlets and the politically inspired distribution of post offices in Italy and the United States. It compares the distribution of bank branches to the distribution of post offices in Italy and the...

The aim of this paper is to examine the feasibility of identifying an appropriate rail scarcity charge which would make operators pay for their use of rail capacity in line with the opportunity cost of the use of these slots and to give some idea of the likely effects of such charges. The way in...

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...

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...

This paper deals with an analysis of the efficiency of delivery post offices from an estimated cost frontier. Our focus is to apply a robust non parametric approach for the cost frontier estimation, called the order-m frontier, based on the concept of "expected minimum cost" and to extend it to...

This paper examines developments since the publication of The Economics of Regulation in the theory of incentive regulation and its application to the regulation of unbundled electricity transmission and distribution networks. Conceptual mechanism design issues that arise when regulators are...

The European Commission has produced precise rules governing the computation of the cost of services of general economic interest (SGEI). The Commission has adopted a fully distributed cost approach where the SGEI can bear a "reasonable" share of the common cost. We highlight a possible...