This paper investigates conditions that generate the so-called "waterbed" effect under price regulation. This is the effect whereby regulation of one price of a multiproduct firm causes one or more of its unregulated prices to change as a result of the firm's profit-maximizing behavior. A...

The purpose of this paper is to compare price and capacity competition in simple serial and parallel transport networks, where individual links are operated by different authorities. We find more tax exporting in serial transport corridors than on parallel road networks. The inability to toll...

A postal regulator typically faces two issues which make the design of efficient access pricing especially difficult and which complicate the process of liberalizing the industry. First, universal service obligations, together with the presence of fixed costs, require retail prices to depart...

We describe a pair of empirical tests that can be used to evaluate the technological feasibility of separating a vertically integrated network monopoly into a common infrastructure component and competing operating components. We implement the tests with a Generalized McFadden cost function that...

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...

Postal regulators set price controls in order to simultaneously ensure the provision of the universal service, promote competition and equity. We study the associated price control procedures in a model where the universal service provider offers both a single piece product and a business mail...

Suppose a multi-national agency can set minimum standards for the postal USO that apply to the countries under its jurisdiction, and that each country is required to comply with, or exceed, these standards. We examine the trade-offs that ensue across countries in designing an efficient USO at...

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...

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...