The objective of this paper is to make numerical estimates of the effects of various partial tolling schemes in a long-run setting where road capacities are harmonized with the tolling plan. The results demonstrate that different tolling schemes bring about different sets of equilibrium outcomes...

This paper examines the effects of alternative congestion pricing systems, cordon pricing and congestion pricing for existing toll roads, using the network equilibrium model developed for the Osaka Metropolitan Area, Japan. Cordon pricing is more effective in reducing the total efficiency loss...

Consumers pay for hundreds of goods and services each year, but across households and across goods, consumers do not choose to pay the same way. This paper posits that payment choices depend in part on consumers' propensity to adopt new technologies and in part on the nature of the transaction....

Since the 1990s, local exchange telecommunications carriers (LECs) have been subject to incentive regulation plans. This paper discusses theoretical and practical aspects of the evolution of price regulation as retail competition increases and as regulators mandate extensive availability of...

Credit cards provide benefits to consumers and merchants not provided by other payment instruments as evidenced by their explosive growth in the number and value of transactions over the last 20 years. Recently, credit card networks have come under scrutiny from regulators and antitrust...

This paper reviews in turn the papers in this Symposium on incentive regulation. It adduces the UK experience with incentive regulation, particularly in the electricity sector, to evaluate, amongst other things, the reasons for development and adoption of this approach, the determinants of...

The Massachusetts public utility commission has pursued policies to promote competition and efficient pricing in telecommunications since the divestiture of AT&T in 1984. As part of this effort, the Massachusetts Commission approved incentive regulation for AT&T and Verizon - the only two...

We synthesize the results of the recent theoretical literature on the determination of interchange fees by payment card associations. We analyze in particular the conditions under which these interchange fees are excessively high, as compared with social optimum. These conditions involve several...

This paper reviews Garcia Mariñoso's 2001 Journal of Industrial Economics article on endogenous switching costs and product compatibility. In that paper, Garcia Mariñoso concludes that producers of so-called product systems (which consist of hardware or platforms plus applications) can have...

This article reviews a recent paper by Brock (2000) analyzing developments in the airline industry. Using Department of Transportation data, we attempt to verify a number of assertions made by Brock regarding changes in industry concentration and prices throughout the 1990s. We also compare a...