Competition in Industries Recently Deregulated in Japan

Deregulation in Japan has been caused by both external and internal factors. External factors include requests by the United States and the European Community, where deregulation measures were extensively implemented in order to facilitate these countries\u27 enterprises access into Japan\u27s market. Internal factors include the necessity for the privatization of state or public corporations in order to utilize private initiative to its fullest extent and for the reduction of differences between domestic and international prices

You Can't Get There From Here: Government Failure in U.S. Transportation

Consumers, firms, and government spend $1.3 trillion on transportation, which accounts for roughly 17 percent of U.S. GDP. Transportation also absorbs about$1.2 trillion in travelers' and shippers' time--a valuable commodity excluded from GDP. Ttransportation policy is an important means for government to exert its influence on the economy. From regulating international air fares to providng bus service to owning and operating the roads, the government's presence in the U.S. transportation sector is pervasive. This paper argues, however, that the government's extensive involvement in transportation is undesirable and that it should greatly reduce its role in all aspects of transportation. By repeatedly failing to enact efficient policies to allocate transportation resources and by rigidly pursuing policies that have undermined the efficiency of every transportation mode and the welfare of most users--especially those with the lowest incomes---policymakers have assured that government failures are compromising the performance of the U.S. transportation sector far more than market failures. By ridding the transportaton sector of most observable government failures and by allowing innovation and state-of-the-art technology to flourish free of government interference, the private sector can vastly improve transportation and thereby advance our standard of living. The only real uncertainty is how long policymakers will resist change.

Integrating Industrial Organization and International Business to Explain the Cross-National Domestic Airline Merger Phenomenon

Lecture on the first SFB/TR 15 meeting, Gummersbach, July, 18 - 20, 2004The domestic airline merger phenomenon of the late 1980s and early 1990s sparked a great deal of Industrial Organization literature; yet, that literature neglected non-US merger activity and the potential for international competitive incentives. Using an International Business perspective to complement a primarily Industrial Organization analysis, I argue that factoring international competitive gains helps explain the domestic airline merger phenomenon. A Cournot model of airline competition illustrates the international incentives behind integrating domestic with international routes and behind acquiring domestic competitors. Further, comprehensive panel data tests also support large domestic networks and actual mergers improving the international competitiveness of airlines

Government Failure in Urban Transportation

This paper assesses governmental performance in its investment, provision and regulation of urban transportation. Attention is given to public bus and rail transit and road transportation. Evidence based on urban transport in US cities reveals substantial allocative and technical inefficiencies that have led to large public transit deficits and severe highway congestion. I argue that it is futile to expect public officials to remedy the situation by pursuing more efficient policies such as congestion pricing and weighing costs and benefits when deciding transit service. The problem is that urban transportation policy is largely shaped by entrenched political forces that inhibit constructive change. The only realistic way to improve the system is to shield it from those influences and expose it to market forces by privatising it. This position is supported by empirical evidence based on simulations for the US and the UK’s early experience with privatisation.

Anti-Competitive Marketing Practices in the Airline Industry

Consumers, airlines and the economy as a whole have benefited from airline deregulation. Government regulation was replaced by competition as the protector of the consumers. Airlines continue to pursue marketing strategies which reduce competition and as act as barriers to new entrants. This paper reviews some of those strategies and suggest actions by which policy makers might encourage competition

The determinants of direct air fares to Cleveland: how competitive?

Using a model developed to examine the determinants of air fares, the authors discuss the relationship between airline industry competitiveness and fare increases.Airlines ; Competition ; Cleveland (Ohio)

Liberalization and Deregulation in the Domestic Shipping Industry: Effects on Competition and Market Structure

The author, at the outset of her study on shipping transport, rightly states the importance of this industry in an archipelagic country. However, the industry remains inefficient, despite policy reforms enacted in the 1990s which aimed at liberalizing and deregulating the industry. Though these reforms did improve services through increased competition and the entry of new service providers, this occurs on only a fraction of routes and the largest handful of companies effectively dominate the bigger part of the market, and, in the process, show indications of cartel behavior. The author stresses that the next steps for reform include preparing local shipping firms for the global competition that full liberalization will bring, and which stands to yield hoped-for efficiencies and improvements.competition, liberalization, shipping industry, deregulation, interisland liner shipping industry