Infrastructure dominance in short-haul air transport markets

En este trabajo, se analiza cómo una compañía aérea puede beneficiarse del dominio de una red de aeropuertos en un mercado caracterizado por rutas de corto radio y congestión. Se estima un sistema de ecuaciones para el mercado español de transporte aéreo. Los resultados muestran que los beneficios del dominio aeroportuario, tanto en términos de demanda como de coste, son consecuencia de ofrecer una frecuencia de servicio elevada. Una frecuencia elevada permite ofrecer mayores descuentos en las clases de tarifas para viajeros por motivos personales y, a su vez, establecer precios más elevados en las clases de tarifas para viajeros por negocios. Tales beneficios pueden perjudicar la posición competitiva de aquellas aerolíneas con presencia limitada en los aeropuertos. De ahí que una asignación equilibrada del espacio en los aeropuertos sea crucial para garantizar la competencia.Competencia, transporte aéreo, modelos de ecuaciones simultáneas.

DOES AIRLINE COMPETITION WORK IN SHORT-HAUL MARKETS?

In this paper, we analyze how an airline can take advantage of airport dominance of a whole network in a market characterized by short-haul routes and congestion. In order to tackle this issue, we estimate an equation system, which is based on theoretical grounds, for the Spanish domestic market. We find that costs and demand benefits of airport dominance have to do with providing a high flight frequency. Such benefits can damage seriously the effectiveness of competition as long as the competitive status of major airline’s rivals is threatened.Air Transportation, Multiple Equation Models, Oligopoly.

Measuring Conduct and Cost Parameters in the Spanish Air Transport Market

This paper estimates a model of airline competition for the Spanish air transport market. I test the explanatory power of alternative oligopoly models with capacity constraints. In addition, I analyse the degree of density economies. Results show that Spanish airlines conduct follows a price-leadership scheme so that it is less competitive than the Cournot solution. I also find evidence that thin routes can be considered as natural monopolies.multiple equation models, air transportation, oligopoly

Privatization and competition in the delivery of local services: An empirical examination of the dual market hypothesis

This paper empirically analyses the hypothesis of the existence of a dual market for contracts in local services. Large firms that operate on a national basis control the contracts for delivery in the most populated and/or urban municipalities, whereas small firms that operate at a local level have the contracts in the least populated and/or rural municipalities. The dual market implies the high concentration and dominance of major firms in large municipalities, and local monopolies in the smaller ones. This market structure is harmful to competition for the market as the effective number of competitors is low across all municipalities. Thus, it damages the likelihood of obtaining cost savings from privatization.Competition, Concentration, Local Services, Privatization.

Choosing hybrid organizations for local servicesdelivery: An empirical analysis of partial privatization

The empirical literature about factors explaining local government delivery choices has traditionally focused the attention on the public or private production dilemma. However, hybrid organizational forms such as mixed public-private firms are increasingly used in several European countries. This paper makes use of survey data from Spanish municipalities to examine motivations of local governments for engaging in hybrid organizational forms. Data refer to two very relevant local services: water distribution and solid waste collection. The empirical analysis indicates that the use of mixed firms emerge as a type of pragmatically based ‘third way’ between pure public and pure private production. Indeed, local governments make use of mixed firms when cost considerations (scale economies, transaction costs and so on), financial constraints and private interests exert contradictory pressures. On the contrary, political and ideological factors do not play any significant role on the local government decision of engaging or not in joint ventures with private partners.Partial privatization, local governments

INTERCONTINENTAL FLIGTHS FROM EUROPEAN AIRPORTS: TOWARDS HUB CONCENTRATION OR NOT?

This paper empirically analyzes changes in the supply of non-stop intercontinental flights from European airports. We take advantage of OAG data for air services from a rich sample of European airports to intercontinental destinations in the period 2004-2008. Results of the empirical analysis indicate a tendency towards a more balanced distribution of intercontinental flights across European airports. We also find that the demographic size of a region, its sector specialization, the political role of its central city and the proportion of connecting traffic explain the amount of and changes in long-haul air services supplied from European airports.airports, air transportation, intercontinental flights

Does privatization spur regulation?Evidence from the regulatory reform of European airports

This paper conducts an empirical analysis of the relationship between privatization and regulation drawing on data from a wide sample of European airports. We find that privatization promotes a shift from basic regulation to a situation of more detailed or non-regulation, depending on the specific characteristics of the privatization process and on the type of airport being privatized. Moreover, we report a significant association between high traffic volumes and more detailed regulation. By contrast, airports where slot allocation is noncoordinated are significantly associated with non-regulation.Privatization; regulation; air transportation; airports JEL classification: L33; L42; L93;

Getting there fast: Globalization, intercontinental flights and location of headquarters

Information exchanges across firms within cities are considered to be one of the major agglomeration forces in the regional economics literature. In addition, the quality of transport infrastructures arises as one of the major determinants in the location decisions of firms across cities and hence on urban economic growth. However, the significance of information exchanges between cities and the role of airports as a mean of managing such information efficiently has received much less attention. We deal with these issues through the empirical analysis of the determinants of the location of large firms´ headquarters across major European urban areas, focusing the attention on the attractiveness of a city for large firms due to the supply of non-stop intercontinental flights.Headquarters, Airports, Information.

Ownership, Incentives and Hospitals

This article analyzes hospital privatization by comparing costs and quality between different ownership forms. We put the attention on the distinction between public hospitals and private hospitals with public funding. Using information about Spanish hospitals, we have found that private hospitals provide services at a lower cost at expenses of lower quality. We observe that property rights theory is fulfilled at least for the Spanish hospital market. The way that Heath Authorities finance publicly funded hospitals may be responsible for the differences in incentives between public and private centers. We argue that the trade-off between costs and quality could be minimized by designing financing contracts with fixed and variable components.Privatization, Hospitals, Costs, Quality. JEL classification:I11; L15; L33

Local privatization, intermunicipal cooperation,transaction costs and political interests: Evidence from Spain

Several empirical studies have analyzed the factors that influence local privatization. Variables related to fiscal stress, cost reduction, political processes and ideological attitudes are the most common explanatory variables used in these studies. In this paper, we add to this literature by examining the influence of transaction costs and political factors on local governments’ choices through new variables. In addition to this, we consider the role of additional aspects, such as intermunicipal cooperation as a potential alternative to privatization in order to exploit scale economies or scope economies. We consider two relevant services: solid waste collection and water distribution. Results from our estimates show that privatization (that is, contracting out to a private firm) is less common for water distribution than for solid waste collection. Higher transaction costs in water distribution are consistent with this finding. Furthermore, we find that municipalities with a conservative ruling party privatize more often regardless of the ideological orientation of the constituency. This shows that those political interests able to influence local elections are more important in determining the form of delivery than is the basic ideological stance of the constituency. Finally, we find that intermunicipal cooperation is an alternative to local privatization.Privatization, contracting-out, local governments