The recent trend to deregulate industries has raised the question of whether deregulation means decreased safety. This book considers the question with regard to the airline and motor freight industries.
Transportation Policy and Economic Regulation: Essays in Honor of Theodore Keeler addresses a number of today's important transportation policy issues, exploring a variety of transportation modes, and examining the policy implications of a number of alternatives. Theodore Keeler had a distinguished career in transportation economics, helping to shape regulatory policies concerning the transportation industries and assessing the appropriateness of various policies. A distinguishing feature of his work is that it always had policy implications. As a tribute to Theodore Keeler, this book examines transportation policy issues across a variety of transportation industries, including aviation, railroads, highways, motor carrier transport, automobiles, urban transit, and ocean shipping. The book evaluates the economic impact and effectiveness of various policies, employing empirical analyses and new estimation techniques, such as Bayesian analysis. The book is designed for transportation professionals and researchers, as well as transportation economics students, providing an in-depth analysis of some of today's important transportation policy issues. Policy changes established in the last 35-40 years have introduced profound changes in the business environment of the transportation industry. Past policy changes promoted the free market's role in setting prices and determining service availability. While 21st century policy has focused on a variety of other issues, such as safety, road and air congestion, productivity growth, labor relations and exhaust emission, many still promote the role of competition. In addition to examining various transportation policy issues in the U.S., the book explores some approaches to dealing with transportation issues in different parts of the world. Contemporary transportation policy debates have broadened from their initial focus of primarily examining the merits of reforming economic regulations at national levels, to now examining a variety of issues such as alternative methods of social regulation (such as safety regulation and emission controls), new approaches to changing economic regulations, the potential for reforming international regulations, and the appropriate role for government in transportation. - Examines transportation policy developments across a variety of modes, including some international analysis - Shows how new policy changes, such as changes in regulation, affect overall transportation system performance - Features chapters that use innovative methodologies, such as Bayesian techniques, qualitative analysis, and an attribute-incorporated Malmquist productivity index - Examines the ways that policy impacts depend on a variety of factors, and shows how economic tools can be used to gain greater insights into the likely impacts of policy and the desirability of various policies - Analyzes transport prices, quality of service, safety, the use of information technology and operating issues, highlighting how transportation enhances quality of life
In 1938 the U.S. Government took under its wing an infant airline industry. Government agencies assumed responsibility not only for airline safety but for setting fares and determining how individual markets would be served. Forty years later, the Airline Deregulation Act of 1978 set in motion the economic deregulation of the industry and opened it to market competition. This study by Steven Morrison and Clifford Winston analyzes the effects of deregulation on both travelers and the airline industry. The authors find that lower fares and better service have netted travelers some $6 billion in annual benefits, while airline earnings have increased by $2.5 billion a year. Morrison and Winston expect still greater benefits once the industry has had time to adjust its capital structure to the unregulated marketplace, and they recommend specific public polices to ensure healthy competition.
The author discusses the question of federal preemption of intrastate transportation and the experience of intrastate deregulation in some states. He examines the issue of whether more deregulation is in the public interest and, if economic deregulation is to be retained, what form it should take. The author's summary and conclusions can be the basis for study of the effects of economic deregulation in the transportation industry. This book can be a resource for executives dealing with deregulation in such industries as: transportation, telecommunications, broadcasting, electric utilities, cable television, oil and gas, and securities and banking. Defense Transportation Journal This book provides a comprehensive assessment of the social nd economic consequences of one of America's most important infrastructure industries--transportation. Dr. Dempsey traces the legal and political movement from regulation to deregulation. He proceeds to review the empirical results of a decade of deregulation upon airlines, railroads, trucking, and bus companies, and the effects of deregulation upon the shipping and traveling public that rely upon them. The book begins with an analysis of the events that led our nation to establish a regime of economic regulation upon the transportation industry. It also examines the metamorphosis toward deregulation and focuses on several areas in which there has been a significant adverse impact, including economic efficiency, pricing, service, and safety. Dempsey's book addresses the question of federal preemption of intrastate transportation and the experience of intrastate deregulation in some states. Dempsey further examines the issue of whether more deregulation is in the public interest and, if economic regulation is to be retained, what form it should take. The book concludes with an analysis of the public interest in transportation, focusing upon the policy objectives essential in accomplishing social and economic goals beyond allocative efficiency. This book is a necessary resource for executives dealing with deregulation in such industries as: transportation, telecommunications, broadcasting, electric utilities, cable television, oil and gas, and securities and banking.
Long hours, low wages, and unsafe workplaces characterized sweatshops a hundred years ago. These same conditions plague American trucking today. Sweatshops on Wheels: Winners and Losers in Trucking Deregulation exposes the dark side of government deregulation in America's interstate trucking industry. In the years since deregulation in 1980, median earnings have dropped 30% and most long-haul truckers earn less than half of pre-regulation wages. Work weeks average more than sixty hours. Today, America's long-haul truckers are working harder and earning less than at any time during the last four decades. Written by a former long-haul trucker who now teaches industrial relations at Wayne State University, Sweatshops on Wheels raises crucial questions about the legacy of trucking deregulation in America and casts provocative new light on the issue of government deregulation in general.
"Proposes experiments in deregulating and privatizing the country's transportation systems to rid them of inefficiencies and significantly improve their performance in moving goods and people around the United States; the book covers roads, airports and airport traffic control, mass transit, intercity buses and railway networks"--Provided by publisher.
In 1980 Congress voted to eliminate the federal system of protective regulation over the powerful trucking industry, despite fierce opposition. This upset marked a rare example in American politics of diffuse public interests winning out over powerful economic lobbies. In Braking the Special Interests Dorothy Robyn draws upon firsthand observations of formal proceedings and behind-the-scenes maneuverings to illuminate the role of political strategy in the landmark trucking battle. Robyn focuses her analysis on four elements of strategy responsible for the deregulator's victory—elements that are essential, she argues, to any successful policy battle against entrenched special interests: the effective use of economic data and analysis to make a strong case for the merits of reform; the formation and management of a diverse lobbying coalition of firms and interest groups; presidential bargaining to gain political leverage; and transition schemes to reduce uncertainty and cushion the blow to losers. Drawing on political and economic theory, Braking the Special Interests is an immensely rich and readable study of political strategy and skill, with general insights relevant to current political battles surrounding trade, agriculture, and tax policies. Robyn's interdisciplinary work will be of great value to scholars and practitioners of politics, economics, and public policy.
The American public has a fascination with railroad wrecks that goes back a long way. One hundred years ago, staged railroad accidents were popular events. At the Iowa State fair in 1896, 89,000 people paid $20 each, at current prices, to see two trains, throttles wide open, collide with each other. "Head-on Joe" Connolly made a business out of "cornfield meets" holding seventy-three events in thirty-six years. Picture books of train wrecks do good business presumably because a train wreck can guarantee a spectacular destruction of property without the messy loss of life associated with aircraft accidents. A "train wreck" has also entered the popular vocabulary in a most unusual way. When political manoeuvering leads to failure to pass the federal budget, and a shutdown is likely of government services, this is widely called a "train wreck. " In business and team sports, bumbling and lack of coordination leading to a spectacular and public failure to perform is also called "causing a train wreck. " A person or organization who is disorganized may be labelled a "train wreck. " It is therefore not surprising that the public perception of the safety of railroads centers on images of twisted metal and burning tank cars, and a general feeling that these events occur quite often. After a series of railroad accidents, such as occurred in the winter of 1996 or the summer of 1997, there are inevitable calls that government "should do something.
Effects of Deregulation on Safety provides a comprehensive overview of the safety experiences of these three case study industries and their implications for the U.S. nuclear power industry. The treatment of the subject is not highly technical, and hence is accessible to a wide range of readers with interests in the subject matter. The book draws on literature from roughly 250 references, ranging from brief news articles to book-length studies of deregulation in a particular industry, as well as original in-depth interviews with representatives of all three case study industries. This wealth of empirical background information allows the book to go beyond mere speculation about the possible adverse safety consequences of deregulation, to identify situations in which particular adverse safety consequences actually occurred. The experience of the case study industries indicates that economic deregulation need not be incompatible with a reasonable safety record, especially in those aspects of safety that are positively related to productivity. But that safety also cannot be taken for granted after deregulation. Careful management attention is needed in order to avoid the types of safety problems that were associated with deregulation in the case study industries.