Natural Monopoly and Railway Policy in the Nineteenth Century

James Foreman-Peck

Oxford Economic Papers, 1987, vol. 39, issue 4, 699-718

Abstract: Competition in the British railway system had burnt itself out by the end of the nineteenth century. Regression estimates of a cost fun ction based upon the 1865 railway returns are consistent with the ind ustry being a natural monopoly in which a number of firms were compet ing. The national railway system was not provided at the lowest cost. Analysis of two cross-national data sets implies the regulatory syst ems of other nations, which generally entailed monopolization and nat ionalization, generated lower railway capital costs than did that of the United Kingdom. Copyright 1987 by Royal Economic Society.

Date: 1987
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