Railroad Economics

While railroads may appear to be an old technology, they are, in fact, the original network industry. Railroad rates were once regarded as one of the most fundamental puzzles in Economics, and were studied by the most eminent economists of the time, including J. B. Clark, J. M. Clark, F. Y. Edgeworth, A. C. Pigou and F. W Taussig. The study of railway pricing has played an important role in the development of the economic theory of pricing, and modern theories of multiproduct costing and pricing have their origin in railroad rate theory. The complexity of the underlying technology of multiple capital-intensive operations serving diverse markets at different locations gives rise to difficult economic issues which have resulted in decades of debate. This volume provides original contributions to the study of railroad economics. The contributions address: the evolution of railroad economics; economic theories underlying the restructuring of state-owned railroads; and empirical evidence on railroad costs, freight transportation spatial demand, railroad passenger demand, railroad pricing, trespassing on railroads, impacts railroad abandonment on energy use and pollutant emissions, and the earnings differentials of railroad managers and labor.