Aviation Markets: Studies in Competition and Regulatory Reform is a collection of 17 papers selected from David Starkie's extensive writings over the last 25 years. Previously published material has been extensively edited and adapted, and combined with new material, published here for the first time. The book is divided into five sections, each featuring an original overview chapter, to better establish the background and also explain the papers' wider significance including, wherever appropriate, their relevance to current policy issues. These papers have been selected to illustrate a significant theme that has been relatively neglected thus far in both aviation and industrial economics: the role of the market and its interplay with the development of economic policy in the context of a dynamic but partly price regulated industry. The result provides a strong flavour of how market mechanisms, and particularly competition, can operate to successfully resolve policy issues. The book will be of interest to academics and those engaged in the formulation of aviation policy, such as public administrators and consultants, as well as those working in the aviation industry. It is also relevant to economic studies in a more general context, particularly to students and practitioners in industrial organisation economics, including those studying and researching the public utility industries.

Inhaltsangabe:Abstract: The contestability hypothesis has extensively been tested for the liberalised US airline markets. Entry barriers render US airline markets non-contestable. However, these studies do not allow an empirically based conclusion whether entry barriers are differently effective in preventing entry. Moreover, since previous studies exhibit no intra-firm perspective, they cannot ascertain whether a particular entry impediment prevents entry equally effective irrespective of potential entrant's characteristics. Comparable studies about the recently liberalised European airline markets are not available. This study fills these gaps by investigating European airline managers' perception of entry barriers. It turn out that some barriers are perceived to be significantly more effective than others. The perception of the effectiveness of a certain entry barrier, however, varies considerably among airline managers. Airlines' and respondents' characteristics contribute to explain this variance. Einleitung: Diese Arbeit untersucht mit Hilfe einer eigenen erhobenen empirischen Basis die Existenz von Markteintrittsbarrieren im europäischen Passagierluftverkehr nach dessen vollständiger Liberalisierung im Jahre 1997. Als Markteintrittsbarrieren werden alle Charakteristika eines an sich gewinnträchtigen Streckenmarktes betrachtet, die eine Fluggesellschaft davon abhalten, in diesen Markt einzutreten. Folgende Forschungsfragen werden beantwortet: - Welche Markteintrittsbarrieren nehmen europäische Fluggesellschaften wahr? - Sind alle Markteintrittsbarrieren aus Sicht der europäischen Airlines gleich wirksam? - Betrachten alle europäischen Fluggesellschaften eine bestimmte Markteintrittsbarriere als gleich wirksam und worauf sind mögliche Unterschiede zurückzuführen? Gang der Untersuchung: Kapitel 1 gibt eine kurze Einführung in die Problemstellung des Themas und definiert die verwendeten Begrifflichkeiten. Kapitel 2 stellt den bereits in den Literatur zugänglichen Wissensstand dar. Zunächst diskutiert es die Grundlagen der Theorie des bestreitbaren Marktes ( contestability theory ). Die praktische Bedeutung von Markteintrittsbarrieren für die Qualität des Wettbewerbs wird verdeutlicht. Anschließend werden die Forschungsmethode und Ergebnisse von 29 Studien zum Test der Contestability Hypothese im nordamerikanischen Luftverkehr vorgestellt. Fast alle dieser Studien weisen Wettbewerbsbeschränkungen aufgrund von Markteintrittsbarrieren in [...]

Prior to liberalization, there was little scope for predatory behaviour in the aviation market. However, following deregulation, new entrants sought to compete with entrenched incumbents. Low-cost carriers (LCCs) gained significant market share, which in turn provoked many different kinds of defensive response. Having put pressure on established carriers, low-cost airlines are themselves feeling the pressure of competition from new operators. While it is normal and natural for airlines to react to competition - modifying their services, the ways in which they offer them and their prices - when does aggressive commercial behaviour go too far and become predation? This book considers what exactly is meant by 'predation' in the aviation environment, and explores the strategies LCCs adopt in order to gain market share, as well as the strategies of the established airlines in response to competition from new entrants to the market. It also addresses the key question of what competition policy should do to ensure intensive competition. Competition versus Predation in Aviation Markets brings together contributions from around the world, from airlines, government agencies, leading academics and consultants, providing a wealth of perspectives on a business practice crucial to airline survival.

The past thirty years have witnessed a transformation of government economic intervention in broad segments of industry throughout the world. Many industries historically subject to economic price and entry controls have been largely deregulated, including natural gas, trucking, airlines, and commercial banking. However, recent concerns about market power in restructured electricity markets, airline industry instability amid chronic financial stress, and the challenges created by the repeal of the Glass-Steagall Act, which allowed commercial banks to participate in investment banking, have led to calls for renewed market intervention. Economic Regulation and Its Reform collects research by a group of distinguished scholars who explore these and other issues surrounding government economic intervention. Determining the consequences of such intervention requires a careful assessment of the costs and benefits of imperfect regulation. Moreover, government interventions may take a variety of forms, from relatively nonintrusive performance-based regulations to more aggressive antitrust and competition policies and barriers to entry. This volume introduces the key issues surrounding economic regulation, provides an assessment of the economic effects of regulatory reforms over the past three decades, and examines how these insights bear on some of today’s most significant concerns in regulatory policy.

Includes a mid-December issue called Buyer guide edition.