Deregulation and the Future of Intercity Passenger Travel

by John R. Meyer, John S. Strong, Clinton V. Oster Jr.

This book surveys the latest changes in the turbulent area of airline deregulation. The authors' third collaboration on the subject, it deals with such current trends and topics as the proliferation of mergers and takeovers and the strategies and tactics involved in price wars and other marketing ventures. At the same time Deregulation and the Future of Intercity Passenger Travel is much more than an update on changes in the airline industry. It studies all the major systems of intercity passenger transportation - automobiles, buses, trains, airplanes - from the point of view of their interdependency. And it extends well beyond recent events to embrace the transportation history of much of this century, discussing the historical precedents and outcomes that have collectively given impetus to the trends in operation today, with special emphasis on the patterns of governmental subsidies and regulations. The authors also forecast probable developments in the next century, examining the impacts of various assumptions about future public policies, changes in technology, demographic patterns, and consumer preferences. The first part of the book focuses on the U.S. experience with airline deregulation, including changes in distribution channels and the travel agency business as well as the effects on airline employees and passengers. The second part takes up the economics of competition among the major modes in intercity travel.

John R. Meyer is James W Harpel Professor of Capital Formation and Economic Growth at Harvard University. Clinton V. Oster, Jr., is Associate Professor at the School of Public and Environmental Affairs and Director of the Transportation Research Center at Indiana University. Deregulation and the Future of Intercity Passenger Travel is fifteenth in the series Regulation of Economic Activity, edited by Richard Schmalensee.

314 pages, Hardcover

First published July 29, 1987