American inland waterway transport is subject to a complicated system of control by government agencies, which require knowledge of costs. Inland waterway costs have fallen slightly, and a large share of the market has come into the hands of a small number of firms. The authors find increasing returns to scale for size of firm and output.
The road damage externality is much more important than the urban congestion problem in less developed countries, in sharp contrast to the experience of the developed countries. There is no justification for petrol taxes to exceed the taxes imposed on diesel fuel.
This paper reports on the estimation of a cost function using pooled data for major US railroads for the period of 1974-86. Analysis is performed of short and long-run returns to scale, the extent of capital disequilibrium, and the adjustments to capital in the heavily regulated and quasi-regulated environments before and after the passage of the Staggers Act in 1980. It is found that there is considerable overcapitalisation in the rail industry and that this has persisted in spite of the Act.
