IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/spd/journl/v64y2014i4p39-66.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The Liberalization process of the Ferry System in Greece, 2001-2014 (August): What are the benefits to users of Aegean Sea Transportation?

Author

Listed:
  • Alexander M. Goulielmos

    (Department of Maritime Studies, Professor Emeritus, University of Piraeus, 85 Karaoli and Dimitriou St., Piraeus 18536, Greece)

  • Ioannis M. Sitzimis

    (Technical University of Crete, Post-doc, School of Production Engineering & Management, Kunupidiana of Cape, Chania 73100)

Abstract

The great deficits created in the pursuit of the Keynesian welfare state led to governmental failure. This increasingly posed a greater risk to financial system than market failure, due to the increasing scale effects. Competition ceases to exist. The operations of markets first described by Adam Smith (1776) and confirmed by Alfred Marshall (1920). As a result of the increasing risk of governmental failure, legal barriers to ‘entry’ removed (liberalization) and private ownership promoted (privatization). Here, we investigate the impact of the ‘liberalization processes of (private)’ ‘Aegean Ferry System’ since 2001, and look at the effect on passenger fares and private cars freight rates under ‘free entry’. Quality of service was never regulated…We showed the existence of increasing returns to scale in the ferry system and in the individual ship, basing our arguments on empirical data and on theory. The fixed cost of the ferry system is 68%, indicating failure of the ferry market, when prices had to be determined by marginal cost leading to operational losses, since average cost is twice greater than marginal cost. Despite the hopes of the users that Greek Aegean ferry system’s liberalization would lead to reduction in fares and freight rates, this did not happen. Reforms paralleled those in air transport in USA, and a similar “hub and spoke” network system proposed and adopted careless by Greece, following the ÓÅÈÁÌ study. Fares and private car freight rates rose in a series of waves, owners frequently blaming the rising oil prices…

Suggested Citation

  • Alexander M. Goulielmos & Ioannis M. Sitzimis, 2014. "The Liberalization process of the Ferry System in Greece, 2001-2014 (August): What are the benefits to users of Aegean Sea Transportation?," SPOUDAI Journal of Economics and Business, SPOUDAI Journal of Economics and Business, University of Piraeus, vol. 64(4), pages 39-66, October-D.
  • Handle: RePEc:spd:journl:v:64:y:2014:i:4:p:39-66
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://spoudai.unipi.gr/index.php/spoudai/article/download/117/207/117-582-1-PB.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Blaug,Mark, 1997. "Economic Theory in Retrospect," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9780521577014.
    2. David R. Graham & Daniel P. Kaplan & David S. Sibley, 1983. "Efficiency and Competition in the Airline Industry," Bell Journal of Economics, The RAND Corporation, vol. 14(1), pages 118-138, Spring.
    3. Alfred E. Kahn, 1988. "The Economics of Regulation: Principles and Institutions," MIT Press Books, The MIT Press, edition 1, volume 1, number 0262610523, April.
    4. Alexander M. Goulielmos * & Androniki Gatzoli, 2004. "An analysis of the pricing system in the Greek--Italian coastal routes," Maritime Policy & Management, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 31(4), pages 269-285, October.
    5. Helm, Dieter & Jenkinson, Tim (ed.), 1998. "Competition in Regulated Industries," OUP Catalogue, Oxford University Press, number 9780198292524.
    6. Peter E. Earl, 1995. "Microeconomics for Business and Marketing," Books, Edward Elgar Publishing, number 159.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Ioannis Sitzimis, 2021. "An Optimal Forecasting Method of Passenger Traffic in Greek Coastal Shipping," International Journal of Business and Economic Sciences Applied Research (IJBESAR), International Hellenic University (IHU), Kavala Campus, Greece (formerly Eastern Macedonia and Thrace Institute of Technology - EMaTTech), vol. 14(3), pages 72-87, December.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Tomasz Grodzicki & Mateusz Jankiewicz, 2020. "Forecasting the Level of Unemployment, Inflation and Wages: The Case of Sweden," European Research Studies Journal, European Research Studies Journal, vol. 0(Special 2), pages 400-409.
    2. Cherry, Barbara A., 2014. "Historical mutilation: How misuse of 'public utility and 'natural monopoly' misdirects US telecommunications policy development," 20th ITS Biennial Conference, Rio de Janeiro 2014: The Net and the Internet - Emerging Markets and Policies 106881, International Telecommunications Society (ITS).
    3. Brett M. Frischmann & Christiaan Hogendorn, 2015. "Retrospectives: The Marginal Cost Controversy," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 29(1), pages 193-206, Winter.
    4. SangHyun Cheon & Dong-Wook Song & Sungjin Park, 2018. "Does more competition result in better port performance?," Maritime Economics & Logistics, Palgrave Macmillan;International Association of Maritime Economists (IAME), vol. 20(3), pages 433-455, September.
    5. Niklas S. Dürr & Kai Hüschelrath, 2017. "Deregulation and the determinants of network access: evidence from the German interurban bus industry," Applied Economics Letters, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 24(13), pages 950-955, July.
    6. Su, Huei-Chun & Colander, David, 2021. "The Economist As Scientist, Engineer, Or Plumber?," Journal of the History of Economic Thought, Cambridge University Press, vol. 43(2), pages 297-312, June.
    7. Hans Schenk, 1996. "Bandwagon mergers, international competitiveness, and government policy," Empirica, Springer;Austrian Institute for Economic Research;Austrian Economic Association, vol. 23(3), pages 255-278, October.
    8. Pettus, Michael L. & Kor, Yasemin Y. & Mahoney, Joseph T., 2007. "A Theory of Change in Turbulent Environments: The Sequencing of Dynamic Capabilities Following Industry Deregulation," Working Papers 07-0100, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, College of Business.
    9. Martijn Van Den Hurk & Koen Verhoest, 2016. "The challenge of using standard contracts in public-private partnerships," Public Management Review, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 18(2), pages 278-299, February.
    10. Daron Acemoglu & James A. Robinson, 2015. "The Rise and Decline of General Laws of Capitalism," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 29(1), pages 3-28, Winter.
    11. Parker, David, 2001. "Economic Regulation: A Preliminary Literature Review and Summary of Research Questions Arising," Centre on Regulation and Competition (CRC) Working papers 30616, University of Manchester, Institute for Development Policy and Management (IDPM).
    12. Ogus, Anthony, 2001. "Regulatory Institutions and Structures," Centre on Regulation and Competition (CRC) Working papers 30704, University of Manchester, Institute for Development Policy and Management (IDPM).
    13. Nancy L. Rose, 2014. "Learning from the Past: Insights for the Regulation of Economic Activity," NBER Chapters, in: Economic Regulation and Its Reform: What Have We Learned?, pages 1-23, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    14. Audretsch, David B. & Baumol, William J. & Burke, Andrew E., 2001. "Competition policy in dynamic markets," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 19(5), pages 613-634, April.
    15. Yvrande-Billon, Anne & Menard, Claude, 2005. "Institutional constraints and organizational changes: the case of the British rail reform," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 56(4), pages 675-699, April.
    16. Blayac, Thierry & Bougette, Patrice, 2017. "Should I go by bus? The liberalization of the long-distance bus industry in France," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 56(C), pages 50-62.
    17. Richard V. Butler & John H. Huston, 1989. "Merger Mania and Airline Fares," Eastern Economic Journal, Eastern Economic Association, vol. 15(1), pages 7-16, Jan-Mar.
    18. Pedro Bento, 2014. "Competition as a Discovery Procedure: Schumpeter Meets Hayek in a Model of Innovation," American Economic Journal: Macroeconomics, American Economic Association, vol. 6(3), pages 124-152, July.
    19. Bahram Adrangi & Garland Chow & Kambiz Raffiee, 1999. "The Effects of Market Structure and Technology on Airline Fleet Composition after Deregulation," Review of Industrial Organization, Springer;The Industrial Organization Society, vol. 15(1), pages 77-88, August.
    20. Khalid Iqbal, 2017. "Welfare Economics: A Story of Existence," Romanian Economic Journal, Department of International Business and Economics from the Academy of Economic Studies Bucharest, vol. 20(64), pages 75-83, June.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Liberalization of the Greek Aegean Ferry system; Fares and freight rates; increasing returns to scale;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D4 - Microeconomics - - Market Structure, Pricing, and Design
    • L1 - Industrial Organization - - Market Structure, Firm Strategy, and Market Performance
    • R49 - Urban, Rural, Regional, Real Estate, and Transportation Economics - - Transportation Economics - - - Other

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:spd:journl:v:64:y:2014:i:4:p:39-66. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: SPOUDAI Journal of Economics and Business (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/depirgr.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.