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The Measurement of Transaction Costs - Evidence from European Railways

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  • Rico Merkert
  • Andrew S. J. Smith
  • Chris A. Nash

Abstract

Whether transaction costs increase following full vertical separation of railways has been the subject of much debate, but there is still little quantitative evidence on this question. This paper applies a bottom-up approach to compute transaction costs between train operation and infrastructure firms in three European rail systems for the first time (UK, Germany, and Sweden). It finds that although full vertical separation does raise transaction costs, they are at most only around 2 per cent to 3 per cent of total costs. Therefore, only modest benefits of vertical separation - for example, through increased competition - would be needed to outweigh them. © 2012 LSE and the University of Bath

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  • Rico Merkert & Andrew S. J. Smith & Chris A. Nash, 2012. "The Measurement of Transaction Costs - Evidence from European Railways," Journal of Transport Economics and Policy, University of Bath, vol. 46(3), pages 349-365, September.
    • Handle: RePEc:tpe:jtecpo:v:46:y:2012:i:3:p:349-365
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    Cited by:

    1. Gunnar Alexandersson & Matts Andersson & Anders Bondemark & Staffan Hultén, 2023. "Neither market nor hierarchy—coordination costs in the allocation of track capacity in the Swedish railway network," Annals of Public and Cooperative Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 94(1), pages 221-239, March.
    2. Huang, Wencheng & Zhang, Yue & Shuai, Bin & Xu, Minhao & Xiao, Wei & Zhang, Rui & Xu, Yifei, 2019. "China railway industry reform evolution approach: Based on the Vertical Separation Model," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 130(C), pages 546-556.
    3. Desmaris, Christian, 2014. "The reform of passenger rail in Switzerland: More performance without competition," Research in Transportation Economics, Elsevier, vol. 48(C), pages 290-297.
    4. José A. Gómez-Ibáñez, 2016. "Open Access to Infrastructure Networks: The Experience of Railroads," Review of Industrial Organization, Springer;The Industrial Organization Society, vol. 49(2), pages 311-345, September.
    5. Nakamura, Eri & Sakai, Hiroki & Shoji, Kenichi, 2018. "Managerial transfers to reduce transaction costs among affiliated firms: Case study of Japanese railway holding companies," Utilities Policy, Elsevier, vol. 53(C), pages 102-110.
    6. Mizutani, Fumitoshi, 2020. "A comparison of vertical structural types in the railway industry: A simple mathematical explanation model," Research in Transportation Economics, Elsevier, vol. 81(C).
    7. Christian Desmaris & Guillaume Monchambert, 2021. "Regional Passenger Rail Efficiency: Measurement and Explanation in the case of France," Working Papers halshs-03118747, HAL.
    8. Steffen Juranek, 2016. "Creating a National Champion: International Competition and Unbundling in Rail Transportation," Journal of Transport Economics and Policy, University of Bath, vol. 50(1), pages 56-75, January.
    9. Nash, Chris A. & Smith, Andrew S.J. & van de Velde, Didier & Mizutani, Fumitoshi & Uranishi, Shuji, 2014. "Structural reforms in the railways: Incentive misalignment and cost implications," Research in Transportation Economics, Elsevier, vol. 48(C), pages 16-23.
    10. Merkert, Rico & Hakim, Md Mahbubul, 2022. "Travel agency transaction costs in airline value chains – A risk in distribution channels in South Asia?," Annals of Tourism Research, Elsevier, vol. 95(C).
    11. Emmanuel, Bougna Tchofo & Crozet, Yves, 2014. "Beyond the “bundling vs unbundling” controversy: What is at stake for the French railway?," Research in Transportation Economics, Elsevier, vol. 48(C), pages 393-400.
    12. DE BORGER, Bruno & PROOST, Stef, 2015. "Tax and regulatory policies for European transport - getting there, but in the slow lane," Working Papers 2015009, University of Antwerp, Faculty of Business and Economics.
    13. Merkert, Rico & Hensher, David A., 2014. "Open access for railways and transaction cost economics – Management perspectives of Australia's rail companies," Research in Transportation Economics, Elsevier, vol. 48(C), pages 227-236.
    14. Fumitoshi Mizutani & Andrew Smith & Chris Nash & Shuji Uranishi, 2015. "Comparing the Costs of Vertical Separation, Integration, and Intermediate Organisational Structures in European and East Asian Railways," Journal of Transport Economics and Policy, University of Bath, vol. 49(3), pages 496-515, July.
    15. Andersson, Matts & Hultén, Staffan, 2016. "Transaction and transition costs during the deregulation of the Swedish Railway market," Research in Transportation Economics, Elsevier, vol. 59(C), pages 349-357.
    16. Lerida-Navarro, Carlos & Nombela, Gustavo & Tranchez-Martin, Jose M., 2019. "European railways: Liberalization and productive efficiency," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 83(C), pages 57-67.
    17. Christian Desmaris & Guillaume Monchambert, 2021. "Regional Passenger Rail Efficiency: Measurement and Explanation in the case of France," Post-Print halshs-03118747, HAL.
    18. Nakamura, Eri & Sakai, Hiroki, 2020. "Does vertical integration facilitate coordination between infrastructure management and train operating units in the rail sector? Implications for Japanese railways," Utilities Policy, Elsevier, vol. 66(C).
    19. Benedetto, Valerio & Smith, Andrew S.J. & Nash, Chris A., 2017. "Evaluating the roles and powers of rail regulatory bodies in Europe: A survey-based approach," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 59(C), pages 116-123.
    20. Volodymyr Bobyl & Oleksii Matusevych & Maryna Dron & Artem Taranenko, 2024. "The concept of forming a system of change management in the domain of railroad passenger transportation in Ukraine under the conditions of war," Eastern-European Journal of Enterprise Technologies, PC TECHNOLOGY CENTER, vol. 1(13 (127)), pages 14-21, February.
    21. Chris Nash, 2013. "Rail transport," Chapters, in: Mattias Finger & Torben Holvad (ed.), Regulating Transport in Europe, chapter 3, pages 61-81, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    22. Merkert, Rico & Nash, Chris A., 2013. "Investigating European railway managers’ perception of transaction costs at the train operation/infrastructure interface," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 54(C), pages 14-25.

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