The European railway industry continues to undergo reform and liberalization due to European law incentives. Recent events in Italy give the country a special place in this process: a new competitor has commenced operations in the high-speed rail (HSR) market based on a private initiative. This...

The political unification of Italy in 1861 led to the establishment of a single market, by removing the trade barriers across the pre-existing states, with a single currency. Market integration was the economic outcome of this process. At the same time, the Kingdom of Italy started a large...

The global experience with economic regulation shows that many industries which are subjected to economic regulation are characterised by persistent monopolistic features in at least some of the industry segments. Under such conditions, one or a few firms generally retain a monopolistic or...

This paper studies the role played by politics in shaping the Italian railway network, and its impact on long-run growth patterns. Examining a large state-planned railway expansion that took place during the second half of the 19th century in a recently unified country, we first study how both...

Mit der zum 1. Januar 1994 in Kraft getretenen Bahnstrukturreform wurde der Bahnbetrieb in Deutschland in eine private Rechtsreform überführt. Die neugegründete Deutsche Bahn AG (DBAG) wurde in die Sparten Fahrweg, Güterverkehr, Personenfernverkehr und Personennahverkehr unterteilt und von...