We analyse the potential for shifting freight transports to the railways in Western and Central Europe. This potential arises for large and concentrated freight flows over long distances of about 300 km or more. However, we show that there are only few such freight flows in Europe, and that they...

The most important policy instruments of the Bundesbank and of the coming European Central Bank involve lending to domestic credit institutions. In this monetary setup, banks use short-term central bank credits extensively in order to refinance long-term loans to the public, which makes them...

This book provides a balanced presentation of international trends in infrastructure regulation and financing. Based on recent developments in microeconomic theory, it comprehensively discusses the role of the state and the private sector in infrastructure provision.

We examine the role of expectations for interest rates on mortgage loans. Our empirical results, based on cointegration tests, indicate a violation of the expectations hypothesis on the German loan market. In contrast to the capital market, a failure of the expectations hypothesis on the loan...

Many utilities are regulated with respect to prices and quality, and there is uncertainty about market conditions when regulation is chosen. We consider four different regulation regimes, based on two-part tariffs: A cap on the fixed fee is combined with either (i) quantity and quality...