In recent years there has been a surge of interest in private toll roads as an alternative to public free-access road infrastructure. Private toll roads have gained favour for a variety of reasons, including theirpotential to alleviate traffic congestion, shrinking public funds for road...

We consider a market in which a public firm competes against private firms, and ask what happens when the public firm is privatized. In the short run, privatization is harmful because all prices rise; the disciplinary role of the public firm is lost. In the long run, privatization leads to...