Incluye bibliografía.

Foreword -- Contributors -- Introduction and summary / José Carbajo -- 1. Regulatory reform of transport / Thomas Gale Moore -- 2. Deregulation of shipping: lessons from Chile / Esra Bennathan -- 3. The evolution of railroad regulation in the United States / Louis Thompson -- 4. The recovery of the railroad in Uruguay / Juan Berchesi -- 5. Bus deregulation in the United Kingdom / Stephen Galister -- 6. Transit bus privatization and deregulation around the world: some perspectives and lessons / John R. Meyer and José A. Gómez-Ibañez -- 7. The political framework of regulatory reform of transport enterprises: bus and truck deregulation in Chile / Robert T. Brown -- 8. Trucking deregulation in Mexico / Arturo Fernández -- 9. The case of trucking in Sub-Saharan Africa: what deregulation? / Alain Bonnafous.

The markets for transport services have been traditionally the subject of government regulation and public ownership. Rate regulation in the railways, entry restriction in the trucking industry, minimum levels of service for urban buses and cargo reservation for shipping are examples of regulatory controls on transport that have been promoted in many circumstances worldwide. The economic model that supports such regulations in all transport modes had been based on the belief that, under some circumstances, private markets fail to provide transport services in the most efficient manner. Theoretically, this same model takes for granted that government intervention is flawless. It is not at all clear, however, that the government cure works better than the private market illness. The belief that government intervention may produce more welfare losses than the absence of any intervention has been the driving force behind the movement for reform in transport which started in the late 1970s. The contributions in this report attempt to capture the most important aspects of that regulatory trade-off between the social costs of market failure and the costs of correcting them via government intervention and public ownership. Two interrelated issues are at the center of the debate: whether government intervention is better than the absence of any intervention; and if some regulation is necessary, what should be the scope and content of such regulation.This debate is particularly relevant for developing countries where the inefficient delivery of transport services is a major obstacle to productivity growth and the improvement in the quality of life. Equally important, the regulatory reform of the transport industries is directly related to the efficient provision, operation and management of infrastructure. The analyses and case studies included in this volume, both by practitioners and scholars, provide an account of both issues as they present themselves worldwide.