Airline deregulation is a failure, conclude Professors Dempsey and Goetz. They assault the conventional wisdom in this provocative book, finding that the Airline Deregulation Act of 1978, championed by a profound political movement which also advocated the deregulation of the bus, trucking, rail, and pipeline industries, failed to achieve the promises of its proponents. Only now is the full impact of deregulation being felt. Airline deregulation has resulted in unprecedented industry concentration, miserable service, a deterioration in labor-management relations, a narrower margin of safety, and higher prices for the consumer.

This comprehensive book begins by exploring the strategy, tactics, and egos of the major airline robber barons, including Frank Lorenzo and Carl Icahn. In separate chapters, the strengths, weaknesses, and corporate cultures of each of the major airlines are evaluated. Part Two assesses the political, economic, and social justifications for New Deal regulation of aviation, and its deregulation in the late 1970s. Part Three then addresses the major consequences of deregulation in chapters on concentration, pricing, service, and safety, and Part Four advances a legislative agenda for solving the problems that have emerged. Professors Dempsey and Goetz advocate a middle course of responsible government supervision between the dead hand of regulation of the 1930s and the contemporary evil of market Darwinism. The book will be of particular interest to airline and airport industry executives, government officials, and students and scholars in public policy, economics, business, political science, and transportation.

The author discusses the question of federal preemption of intrastate transportation and the experience of intrastate deregulation in some states. He examines the issue of whether more deregulation is in the public interest and, if economic deregulation is to be retained, what form it should take. The author's summary and conclusions can be the basis for study of the effects of economic deregulation in the transportation industry. This book can be a resource for executives dealing with deregulation in such industries as: transportation, telecommunications, broadcasting, electric utilities, cable television, oil and gas, and securities and banking. "Defense Transportation Journal"

This book provides a comprehensive assessment of the social nd economic consequences of one of America's most important infrastructure industries--transportation. Dr. Dempsey traces the legal and political movement from regulation to deregulation. He proceeds to review the empirical results of a decade of deregulation upon airlines, railroads, trucking, and bus companies, and the effects of deregulation upon the shipping and traveling public that rely upon them.

The book begins with an analysis of the events that led our nation to establish a regime of economic regulation upon the transportation industry. It also examines the metamorphosis toward deregulation and focuses on several areas in which there has been a significant adverse impact, including economic efficiency, pricing, service, and safety. Dempsey's book addresses the question of federal preemption of intrastate transportation and the experience of intrastate deregulation in some states. Dempsey further examines the issue of whether more deregulation is in the public interest and, if economic regulation is to be retained, what form it should take. The book concludes with an analysis of the public interest in transportation, focusing upon the policy objectives essential in accomplishing social and economic goals beyond allocative efficiency. This book is a necessary resource for executives dealing with deregulation in such industries as: transportation, telecommunications, broadcasting, electric utilities, cable television, oil and gas, and securities and banking.

Dempsey and Thoms provide an authoritative overview of the development of transportation law in the America in the last century. They trace the development of American transportation (including railroads, pipelines, water transport, motor carriers, and airlines), the origins of economic regulation, the changing role of regulators, and the effects of deregulation. Economic regulations are separated into three areas: policing entry and exit from transportation, efforts to keep rates just, reasonable, and nondiscriminatory, and mergers, consolidations, antitrust, and other issues. The limitation of loss, damage, and other tort suits against carriers by legislation is also considered. Other chapters review government operation of railroads from Amtrak and Conrail to commuter trains and local freight lines, the Railway Labor Act and other labor legislation pertinent to the transportation industry, and the sponsorship of urban mass transit by the federal government.