Opening Ground Handling Markets to Competition: Effects on Welfare

• Type: Article in International Scientific Journal
• Date: 2012

Authors

Cristina Barbot (Author) FEP

Journal

Title: Transportation Science

Vol. 46 No. 4

Pages: 536-546

ISSN: 0041-1655

Publisher: Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences

Indexing

ISI Web of Knowledge - 3 Citations

ISI Web of Science

Scopus - 3 Citations

EBSCO

Scientific classification

FOS: Social sciences > Other social sciences

CORDIS: Social sciences

Other information

Authenticus ID: P-002-3VK

DOI: 10.1287/trsc.1120.0413

Abstract (EN): This paper addresses the case of complementary services with vertical relations, using the example of airport handling activities. Our model investigates the effects on welfare and competitiveness of four handling market situations and confirms Cournot's result on competition in complementary goods, unless there are efficiency gaps. We find that horizontal competition in handling services leads to market foreclosure even if an airline performs self-handling. We add some remarks on regulatory issues, showing that regulation may be pointless or even anticompetitive. We show that Council Directive 96/67/EC, although intending to increase competition, may be anticompetitive and decrease consumer surplus. We develop an empirical study in which some of our theoretical results are confirmed.

Language: English

Type (Professor's evaluation): Scientific