Price Benchmark Regulation of Multiproduct Firms: An Application to the Rail Industry
基于哈罗德·德姆塞茨的论点，提出一种价格基准方法识别多产品行业中的不合理定价，并以货运铁路为例验证其能以更低成本、更少行政负担为托运人提供经济救济，同时不对铁路公司造成重大财务影响。
Building on Harold Demsetz’s argument that market forces can be more effective in disciplining the pricing behavior of firms relative to explicit output price regulation, this paper proposes and analyzes the performance of a price benchmark approach to identify unreasonable prices in multiproduct industries subject to residual reasonable price regulation. An empirical application to the freight rail sector demonstrates that this mechanism has the potential to provide economically meaningful relief to shippers at lower cost, with less administrative burden, and without significant adverse financial consequences for the railroads.