What can Economics do for the Rail Industry?
31 March 2007
By Stuart Holder
In this article from Railway Strategies, NERA Associate Director Stuart Holder discusses how applying the principles of economics can help improve the quality of decision-making in the rail and other transport industries. Economics provides a valuable framework for analyzing complex problems, and supplies a range of quantitative techniques and qualitative principles that, when applied correctly, can make a real difference in practical situations. In this article, Mr. Holder examines core areas -- including pricing, incentives, appraisal and evaluation, and quantitative analysis -- that economics helps to address in the rail industry. He notes that economics is particularly powerful when coupled with in-depth industry knowledge, so that economists can help regulators and firms to reach efficient and practical solutions.
