National Regulation of Railroads

Railroads and American Law

CSEM WP 137 Market Effects of Environmental Regulation: Coal, Railroads, and the 1990 Clean Air Act

Title IV of the 1990 Clean Air Act Amendments introduced a cap-and-trade system for sulfur dioxide emissions from electric power plants in the United States. This paper analyzes the effects of that regulatory change on the prices charged by the two railroads that hauled low-sulfur coal east from Wyoming. We estimate the effect of the tradeable permits regime by comparing prices at affected plan...

Regulation in a ‘Deregulated’ Industry: Railroads in the Post-Staggers Era

The Staggers Rail Act of 1980 is widely perceived to have deregulated the U.S. freight rail industry. Yet substantial rail traffic remains potentially subject to regulatory rate intervention, and in the Post-Staggers era regulators have developed a detailed and expanding regulatory framework for rail shipments. This regulatory framework embodies elements of traditional public utility regulation...

Railroads and American Economic Growth : A

This paper examines the historical impact of railroads on the American economy, with a focus on quantifying the aggregate impact in the agricultural sector in 1890. Expansion of the railroad network may have affected all counties directly or indirectly — an econometric challenge that arises in many empirical settings. However, the total impact on each county is captured by changes in that count...

The Economic Impact of the Railroads