Also relevant is quality and availability of service. Previously prices may have been cheap/falling but the range of offering, customer treatment or availability may have constrained enjoyment of the service to a sub optimal level. Deregulation could/should change this. (I think it has in my limited experience)
I'm also not sure to what extent the prices charged were also controlled by governments as a macroeconomic tool to reduce measures of inflation? Any thoughts? David Mitchinson +447956256281 -----Original Message----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] On Behalf Of Robin Hanson Sent: 10 June 2002 17:11 To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: Consumer Reports on Deregulation The July 2002 issue of Consumer Reports (not yet on their website) has an article on p.30 on "Deregulation" with a summary "Why consumers suffer most in a free market - and what you can do about it." Their strongest argument is a graph on p.30 on titled "Prices: A long-term decline. Consumer prices often fell after deregulation. But inflation-adjusted prices were falling for decades before, typically at a faster rate." The chart shows prices for airlines, local telephone, long distance, cable TV, and electricity from 1950 to 2000, which are roughly supportive of their claim. Is there a rebuttal to this somewhere? Robin Hanson [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://hanson.gmu.edu Asst. Prof. Economics, George Mason University MSN 1D3, Carow Hall, Fairfax VA 22030-4444 703-993-2326 FAX: 703-993-2323
