What Caused Airline Deregulation: Economists or Economics?

摘要

Modest reform of airline industry regulation within the confines of existing legislation, the "political market test," was a response to a situation where costs were imposed on elected officials from a poorly functioning (from a constituency standpoint) regulatory structure-that is, overtly protectionist policies. The manner in which this process unfurled-initially through a committee without an ability to directly write legislation that would affect the regulated industry-is described well by the agency-clientele model. By changing how the existing legislation was interpreted, legislators were able to market-test new legislation. By separating the function of policing poorly performing regulatory bodies from that of enacting new legislation, legislators avoided the appearance of opportunistic behavior.