An independent, charitable organisation dedicated to the study of regulation and deregulation 

Announcements

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Airport Enterprises: An Economic Analysis

The Institute is delighted to announce our first foray into book publishing with ‘Airport Enterprises: An Economic Analysis’ written by David Starkie.
‘Airport Enterprises: An Economic Analysis’ frames the airport firm as a business platform for a broad spectrum of commercial activities, some of which enjoy the characteristics of two-sided markets. This is in contrast to the usual application of welfare economics as an analytical lens for airports, a lens which is argued to be inappropriate for an industry with an international customer base. Also challenged is the consensus that airports are natural monopolies; cost functions are not necessarily sub-additive, additional capacity is added mostly in small increments, and new entry feasible as a result of product diversification or negotiating parties striking long term pricing contracts. Finally, a number of questions are raised about current public policy, the standard interpretation of economic rents at congested airports, and existing plans for adding capacity at London Heathrow airport.

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Upcoming Events

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George Yarrow

Hertford Seminars: George Yarrow

The Institute is pleased to announce that we will be hosting another of our Hertford Seminars, given by Professor George Yarrow, entitled: ‘The destructive persistence of the Nirvana Fallacy in public policy and debate’

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Recent Documents

Insights into Regulation

Lao Tzu’s advice and UK Post Office governance

The Tao Te Ching is an ancient classic of Chinese Daoism whose authorship is conventionally attributed to a certain Lao Tzu. It contains advice on how to be a Sage, a person with sagacity. Significant sections are clearly directed at leaders in governance.

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Letters and Notes

The slow-moving disaster of English land use rules

Prof. John Muellbauer has recently shown that the regulatory wedge in the UK between house prices and the construction cost of new homes is currently at the highest level of the period covered by his data, and the highest in the G7.

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Enquiries

If you are interested in finding out more about, sponsoring, or collaborating with us on any aspect of these research programmes, or if you would like to commission bespoke work from the RPI Research Group, please contact us at: