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Enterprise and Society Advance Access originally published online on July 16, 2008
Enterprise and Society 2009 10(1):178-215; doi:10.1093/es/khn049
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© The Author 2008. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Business History Conference. All rights reserved. For permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oupjournals.org.

Two Cheers for Discrimination: Deregulation and Efficiency in the Reform of U.S. Freight Transportation, 1976–1998

Marc Levinson

MARC LEVINSON is an economist and independent historian interested in processes of economic change in twentieth-century America. His most recent book is The Box: How the Shipping Container Made the World Smaller and the World Economy Bigger (Princeton 2006). Contact information: 85 Clark St., Glen Ridge NJ 07028; telephone: 973-748-0456. E-mail: mrlevinson@comcast.net

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

Nondiscrimination was the bedrock of U.S. transport regulation for nearly a century. The Interstate Commerce Act of 1887, the federal government's first major regulatory initiative, barred "unreasonable discrimination" in rates and service to keep railroads from aiding one businesses or community over another. As regulation developed, similar obligations were imposed on ship lines, truck lines, and air carriers. Most freight transportation companies were forced to operate as "common carriers," publishing a rate applicable to each commodity and applying that rate to every shipment. Equal treatment of all customers, based strictly on posted prices and terms of service, was widely considered essential to keeping the transportation market "fair."1

This article will argue that the end of the ban on discrimination was the most important result of the deregulation of freight transport between 1976 and 1998. This development has been little noticed by the public and has received scant attention in the . . . [Full Text of this Article]


   The "Railway Problem"
 

   Solomonic Judgments
 

   Discrimination by Product
 
Place Discrimination
Local Rates
Import and Export Discrimination
Interline Discrimination
Interstate Discrimination
Discrimination by Customer Size

   Rules and Realities
 

   Deregulation and the Coming of Contracts
 

   Deregulation at Sea
 

   The Bottom Line
 

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