IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/retrec/v79y2020ics0739885919302847.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Air transport subsidies for resident passengers: The unexpected effects on competition

Author

Listed:
  • Socorro, M. Pilar
  • Betancor, Ofelia

Abstract

Subsidies for resident passengers aim to promote air connectivity in remote areas. The European Union allows these subsidies to passengers living in European outermost regions and other specific regions. This paper analyses the effects of this kind of subsidies on the ticket price and level of competition. If there is no competition in the market, the monopoly airline increases the ticket price to capture part of residents’ subsidy and, thus, non-residents will be worse off. However, when the regulator raises the amount of the subsidy, there may be an unexpected effect on competition: a potential entrant may find the entry profitable, spurring competition and air connectivity. With competition, the non-desirable effects of granting a subsidy only for residents are mitigated. However, this latter case is only possible if the proportion of resident passengers in the route is high enough.

Suggested Citation

  • Socorro, M. Pilar & Betancor, Ofelia, 2020. "Air transport subsidies for resident passengers: The unexpected effects on competition," Research in Transportation Economics, Elsevier, vol. 79(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:retrec:v:79:y:2020:i:c:s0739885919302847
    DOI: 10.1016/j.retrec.2019.100772
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0739885919302847
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.retrec.2019.100772?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Milgrom, Paul & Roberts, John, 1982. "Limit Pricing and Entry under Incomplete Information: An Equilibrium Analysis," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 50(2), pages 443-459, March.
    2. Francesco, Antonio Di & Pagliari, Romano, 2012. "The potential impact of removing public service obligation regulations on air fares between the Italian Mainland and the island of Sardinia," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 24(C), pages 332-339.
    3. Dixit, Avinash, 1980. "The Role of Investment in Entry-Deterrence," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 90(357), pages 95-106, March.
    4. Brueckner, Jan K & Whalen, W Tom, 2000. "The Price Effects of International Airline Alliances," Journal of Law and Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 43(2), pages 503-545, October.
    5. Santana, Isabel, 2009. "Do Public Service Obligations hamper the cost competitiveness of regional airlines?," Journal of Air Transport Management, Elsevier, vol. 15(6), pages 344-349.
    6. Merkert, Rico & O’Fee, Basil, 2013. "Efficient procurement of public air services—Lessons learned from European transport authorities' perspectives," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 29(C), pages 118-125.
    7. Fageda, Xavier & Jiménez, Juan Luis & Díaz, Carlos, 2012. "Fare differences between domestic and international air markets on routes from Gran Canaria," Journal of Air Transport Management, Elsevier, vol. 25(C), pages 8-10.
    8. Franco Modigliani, 1958. "New Developments on the Oligopoly Front," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 66, pages 215-215.
    9. Calzada, Joan & Fageda, Xavier, 2014. "Competition and public service obligations in European aviation markets," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 70(C), pages 104-116.
    10. Fageda, Xavier & Suárez-Alemán, Ancor & Serebrisky, Tomás & Fioravanti, Reinaldo, 2018. "Air connectivity in remote regions: A comprehensive review of existing transport policies worldwide," Journal of Air Transport Management, Elsevier, vol. 66(C), pages 65-75.
    11. de Rus, Ginés & Socorro, M. Pilar, 2014. "Access pricing, infrastructure investment and intermodal competition," Transportation Research Part E: Logistics and Transportation Review, Elsevier, vol. 70(C), pages 374-387.
    12. Williams, George & Pagliari, Romano, 2004. "A comparative analysis of the application and use of public service obligations in air transport within the EU," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 11(1), pages 55-66, January.
    13. Avinash Dixit, 1979. "A Model of Duopoly Suggesting a Theory of Entry Barriers," Bell Journal of Economics, The RAND Corporation, vol. 10(1), pages 20-32, Spring.
    14. Ricardo Flores-Fillol & Rafael Moner-Colonques, 2007. "Strategic Formation of Airline Alliances," Journal of Transport Economics and Policy, University of Bath, vol. 41(3), pages 427-449, September.
    15. Fageda, Xavier & Jiménez, Juan Luis & Valido, Jorge, 2016. "Does an increase in subsidies lead to changes in air fares? Empirical evidence from Spain," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 94(C), pages 235-242.
    16. Valido, Jorge & Pilar Socorro, M. & Hernández, Aday & Betancor, Ofelia, 2014. "Air transport subsidies for resident passengers when carriers have market power," Transportation Research Part E: Logistics and Transportation Review, Elsevier, vol. 70(C), pages 388-399.
    17. Leonardo J. Basso & Matthew T. Clements & Thomas W. Ross, 2009. "Moral Hazard and Customer Loyalty Programs," American Economic Journal: Microeconomics, American Economic Association, vol. 1(1), pages 101-123, February.
    18. de Jong, Gerben & Behrens, Christiaan & van Ommeren, Jos, 2019. "Airline loyalty (programs) across borders: A geographic discontinuity approach," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 62(C), pages 251-272.
    19. Reynolds-Feighan, Aisling J., 1995. "European and American approaches to air transport liberalisation: Some implications for small communities," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 29(6), pages 467-483, November.
    20. A. Michael Spence, 1977. "Entry, Capacity, Investment and Oligopolistic Pricing," Bell Journal of Economics, The RAND Corporation, vol. 8(2), pages 534-544, Autumn.
    21. Joan Calzada & Xavier Fageda, 2012. "Discounts and Public Service Obligations in the Airline Market: Lessons from Spain," Review of Industrial Organization, Springer;The Industrial Organization Society, vol. 40(4), pages 291-312, June.
    22. Jorge Valido & M. Pilar Socorro & Aday Hernández & Ofelia Betancor, 2012. "Subsidies for resident passengers in air transport markets," Working Papers 2012-10, FEDEA.
    23. Pita, João Pedro & Antunes, António Pais & Barnhart, Cynthia & de Menezes, António Gomes, 2013. "Setting public service obligations in low-demand air transportation networks: Application to the Azores," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 54(C), pages 35-48.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Francesco Russo & Giuseppe Fortugno & Marco Merante & Domenica Savia Pellicanò & Maria Rosaria Trecozzi, 2021. "Updating National Air Passenger Demand from Traffic Counts: The Case of a Secondary Airport in an Underdeveloped Region," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(15), pages 1-16, July.
    2. de Rus, Ginés & Socorro, M. Pilar, 2022. "Subsidies in air transport markets: The economic consequences of choosing the wrong mechanism," Transportation Research Part E: Logistics and Transportation Review, Elsevier, vol. 160(C).
    3. Jun Tu & Juan Du & Min Huang, 2023. "Competition between Green and Non-Green Travel Companies: The Role of Governmental Subsidies in Green Travel," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(9), pages 1-33, May.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Wu, Hanjun & Hong Tsui, Kan Wai & Ngo, Thanh & Lin, Yi-Hsin, 2020. "Impacts of aviation subsidies on regional wellbeing: Systematic review, meta-analysis and future research directions," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 99(C), pages 215-239.
    2. Fageda, Xavier & Jiménez, Juan Luis & Valido, Jorge, 2017. "An empirical evaluation of the effects of European public policies on island airfares," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 106(C), pages 288-299.
    3. Fageda, Xavier & Jiménez, Juan Luis & Valido, Jorge, 2016. "Does an increase in subsidies lead to changes in air fares? Empirical evidence from Spain," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 94(C), pages 235-242.
    4. Fageda, Xavier & Suárez-Alemán, Ancor & Serebrisky, Tomás & Fioravanti, Reinaldo, 2018. "Air connectivity in remote regions: A comprehensive review of existing transport policies worldwide," Journal of Air Transport Management, Elsevier, vol. 66(C), pages 65-75.
    5. à lvarez-Albelo, Carmen D. & Hernández-Martín, Raúl & Padrón-Fumero, Noemi, 2020. "The effects on tourism of airfare subsidies for residents: The key role of packaging strategies," Journal of Air Transport Management, Elsevier, vol. 84(C).
    6. Abreu, José & Fageda, Xavier & Jiménez, Juan Luis, 2018. "An empirical evaluation of changes in Public Service Obligations in Spain," Journal of Air Transport Management, Elsevier, vol. 67(C), pages 1-10.
    7. Wittman, Michael D. & Allroggen, Florian & Malina, Robert, 2016. "Public service obligations for air transport in the United States and Europe: Connectivity effects and value for money," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 94(C), pages 112-128.
    8. Calzada, Joan & Fageda, Xavier, 2014. "Competition and public service obligations in European aviation markets," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 70(C), pages 104-116.
    9. Antonio Martínez Raya & Víctor M. González-Sánchez, 2020. "Tender Management Relating to Imposition of Public Service Obligations on Scheduled Air Routes: An Approach Involving Digital Transformation of Procurement Procedures in Spain," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(13), pages 1-27, July.
    10. Das, Amit Kumar & Bardhan, Amit Kumar & Fageda, Xavier, 2020. "New regional aviation policy in India: Early indicators and lessons learnt," Journal of Air Transport Management, Elsevier, vol. 88(C).
    11. Antunes, António P. & Santos, Miguel G. & Pita, João P. & Menezes, António G., 2018. "Study on the evolution of the air transport network of the Azores," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 118(C), pages 837-851.
    12. Antonio Martínez Raya & Víctor M. González-Sánchez, 2021. "Efficiency and Sustainability of Regional Aviation on Insular Territories of the European Union: A Case Study of Public Service Obligations on Scheduled Air Routes among the Balearic Islands," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(7), pages 1-31, April.
    13. Melkonian, Tigran A., 1998. "Two essays on reputation effects in economic models," ISU General Staff Papers 1998010108000012873, Iowa State University, Department of Economics.
    14. Jiménez, Juan Luis & Valido, Jorge & Pellicer, Alfonso Antonio, 2023. "Evaluating the effect of air transport resident subsidies on non-residents tourists’ expenditure," Journal of Air Transport Management, Elsevier, vol. 106(C).
    15. Pita, João Pedro & Antunes, António Pais & Barnhart, Cynthia & de Menezes, António Gomes, 2013. "Setting public service obligations in low-demand air transportation networks: Application to the Azores," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 54(C), pages 35-48.
    16. Salesi, Vinolia Kilinaivoni & Kan Tsui, Wai Hong & Fu, Xiaowen & Gilbey, Andrew, 2022. "Stakeholder perceptions of the impacts of aviation subsidies in the South Pacific Region," Journal of Air Transport Management, Elsevier, vol. 103(C).
    17. Ke Yang, 2010. "Limit-Pricing and Learning-By-Doing: A Dynamic Game with Incomplete Information," International Journal of Business and Economics, School of Management Development, Feng Chia University, Taichung, Taiwan, vol. 9(3), pages 201-212, December.
    18. Michael Waldman, 1983. "Limited Collusion and Entry Deterence," UCLA Economics Working Papers 306, UCLA Department of Economics.
    19. Kinene, Alan & Granberg, Tobias Andersson & Birolini, Sebastian & Adler, Nicole & Polishchuk, Valentin & Skoglund, Jean-Marie, 2022. "An auction framework for assessing the tendering of subsidised routes in air transportation," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 159(C), pages 320-337.
    20. Michael Waldman, 1987. "Noncooperative Entry Deterrence, Uncertainty, and the Free Rider Problem," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 54(2), pages 301-310.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Subsidy; Residents; Non-residents; Ticket price; Competition;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • H29 - Public Economics - - Taxation, Subsidies, and Revenue - - - Other
    • L12 - Industrial Organization - - Market Structure, Firm Strategy, and Market Performance - - - Monopoly; Monopolization Strategies
    • L93 - Industrial Organization - - Industry Studies: Transportation and Utilities - - - Air Transportation
    • R48 - Urban, Rural, Regional, Real Estate, and Transportation Economics - - Transportation Economics - - - Government Pricing and Policy

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:retrec:v:79:y:2020:i:c:s0739885919302847. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/journaldescription.cws_home/620614/description#description .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.