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Profit and productivity of US Class I railroads

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  • Siew Hoon Lim

    (Department of Agribusiness and Applied Economics, North Dakota State University, Fargo, North Dakota, USA)

  • C.A. Knox Lovell

Abstract

This paper examines how productivity changes and price changes have contributed to short-run profit change in the railroad industry. Using an unbalanced panel of US Class I railroads for the period 1996-2003, a short-run profit change decomposition model is used to attribute intertemporal profit change to its causal factors. We find that productivity improvements and an increased scale of production contributed to increases in profit, and that variation in operating efficiency had a mixed impact on profit. We also find that relative changes in rail rates and variable input prices exerted downward pressure on profit. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Suggested Citation

  • Siew Hoon Lim & C.A. Knox Lovell, 2009. "Profit and productivity of US Class I railroads," Managerial and Decision Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 30(7), pages 423-442.
    • Handle: RePEc:wly:mgtdec:v:30:y:2009:i:7:p:423-442
    DOI: 10.1002/mde.1462
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    6. Globerman, Steven & Storer, Paul, 2011. "Regional and Temporal Variations in Transportation Costs for U.S. Imports from Canada," Journal of Regional Analysis and Policy, Mid-Continent Regional Science Association, vol. 41(2), pages 1-18.
    7. Key, Nigel D. & Sneeringer, Stacy & Marquardt, David, 2014. "Climate Change, Heat Stress, and U.S. Dairy Production," Economic Research Report 186731, United States Department of Agriculture, Economic Research Service.
    8. Molinos-Senante, María & Maziotis, Alexandros & Sala-Garrido, Ramón, 2020. "Changes in the total costs of the English and Welsh water and sewerage industry: The decomposed effect of price and quantity inputs on efficiency," Utilities Policy, Elsevier, vol. 66(C).
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    10. Lee Pinkowitz & Rohan Williamson, 2016. "The Staggers Act and Firm Performance: Long-Run Evidence," Review of Industrial Organization, Springer;The Industrial Organization Society, vol. 49(2), pages 161-202, September.

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