Rail Infrastructure Investment and the Effects of Regulatory Change

2022・04

要約

By using a data set of 536 observations from 29 OECD countries for the 19 years from 1995 to 2013, this study investigates the determinants of investment behavior in the railway industry. In particular, it seeks to clarify how investment is affected by regulatory factors such as entry regulations, vertical separation, private provision, and market structure, as well as governmental and management conditions influencing issues such as train safety. The main results are as follows: (i) factors positively affecting investment are output as a measure of train-km; GDP per capita, and high-speed train ratio; (ii) the competitiveness of freight railways has a negative effect; (iii) the stock of capital itself is not a significant factor; (iv) investment increases as vertical separation increases; (v) deregulation of entry and greater competition in the market tend to decrease investment; (vi) ownership of railways is not a significant factor; (vii) a larger government debt ratio tends to decrease investment; and (viii) a decrease in safety level tends to increase investment.