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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Governance

RPI Economic Strategy and Governance Study Group: Second Session

We can today announce the date of the second meeting, which will take place on the 3rd October, with the same timings as the first meeting (arrival from 5pm, 5:30pm start time, concluding at 7pm with wine available for attendees), again at the National Liberal Club. We will confirm the topic in the coming weeks.

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Recent Documents

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Past Learnings

The Economists’ Onion

This piece in the Past Learnings Series is based on a hitherto unpublished internal Regulatory Policy Institute Paper dating from 2012.

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Insights into Regulation

Entrepreneurship as human capital

Entrepreneurship is something of a ‘ghost in the machine’ so far as most economic theorising is concerned.  It’s widely mentioned and tends to be encouraged by politicians, but detailed analysis of the concept is largely missing from standard economics.  So, we ask:   what is its nature, why is it important, and what (very briefly) might be done to encourage it?

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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: