Government Policy for a Partially Deregulated Industry: Deregulate it Fully

Alfred Kahn was a major force behind regulatory reform that initially benefited air travelers and subsequently consumers in other industries by placing greater reliance on markets than on regulators to allocate resources. Kahn also believed that effective governance was important for deregulation's success. In this paper, I argue that such governance has not occurred in practice and that problems that persist in partially deregulated industries are more likely to be solved by full deregulation and, if necessary, privatization than by government intervention.