Railroads and Land Grant Policy : A Study in Government Intervention

Mercer (economics, U. of California at Santa Barbara) assesses the economic efficiency of the land grant subsidies to the large U.S. railroad systems in the 19th century. He limits his analysis to the relationship of the social and private rates of return on investment in the land grant railroads to the opportunity costs of capital. He argues that, for five of the seven systems studies, it was beneficial to the economy to transfer public goods to the railroad owners. Annotation (c) Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)