TESTING FOR MARKET POWER IN THE US MOTOR CARRIER INDUSTRY

During the 1980's, researchers noted a trend towards increased concent ration in the general freight, less-than-truckload (LTL) portion of th e U.S. motor carrier industry. The purpose of this study is to employ new empirical industrial organization techniques to determine whether the more concentrated, post-1980, LTL industry exerted monopoly pricin g behavior and to compare the nature of pricing behavior before and af ter regulation reform. The results suggest that the trend toward incre ased industry concentration does not imply anticompetitive performance . Also, the results indicate the presence of regulation-induced market power several years prior to regulation reform in 1980.