WHAT PRIZES WHEN ONE SUBSIDIZES? SOME LESSONS FROM THE PAST

This paper reviews past U.S. subsidy programs in both agriculture and transportation to establish facts about federal subsidies and apply these facts to current federal transportation subsidy programs. Two points are made. First, traditional transportation subsidies paid by the federal government have been justified in terms of national advantage. Based on this assumption, the case for federal subsidization of urban public transportation would be in extreme difficulty. This point primarily estabilishes reasons why urban transportation subsidies should not exist. There is, however, another approach, which leads to the second point that a new case for federal subsidization can be made strictly in terms of local advantage. An argument is presented for this new case.

• Record URL:
  • http://onlinepubs.trb.org/Onlinepubs/trr/1976/573/573-005.pdf
• Summary URL:
  • https://scholar.google.com/scholar_lookup?title=WHAT+PRIZES+WHEN+ONE+SUBSIDIZES%3F+SOME+LESSONS+FROM+THE+PAST&author=J.+Nelson&publication_year=1976
• Availability:
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• Supplemental Notes:
  • Publication of this paper sponsored by Committee on Taxation, Finance, and Pricing. Distribution, posting, or copying of this PDF is strictly prohibited without written permission of the Transportation Research Board of the National Academy of Sciences. Unless otherwise indicated, all materials in this PDF are copyrighted by the National Academy of Sciences. Copyright © National Academy of Sciences. All rights reserved.
• Authors:
  • Nelson, James R
• Conference:
  • 54th Annual Meeting of the Transportation Research Board
  • Location: Washington District of Columbia
  • Date: 1975-1-13 to 1975-1-17
• Publication Date: 1976

Media Info

• Media Type: Print
• Pagination: pp 30-36
• Monograph Title: Transit Operating Subsidies
• Serial:
  • Transportation Research Record
  • Issue Number: 573
  • Publisher: Transportation Research Board
  • ISSN: 0361-1981

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Agriculture; Federal aid; Finance; Financing; Government funding; History; Local government; Policy; Public transit; Subsidies; Transportation planning; Urban transportation
• Old TRIS Terms: Government policies
• Subject Areas: Administration and Management; Finance; Highways; History; Policy; Public Transportation; Railroads;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 00138143
• Record Type: Publication
• ISBN: 0309024862
• Files: TRIS, TRB
• Created Date: Sep 16 1981 12:00AM