Abstract
Cost recovery is not regarded as desirable for its own sake, but because it is a necessary ingredient of efficient resource allocation within a sector in which close substitutes are available. The much- acclaimed virtues of the price mechanism disappear if there is no systematic relationship between costs and prices. The theory which lies behind this is no longer the subject of great dispute. The real problem lies with application. For the road sector, this is a particularly complex problem. Technical problems are faced in all economies, but these are exacerbated by the peculiar Australian constitutional and institutional set-up and behaviour. It is the combination of these three problems which create the difficulties which exist almost everywhere, but to a most acute degree in Australia.
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© 1982 Martinus Nijhoff Publishers, The Hague
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Docwra, G.E., Kolsen, H.M. (1982). Track Costs, Road Pricing and Cost Recovery. In: Starkie, D.N.M., Grenning, M.R., Starrs, M.M. (eds) Pricing and Cost Recovery in Long Distance Transport. Developments in Transport Studies, vol 4. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-009-7591-0_5
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-009-7591-0_5
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