ABSTRACT
An early area of specialization in economics dealt with theoretical and practical questions on the regulation of transportation and public utility concerns. The Munn vs. Illinois decision of the Supreme Court and the Interstate Commerce Act of 1887 moved the railroad industry toward a regulated status, and the 1906 amendment to the act gave the Interstate Commerce Commission the authority to set maximum rates. Harry Gunnison Brown's 1916 Transportation Rates and Their Regulation, published by Macmillanu endeavored to present a complete theory on the subject. Brown's greater concern was with the economic consequences of allocations that would result from original cost methods. Brown turned next to an element in the valuation of railroad property--the value of land. Despite his own views on land value taxation, he indicated that the original cost method of valuation was an inappropriate way of denying the increments in land value to the owners of railroads and public utilities.
