marginal cost pricing principle

...In other words, when considering the economic welfare of society as a whole, he argued that even in a decreasing-cost industry such as railroads, fares should be set equal to the marginal costs (additional direct costs) required for transportation services, and that any deficits that arise from this should be made up for by government subsidies. This view has since become known as fare determination based on the marginal cost pricing principle, but the prevailing view is that this new fare determination cannot be strictly applied under the current extremely imperfect economic situation. However, the peak-load fare system and the collection of congestion taxes at specific times of the day that have recently begun to be adopted in foreign cities can be roughly considered to be new attempts in the direction of the marginal cost pricing principle.

*Some explanations of terms that refer to the "marginal cost pricing principle" are listed below.

Source | Heibonsha World Encyclopedia 2nd Edition | Information

…すなわち，社会全体の経済的厚生を考えるとき，鉄道のような費用逓減産業においても，運賃を輸送サービスについて求められる限界費用(直接費の追加分)に均等ならしめ，その際に発生する赤字は国庫助成により補てんされるべきであると主張した。この見解はその後，限界費用価格形成原理marginal cost pricing principleに基づく運賃決定として知られているが，この新たな運賃決定は，現状のきわめて不完全な経済情況の下では厳密に適用することができないとの見方が有力である。しかし外国の諸都市で最近採用され始めているピーク･ロードpeak‐load運賃制あるいは特定時間帯における混雑税congestion taxの徴収などは，おおまかにみれば，限界費用価格形成原理に準じた方向での新たな試みといえるであろう。…

※「marginal cost pricing principle」について言及している用語解説の一部を掲載しています。

出典｜株式会社平凡社世界大百科事典 第２版について | 情報