author
Hugo Richard Meyer
1866–1923
Known for sharp, detailed arguments about public ownership and government regulation, this American economist wrote influential studies of railways, telegraphs, and telephones at a time when those systems were rapidly reshaping modern life. His books brought academic research into lively public debate about how essential services should be run.
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About the author
Born in Cincinnati on April 1, 1866, Hugo Richard Meyer was an American author and economist whose work focused on public ownership and regulation of major utilities. He studied at Harvard, earned an A.M. there, and later continued his studies in Berlin and Paris.
Meyer taught political economy at Harvard and then served as an assistant professor at the University of Chicago. He became especially known for examining railways, telegraphs, and telephones, and for writing critically about how governments managed or regulated those systems.
Among his best-known books are Government Regulation of Railway Rates and The British State Telegraphs. His writing reflects the big policy questions of the early twentieth century, when communication networks and transportation systems were becoming central to everyday life and national politics.