Adapting to liberalization: government procurement of interregional passenger transports in Sweden, 1989-2008

► We study transport liberalization and its consequences for procurement of passenger traffic in Sweden from 1989 to 2008. ► We focus on the development within the sparsely populated areas. ► Procured railway traffic increased slightly per population share. ► Procured airline traffic increased substantially in absolute figures. ► We find that the new procurement policies allowed for a reproduction of certain elements in the previous policy.