During the 1970s and 1989s, deregulation eliminated or weakened the monopoly service rights and fixes-price systems common in such industries as trucking, airlines, banking, natural gas, and telecommunications. While the introduction of competition increased economic efficiency, there were often short-term costs in terms of layoffs and business failures. Although the electric utilities industry entered this era of deregulation at roughly the same time as these other industries, deregulation had proceeded at a somewhat slower pace. Nevertheless, regulatory changes had been chipping away at utilities’ monopoly franchises in each of the industry’s major segments since 1978.