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on Transport Economics |
| By: | Russo, Antonio |
| Abstract: | We study the political economy of urban traffic policy. We consider a city and its suburbs. The city decides, by majority voting, on a parking charge in the Central Business District (CBD) and restrictions on road space dedicated to cars. City and suburbs vote on road pricing in the CBD. Results include the following. When the majority of city voters prefers cars to public transport sufficiently more than the average voter, car charges and space restrictions are smaller than optimal. If the suburbs' voters have stronger preferences for cars than the city's, road pricing has the lowest political support among the instruments we consider. Tax exporting and imperfect government coordination may inflate total charges. This is welfare enhancing if it compensates for voters' opposition to car restraining policies. Earmarking charge revenues for public transport is welfare enhancing only if they are topped up by extra funds from a national government. |
| Keywords: | Road pricing; parking charges; majority voting; multiple government |
| Date: | 2012–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:tse:wpaper:25844&r=tre |
| By: | Zhigang Li (University of Hong Kong); Xiaohua Yu (Georg-August-University Göttingen); Yinchu Zeng (Renmin University of China); Rainer Holst (Georg-August-University Göttingen) |
| Abstract: | Using a unique survey data on agricultural traders in China in 2004, this study provides direct evidence on the significance of inter-regional trade barriers and their key components. Our major findings are as follows. (1) The trade barriers within China are fairly small, accounting for about 20 percent of trade value. (2) Transport and non-transport costs respectively contribute 42% and 58% to the trade barriers. (3) Labor and transport-related taxes are the two largest proportions of total transport costs, and respectively accounts for 35% and 30%. (4) Artificial trade barriers created by the government are not sizable as we perceived. (5) Road quality is crucial for reducing transport costs within China: Increasing transport speed by 1 km per hour, the total transport costs for Chinese agricultural traders would decrease by 0.6 percent mainly due to improved fuel-burning efficiency and reduced labor requirement. |
| Keywords: | Transport Costs; China; Agricultural Traders; Infrastructure |
| Date: | 2012–05–16 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:got:gotcrc:112&r=tre |
| By: | Nobuyuki Ito (Graduate School of Agriculture, Kyoto University); Kenji Takeuchi (Graduate School of Economics, Kobe University); Shunsuke Managi (Graduate School of Environmental Studies, Tohoku University) |
| Abstract: | This study investigates potential demand for infrastructure investment for alternative fuel vehicles (AFVs) by using a stated preference survey of 1,531 Japanese citizens. The potential demand is estimated on the basis of how much people are willing to pay for AFVs under different refueling scenarios. By using the estimated parameters, the economic efficiency of establishing battery exchange stations for electric vehicles is examined. The result indicates that infrastructural development of battery exchange stations can be socially efficient when the percentage of electric vehicle purchasers out of the total number of new vehicle purchasers exceeds 5.63%. Furthermore, in contrast to intuitive prediction, we found a complement relationship between the cruising ranges of AFVs and the infrastructures established. The result suggests that people with AFVs might change their total trip distance depending on the sufficiency of infrastructure investment. |
| Keywords: | Alternative fuel vehicle, infrastructure investment, stated preference method, choice experiment, discrete choice, nested logit model, cost-benefit analysis |
| Date: | 2012–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:koe:wpaper:1207&r=tre |
| By: | Lee, Henry; Grant, Lovellette |
| Abstract: | For the past forty years, United States Presidents have repeatedly called for a reduction in the country's dependence on fossil fuels in general and foreign oil specifically. Stronger efficiency standards and higher taxes on motor fuels are a step in this direction, but achieving even greater reductions in oil consumption will require changing the way Americans power their transportation system. Some officials advocate the electrification of the passenger vehicle fleet as a path to meeting this goal. The Obama administration has, for example, embraced a goal of having one million electric-powered vehicles on U.S. roads by 2015, while others proposed a medium-term goal where electric vehicles would consist of 20% of the passenger vehicle fleet by 2030—approximately 30 million electric vehicles. The technology itself is not in question—many of the global automobile companies are planning to sell plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs) and/or battery electric vehicles (BEVs) by 2012. The key question is, will Americans buy them? The answer depends on four additional questions: 1. Is the cost of purchasing and operating an electric vehicle more or less expensive than the cost of a comparable conventional gasoline-powered vehicle? 2. Are the comparative costs likely to change over the next twenty years? 3. Do electric vehicles provide the same attributes as conventional cars, and if not, do the differences matter? 4. Will electric car owners be able to access the electricity needed to power their vehicles? This paper attempts to answer these four questions. |
| Date: | 2011 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hrv:hksfac:5116458&r=tre |
| By: | Eva Valeri (University of Trieste); Amanda Stathopoulos (University of Trieste); Edoardo Marcucci (University of Roma Tre) |
| Abstract: | In the last years Energy Efficiency (EE) has become an important issue in the public policy makers’ agenda due to ambitious objectives of the European Commission to reduce energy consumption by 20% in 2020. Many countries have adopted state-level EE programs targeted to include Energy Saving (ES) policy mixes in different sectors including transportation that is among the most energy intensive ones. The aims of this paper are to: i) report briefly the macro-areas of state-level transport EE policies related to the transport sector, ii) verify the level of implementation of these policies among some European countries, iii) highlight, for each country considered, the EE measures adopted up to 2007 and compare the results obtained, iv) evaluate the implementation of EE transport successful measures adopted by each respective National Energy Agency (NEAs), and finally v) compare the main results deriving from EE policy implementation. In particular, in this last objective we adapted the good practice policy mix framework for car passenger transport proposed by the AID-EE Project at the information obtained from countries’ National Energy Programmes (NEPs) updated to 2007. |
| Keywords: | Transport Sector, Energy Sector, Energy Efficiency, Energy Saving, Energy Policy mix |
| Date: | 2012 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:rcr:wpaper:03_12&r=tre |
| By: | Stefanie Peer (VU University Amsterdam); Erik Verhoef (VU University Amsterdam); Jasper Knockaert (VU University Amsterdam); Paul Koster (VU University Amsterdam); Yin-Yen Tseng (VU University Amsterdam) |
| Abstract: | Theoretical and empirical studies of consumer scheduling behavior usually ignore that consumers have more flexibility to adjust their schedule in the long run than in the short run. We are able to distinguish between long-run choices of travel routines and short-run choices of departure times due to an extensive panel dataset of commuters who participate in a real-life peak avoidance experiment. We find that the participants, who obtain a monetary reward for not traveling along a camera-observed highway link during the morning peak, value travel time higher in the long-run context compared to the short run, as changes in travel time are more permanent and can be exploited better through the adjustment of routines. Schedule delays are, in contrast, valued higher in the short-run model, reflecting that scheduling restrictions are typically more binding in the short run. Since the short-run and the long-run shadow prices dier by factors ranging from 2 to 5 in our basic model, our results may have substantial impacts on optimal choices for transport policies such as pricing and investment. |
| Keywords: | scheduling model; travel routines; departure time choices; long-run vs. short-run; information; travel time expectations; revealed preference data; reward experiment |
| JEL: | C25 D03 D80 R48 |
| Date: | 2011–12–22 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:dgr:uvatin:20110181&r=tre |
| By: | Rémi Jedwab (PSE - Paris-Jourdan Sciences Economiques - CNRS : UMR8545 - Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales (EHESS) - Ecole des Ponts ParisTech - Ecole Normale Supérieure de Paris - ENS Paris, EEP-PSE - Ecole d'Économie de Paris - Paris School of Economics - Ecole d'Économie de Paris, LSE - London School of Economics and Political Science - LSE); Alexandre Moradi (Sussex University - Sussex University) |
| Abstract: | We study the impact of transportation infrastructure on agriculture and development in colonial Ghana. Two railway lines were built between 1901 and 1923 to connect the coast to mining areas and the large hinterland city of Kumasi. This unintendedly opened vast expanses of tropical forest to cocoa cultivation, allowing Ghana to become the world's largest producer. This attracted migrants to producing areas and the economic surplus drove urbanization. Using data at a very fine spatial level, we find a strong effect of railroad connectivity on cocoa production due to reduced transportation costs. We then show that the economic boom in cocoa-producing areas was associated with demographic growth and urbanization. We _nd no spurious effect from lines that were not built yet, and lines that were planned but never built. We show that our results are robust to considering nearest neighbor estimators. Lastly, railway construction has durably transformed the economic geography of Ghana, as railway districts are more developed today, despite thirty years of marked decline in rail transportation. |
| Keywords: | Railroads ; Trade Costs ; Urbanization ; Africa |
| Date: | 2011–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:wpaper:halshs-00607207&r=tre |
| By: | Stefanie Peer (VU University Amsterdam); Jasper Knockaert (VU University Amsterdam); Paul Koster (VU University Amsterdam); Yin-Yen Tseng (VU University Amsterdam); Erik Verhoef (VU University Amsterdam) |
| Abstract: | A common way to determine values of travel time and schedule delay is by estimating departure time choice models using revealed preference (RP) data. The estimation of such models requires that (expected) travel times are known for both chosen as well as unchosen departure time alternatives. As the availability of such data is limited, most departure time choice studies only take into account travel times on trip segments rather than door-to-door travel times, or use very rough measures of door-to-door travel times. We show that ignoring the temporal and spatial variation of travel times, and in particular, the correlation of travel times across links may lead to biased estimates of the value of time. To approximate door-to-door travel times for which no complete measurement is possible, we develop a model that relates travel times on links with continuous speed measurements to travel times on links where relatively sparse GPS-based speed measurements are available. We use geographically weighted regression to estimate the location-specific relation between the speeds on these two types of links, which is then used for travel time prediction at different locations, days, and times of the day. This method is not only useful for the calculation of door-to-door travel times in departure time choice models but is generally relevant for predicting travel times in situations where continuous speed measurements should be enriched with GPS data. |
| Keywords: | Scheduling model; revealed preference data; door-to-door travel times; geographically weighted regression; GPS |
| JEL: | C14 C25 R48 |
| Date: | 2011–12–22 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:dgr:uvatin:20110180&r=tre |
| By: | Franz Hubert; Onur Cobanli |
| Abstract: | We use cooperative game theory to analyze the strategic impact of three controversial pipeline projects. Two of them, Nord Stream and South Stream, allow Russian gas to bypass transit countries, Ukraine and Belarus. Nord Stream’s strategic value turns out to be huge, justifying the high investment cost for Germany and Russia. The additional leverage obtained through South Stream, in contrast, appears small. The third project, Nabucco, aims at diversifying Europe’s gas imports by accessing producers in Middle East and Central Asia. The project has a large potential to curtail Russia’s power, but the benefits accrue mainly to Turkey, while the gains for the EU are negligible. |
| Keywords: | Bargaining Power, Transport Network, Natural Gas |
| JEL: | L5 L9 O22 |
| Date: | 2012–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wsr:wpaper:y:2012:i:093&r=tre |
| By: | Platz, Trine Tornøe (Department of Business and Economics); Østerdal, Lars Peter (Department of Business and Economics) |
| Abstract: | We consider a congested facility where agents can line up at any time they wish after the facility opens (like airplane boarding, or drivers leaving stadium parking lots after a sports event). We show that in Nash equilibrium, within the general family of stochastic queue disciplines with no capacity waste, the focal first-in-first-out (FIFO) queue discipline is the worst while the last-in-first-out (LIFO) discipline is best. |
| Keywords: | Bottleneck; queue discipline; Nash equilibrium; FIFO; LIFO; welfare |
| JEL: | C72 D62 R41 |
| Date: | 2012–05–23 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:sdueko:2012_010&r=tre |