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on Transport Economics |
| By: | Meghan R. Busse; Christopher R. Knittel; Florian Zettelmeyer |
| Abstract: | Many consumers are keenly aware of gasoline prices, and consumer responses to gasoline prices have been well studied. In this paper, by contrast, we investigate how gasoline prices affect the automobile industry: manufacturers and dealerships. We estimate how changes in gasoline prices affect equilibrium prices and sales of both new and used vehicles of different fuel economies. We investigate the implications of these effects for individual auto manufacturers, taking into account differences in manufacturers' vehicle portfolios. We also investigate effects on manufacturers' affiliated dealership networks, including effects implied by the changes in used vehicle market outcomes. |
| JEL: | L1 L2 L9 Q4 |
| Date: | 2012–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:18610&r=tre |
| By: | Luisa Alamá-Sabater (Economics Department, Universitat Jaume I, Castellón, Spain); Laura Márquez-Ramos (Economics Department, Universitat Jaume I, Castellón, Spain); Celestino Suárez-Burguet (Economics Department, Universitat Jaume I, Castellón, Spain); J. Miguel Navarro-Azorín (Economics Department, Universidad de Cartagena, Spain) |
| Abstract: | This paper aims to analyze whether transport connectivity affects interregional trade flows from a spatial dependence approach. In order to do so, we consider two neighboring criteria into a spatial autoregressive model. First, we use the geographical criteria of first-order contiguity and, second, we incorporate transport connectivity. The results provide evidence about the role of the location of logistics platforms for satisfying existing demand for transport structure in Spain. Disaggregated interregional trade data and measures of regional logistics performance are not frequently available and then, this paper justifies the need to advance in these two aspects also in other countries. |
| Keywords: | Interregional trade, transport connectivity, spatial dependence, Spanish regions |
| JEL: | R12 R23 R48 |
| Date: | 2012 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:jau:wpaper:2012/20&r=tre |
| By: | Nolan Ritter; Colin Vance |
| Abstract: | Drawing on household data from Germany, this study econometrically analyzes the determinants of automobile ownership, focusing specifically on the extent to which decreases in family size translate into fewer cars at the national level. Beyond identifying several variables over which policy makers have direct leverage, including the price for fuel, the supply of public transit, and land use features, the analysis uses the estimated coefficients from a multinomial logit model to simulate car ownership rates under alternative scenarios pertaining to demographic change and other socioeconomic variables. Our baseline scenario predicts continued increases in the number of cars despite decreases in population, a trend that could be partially offset by substantial increases in fuel prices. |
| Keywords: | Car ownership; demographic change; Germany; multinomial logit; simulation |
| JEL: | C25 D10 R41 |
| Date: | 2012–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:rwi:repape:0385&r=tre |
| By: | Kumo Wolassa L. (African Development Bank) |
| Abstract: | This paper conducted pairwise Granger causality tests between economic growth, economic infrastructure investment, and employment in South Africa for the period 1960-2009 using bivariate vector autoregression (VAR) model with and without a structural break. The result indicates that there is a strong causality between economic infrastructure investment and GDP growth that runs in both directions implying that economic infrastructure investment drives the long term economic growth in South Africa while improved growth feeds back into more public infrastructure investments. We also found a strong two way causal relationship between economic infrastructure investment and public sector employment reflecting the role of such investments on job creation through construction, maintenance and the actual operational activities, while increased employment could in turn contribute to further infrastructure investments indirectly through higher aggregate demand and economic growth. Further, there is a strong unidirectional causal link between economic growth and public sector employment that runs from the former to the latter; and a strong one way causal link between private sector employment and economic growth that runs from the former to the latter. Economic growth appears to be one of the main drivers of public sector jobs but not the private sector ones and that while the private sector employment remains one of the key drivers of growth, the latter does not seem to have translated into more jobs, reflecting the much criticized scenario of jobless growth in the economy. The pairwise causality test results were assessed further using autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) or bounds testing approach for cointegration to assess both the short-and long-run relationships among the variables in question. The bounds test results indicate the presence of steady-state long-run equilibrium relationship between economic growth, economic infrastructure investment, formal employment, and exports and imports of goods and services providing a theoretical foundation for the empirical results of the pairwise Granger causality tests. |
| Date: | 2012–12–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:adb:adbwps:438&r=tre |
| By: | Anita Wölfl; Patrizio Sicari |
| Abstract: | Switzerland has low greenhouse gas emissions per capita as compared to other countries, which reflects the strong reliance on energy sources emitting few greenhouse gas emissions, especially in electricity generation, and little heavy industry. Greenhouse gas emissions have remained almost the same since 1990, as emission reductions in the residential and industrial sector were offset by increases from the transport sector. It is estimated that, in aggregate, marginal abatement costs are relatively high in Switzerland and meeting the 2020 target of a 20% emission reduction below the 1990 level will necessitate more cost effective policies. In particular, more needs to be done in the road transport sector, the domestic sector with the largest potential for emission reductions at relatively low cost. The incentive for energy saving renovations in rented dwellings could be raised by a better design of existing policies. And the policies in the industrial sector could be made more effective with the transition towards linking the Swiss and the EU emission trading systems.<P>Réduire les émissions de gaz à effet de serre pour un coût raisonnable en Suisse<BR>Comparée à d’autres pays, la Suisse émet peu de gaz à effet de serre par habitant, car elle recourt en grande partie à des sources d’énergie qui n’en produisent pas beaucoup, notamment dans le secteur de l’électricité, et son industrie lourde est modeste. Ces émissions sont à peu près stables depuis 1990, leur diminution dans les secteurs résidentiel et industriel ayant été compensée par une hausse dans celui des transports. D’après les estimations, les coûts marginaux de la réduction des émissions sont dans l’ensemble relativement élevés en Suisse et des mesures plus efficaces par rapport à leur coût seront nécessaires pour atteindre l’objectif fixé d’ici 2020, à savoir un retour à 20 % en dessous du niveau de 1990. Il faut en particulier accentuer l’effort dans le secteur des transports routiers, lequel présente le potentiel le plus élevé de réduction des émissions à un coût relativement bas. L’incitation en faveur des travaux d’économie d’énergie dans les logements en location pourrait être renforcée moyennant une meilleure conception des mesures existantes. L’action menée dans le secteur industriel pourrait gagner en efficacité moyennant le couplage progressif des systèmes suisse et communautaire d’échanges de crédits d’émission. |
| Keywords: | Switzerland, agriculture, industry, carbon tax, greenhouse gas emissions, emissions trading system, congestion, CO2, residential sector, Suisse, agriculture, industrie, émissions de gaz à effet de serre, congestion, secteur résidentiel, CO2, système d'échanges de crédits d'émission |
| JEL: | H23 Q18 Q54 Q56 Q58 R41 R48 |
| Date: | 2012–12–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:oec:ecoaaa:1002-en&r=tre |
| By: | Anderson, D. Mark (Montana State University); Rees, Daniel I. (University of Colorado Denver) |
| Abstract: | The Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP) recently announced a goal of reducing drugged driving by 10 percent within three years. In an effort to achieve this goal, ONDCP is encouraging all states to adopt per se drugged driving laws, which make it illegal to operate a motor vehicle with a controlled substance in the system. To date, 16 states have passed per se drugged driving laws, yet little is known about their effectiveness. The current study examines the relationship between these laws and traffic fatalities, the leading cause of death among Americans ages 5 through 34. Our results provide no evidence that per se drugged driving laws reduce traffic fatalities. |
| Keywords: | drugged driving, per se laws, traffic fatalities, marijuana |
| JEL: | I10 I18 |
| Date: | 2012–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp7048&r=tre |
| By: | Nadine Heitmann; Sonja Peterson |
| Abstract: | In this paper, we analyze how much the shipping sector could contribute to global CO2 emission reductions from an efficiency point of view. To do this, a marginal abatement cost curve (MACC) for the shipping sector is generated that can be combined with a MACC for conventional CO2 abatement in the production and consumption sectors around the world. These two MACCs are used to assess the following as regards the various global reduction targets: (a) what the maximum global cost savings would be that could be achieved by abating emissions in the shipping sector, (b) how much the shipping sector could contribute to abating emissions cost efficiently, and (c) what the potential additional costs of implementing a separate solution for the shipping sector would be. The focus is on the year 2020. We find that the shipping sector could always contribute to efficient global emission reductions and thus could always achieve global cost savings, but also that the size of the contribution and the size of cost savings depend heavily on the MACC case assumed, i.e., on how the existence of negative abatement costs is treated in a MACC, and on the reduction potentials and costs of measures assumed |
| Keywords: | climate change, shipping sector, CO2 emissions, marginal abatement cost curve |
| JEL: | Q52 Q54 Q58 |
| Date: | 2012–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:kie:kieliw:1813&r=tre |
| By: | Csaji, Balazs Cs. |
| Abstract: | Mobile phone datasets allow for the analysis of human behavior on an unprecedented scale. The social network, temporal dynamics and mobile behavior of mobile phone users have often been analyzed independently from each other using mobile phone datasets. In this article, we explore the connections between various features of human behavior extracted from a large mobile phone dataset. Our observations are based on the analysis of communication data of 100000 anonymized and randomly chosen individuals in a dataset of communications in Portugal. We show that clustering and principal component analysis allow for a significant dimension reduction with limited loss of information. The most important features are related to geographical location. In particular, we observe that most people spend most of their time at only a few locations. With the help of clustering methods, we then robustly identify home and oce locations and compare the results with ocial census data. Finally, we analyze the geographic spread of users’ frequent locations and show that commuting distances can be reasonably well explained by a gravity model. |
| Date: | 2012 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ner:louvai:info:hdl:2078.1/117630&r=tre |