|
on Transport Economics |
| By: | Michael L. Anderson |
| Abstract: | Public transit accounts for only 1% of U.S. passenger miles traveled but nevertheless attracts strong public support. Using a simple choice model, we predict that transit riders are likely to be individuals who commute along routes with the most severe roadway delays. These individuals’ choices thus have very high marginal impacts on congestion. We test this prediction with data from a sudden strike in 2003 by Los Angeles transit workers. Estimating a regression discontinuity design, we find that average highway delay increases 47% when transit service ceases. This effect is consistent with our model’s predictions and many times larger than earlier estimates, which have generally concluded that public transit provides minimal congestion relief. We find that the net benefits of transit systems appear to be much larger than previously believed. |
| JEL: | R41 R42 R48 |
| Date: | 2013–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:18757&r=tre |
| By: | André De Palma (ENS Cachan - Ecole Normale Supérieure de Cachan - École normale supérieure de Cachan - ENS Cachan); Moez Kilani (EQUIPPE - ECONOMIE QUANTITATIVE, INTEGRATION, POLITIQUES PUBLIQUES ET ECONOMETRIE - Université Lille I - Sciences et technologies); Stef Proost (Center for Economic Studies - CES - KU Leuven - CES - KU Leuven) |
| Abstract: | This paper proposes an analytical formulation of discomfort in mass transit and discusses its micro-economic properties. The formula we introduce reflects real situations faced by the passengers, it has nice mathematical properties and it is easy to compute. The discomfort formulation is used to analyze optimal scheduling and pricing of transit in a dynamic model. |
| Keywords: | Public transport; congestion discomfort; timetable schedul delay cost |
| Date: | 2013–02–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:wpaper:hal-00784303&r=tre |
| By: | Robin Lindsey (Sauder - Sauder School of Business [British Columbia] - University of British Columbia); André De Palma (ENS Cachan - Ecole Normale Supérieure de Cachan - École normale supérieure de Cachan - ENS Cachan) |
| Abstract: | According to the seminal Cost Recovery Theorem the revenues from congestion tolls pay for the capacity costs of an optimal-sized facility if capacity is perfectly divisible, and if user costs and capacity costs have constant scale economies. This paper extends the Theorem to long-run uncertainty about investment costs, user costs, and demand. It proves that if constant scale economies hold at all times and in all states, and if the toll can be varied freely over time and by state, then expected discounted toll revenues cover expected discounted investment costs over a facility's lifetime. If the marginal cost of investment is constant and investment is reversible, then expected cost recovery is also achieved for each investment. Cost recovery is quite sensitive to estimated initial demand, and moderately sensitive to the estimated growth rate of demand. Natural variability in demand can result in substantial surpluses or deficits over a facility's lifetime. |
| Keywords: | Congestion pricing; cost recovery; road capacity; cost uncertainty; demand uncertainty; irreversible investment |
| Date: | 2013–02–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:wpaper:hal-00784299&r=tre |
| By: | Jesus Gonzalez-Feliu (LET - Laboratoire d'économie des transports - CNRS : UMR5593 - Université Lumière - Lyon II - Ecole Nationale des Travaux Publics de l'Etat); Bruno Faivre D'Arcier (LET - Laboratoire d'économie des transports - CNRS : UMR5593 - Université Lumière - Lyon II - Ecole Nationale des Travaux Publics de l'Etat); Josep-Maria Salanova Grau (Hellenic Institute or Transport - Center of Research and Technologie Hellas); Tiphaine Hervé (Interface Transport - Interface Transport); Fernando Zubillaga (Mobility and Logistics Cluster Euskadi - Cluster Movilidad y logística Euskadi); Zeljko Jeftic (Ertico - Ertico ITS); Jean-Baptiste Thebaud (Interface Transport - Interface Transport); Georgia Aifandopoulou (Hellenic Institute or Transport - Center of Research and Technologie Hellas) |
| Abstract: | The deployment of urban logistics solutions is one of the main pending questions in the field of urban goods transport research and practice. Indeed, although several solutions and projects have been tested in the last years, only few of them reach an operational phase and remain viable in time. Through the example of a recently finished demonstration project, this paper presents the main issues related to the deployment of urban logistics solutions form research and development results. More precisely, this paper aims to focus on how the conclusions of pilot actions can be used to forecast the possibilities of deployment for an urban logistics service. First, we present the main stages in deploying a technological or organizational solution, based on the FREILOT project's deployment research and analysis. Then, one of the analysed technologies in the project is presented: the delivery space booking service. After presenting the main business model elements, an example of cost-benefit analysis is proposed, defining the method and the main hypotheses, as well as the main conclusions from the analysis. Then, the main barriers to the deployment of delivery space boking devices are presented. Finally, the paper shows a set of guidelines for public authorities and transport practitioners to deploy urban logistics solutions. |
| Keywords: | urban logistics services; deployment; cost-benefit analysis; barriers; business model |
| Date: | 2013–02–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:wpaper:halshs-00784075&r=tre |
| By: | Platz, T.T.; Hamers, H.J.M. (Tilburg University, Center for Economic Research) |
| Abstract: | This paper introduces cooperative games arising from multi-depot Chinese postman problems and explores the properties of these games. A multi-depot Chinese postman problem (MDCP) is represented by a connected (di)graph G, a set of k depots that is a subset of the vertices of G, and a non-negative weight function on the edges of G. A solution to the MDCP is a minimum weight tour of the (di)graph that visits all edges (arcs) of the graph and that consists of a collection of subtours such that the subtours originate from dierent depots, and each subtour starts and ends at the same depot. A cooperative Chinese postman (CP) game is induced by a MDCP by associating every edge of the graph with a dierent player. This paper characterizes globally and locally k-CP balanced and submodular (di)graphs. A (di)graph G is called globally (locally) k-CP balanced (respectively submodular), if the induced CP game of the corresponding MDCP problem on G is balanced (respectively submodular) for any (some) choice of the locations of the k depots and every non-negative weight function |
| Keywords: | Chinese postman problem;cooperative game;submodularity;bal- ancedness. |
| JEL: | C71 |
| Date: | 2013 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:dgr:kubcen:2013005&r=tre |
| By: | Richard Darbéra (LATTS - Laboratoire Techniques, Territoires et Sociétés - Université Paris-Est Marne-la-Vallée - Ecole des Ponts ParisTech - CNRS : UMR8134) |
| Abstract: | Smartphone apps will render obsolete the economic justifications for setting taxis quotas and for regulating taxi fares since the borderline between street hail (a taxicab monopoly) and telephone booking will be blurred. |
| Keywords: | taxi regulation; smartphone app; |
| Date: | 2012–11–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:journl:halshs-00772705&r=tre |
| By: | Hamers, H.J.M.; Josune Albizuri, M. (Tilburg University, Center for Economic Research) |
| Abstract: | Abstract A Chinese postman (CP) game is induced by a a weighted undirected, connected graph in which the edges are identified as players and a vertex is chosen as post-office location. Granot and Granot (2012) characterized graphs that give rise to CP games that are balanced. This note completes this line of research by characterizing graphs that give rise to CP games that are submodular (totally balanced, respectively). |
| Keywords: | Chinese Postman games;submodularity;totally balancedness |
| JEL: | C71 |
| Date: | 2013 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:dgr:kubcen:2013006&r=tre |
| By: | Philippe Aghion (Harvard University); Antoine Dechezleprêtre (Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment and Centre for Economic Performance, London School of Economics); David Hemous (INSEAD); Ralf Martin (Imperial College Business School and Centre for Economic Performance, London School of Economics); John Van Reenen (Centre for Economic Performance, London School of Economics and NBER) |
| Abstract: | Can directed technical change be used to combat climate change? We construct new firm-level panel data on auto industry innovation distinguishing between “dirty” (internal combustion engine) and “clean” (e.g. electric and hybrid) patents across 80 countries over several decades. We show that firms tend to innovate relatively more in clean technologies when they face higher tax-inclusive fuel prices. Furthermore, there is path dependence in the type of innovation both from aggregate spillovers and from the firm's own innovation history. Using our model we simulate the increases in carbon taxes needed to allow clean to overtake dirty technologies. |
| Keywords: | Climate Change, Innovation, Directed Technical Change, Automobiles |
| Date: | 2012–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fem:femwpa:2012.99&r=tre |