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on Transport Economics |
| By: | Luke Haywood; Martin Koning |
| Abstract: | Preferences for transport activities are often considered only in terms of time and money. Whilst congestion in automobile traffic increases costs by raising trip durations, the same is less obvious in public transport (PT), especially rail-based. This has lead many economic analyses to conclude that there exists a free lunch by reducing the attractiveness of automobile transport at no (or little) cost for PT users. This article argues that congestion in PT - crowding - is also costly. Using survey data from the Paris metro we estimate the degree to which users value comfort in terms of less crowding. Using a contingent valuation method (CVM) we describe marginal willingness to pay over different parts of the distribution of in-vehicle crowding and consider moderating factors. We conclude that the total welfare cost for a trip rises from e2.42 for a seated passenger to e3.69 under the most congested conditions. We apply our results to the cost-benefit analysis of a recent investment in PT in Paris and consider broader implications for transport policy. In particular, we highlight that PT congestion is a first-order urban externality. |
| Keywords: | Evaluation of non-market goods, travel comfort, crowding costs, contingent valuation method, Paris subway |
| JEL: | D6 H8 R4 L9 |
| Date: | 2013 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:diw:diwwpp:dp1293&r=tre |
| By: | Laísa Rachter de Sousa Dias (IE-UFRJ); Rodrigo Ferreira Simões (Cedeplar-UFMG) |
| Abstract: | This article analyzes how investments in transportation infrastructure made by the PROACESSO program affected employment and wages of the municipalities of Minas Gerais, using data on employment and earnings from 2000 to 2010. For this, we use a differences-in-differences strategy that explores variations in the time that the municipalities received investments of the program. First, we discussed how investments in transportation infrastructure can have adverse effects on the peripheral regions. Next, we analyzed the program´s impact on local employment and wages. The results indicate that the greater accessibility favored industries that sell to other locations (industry) and buy inputs produced elsewhere (trade and industry) but hurt the service sector which suffers from increased competition of more diversified and competitive services produced in central locations. |
| Keywords: | transport, infrastructure, economic development, Minas Gerais. |
| JEL: | R58 O18 L98 |
| Date: | 2013–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cdp:texdis:td476&r=tre |
| By: | McCullough, Gerard J. |
| Abstract: | The purpose of this analysis is to estimate the effect that revised truck size and weight (TS&W) restrictions would have on competitive rail-truck markets in the United States. The analysis is based on a classic study of the intercity freight markets that Ann Friedlaender and Richard Spady (FS) published in the Review of Economics and Statistics in 1980.1 The FS study provided a macro-level perspective on the freight markets by focusing on transportation decisions in key industrial sectors—food, wood products, paper, chemicals, automobiles, and so on. The FS analysis and the current update of that analysis complement the short-run estimates of rail-truck competition levels that are commonly obtained using logit-based models of freight demand. For example, a logit model was a central component of the Intermodal Transportation and Inventory Cost (ITIC) Model used by the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) in the 2000 Comprehensive Truck Size and Weight Study. Logit models present a relatively fixed assessment of freight demand that is shipment focused and market specific with respect to both commodities and geographic pairs. The FS analysis is based on a more generalized economic framework in which shippers have the flexibility to choose a range of productive inputs that includes truck and rail freight transportation along with labor, materials and capital. The FS framework thus provides a broader and longer term perspective on the potential effect that changes in TS&W regulations would have on the freight markets. The logit estimates can be viewed as identifying the shorter term, lower bounds of the cross-price elasticities between truck and rail while the FS estimates identify long term, upper bounds. The diversion effects analyzed in the current study are based on a hypothetical ten percent decrease in truck prices. This assumption is based in turn on the TS&W cost effects projected by the DOT in its 2000 Comprehensive Truck Size and Weight Study. Though the projected reduction in truck costs is fairly conservative, the losses of rail market share are significant—on the order of 15 to 20 percent in several key competitive rail-truck markets. The impacts on highway users and on railroad shippers who remain on the rail network are also significant. The projected increase in heavy truck traffic is 3.05 billion vehicle miles per year and the projected loss in base year railroad net income is $750 million per year. Total railroad net income in the base year was just $3.2 billion. |
| Keywords: | Research Methods/ Statistical Methods, |
| Date: | 2013–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:umaesp:148023&r=tre |
| By: | Wenjie Wu |
| Abstract: | Development of urban transport infrastructures is a key policy focus---particularly in countries like China which have experienced fast urbanisation over the past decade. While existing studies provide marginal values for rail access on the real estate market, little is known about the consequences of local public goods improvements for homeowners' subjective wellbeing using reported happiness data. This paper uses a difference-in-difference method to empirically measure the impact of rail access on homeowners' happiness. My identification strategy takes advantage of micro happiness survey data conducted before-and-after the opening of new rail stations in 2008 Beijing. I deal with the potential concern about the endogeneity in sorting effects by focusing on "stayers" and using non-market (fang gai) housings with pre-determined locations. I find the significantly heterogeneity in the effects from better rail access on homeowners' happiness with respect to different dimensions of residential environment. The welfare estimates suggest that better rail access provided substantial benefits to homeowners' happiness, but these benefits have strong social-spatial differentiations. These findings add to the evidence that transport improvement has an important role to play in influencing local residents' subjective wellbeing. |
| Keywords: | Happiness, transport improvement, Geographical Information System, Wellbeing, China |
| JEL: | D60 H41 R41 |
| Date: | 2013–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cep:sercdp:0134&r=tre |
| By: | Iván Jamett Sasonov (IDEAR - Department of Economics, Universidad Católica del Norte - Chile); Dusan Paredes Araya (IDEAR - Department of Economics, Universidad Católica del Norte - Chile) |
| Abstract: | Importance of Long Distance Commuting (LDC) has increased as result of the continuos reduction of transport costs. This paper formalizes the relationship between LDC and wage through a job search model where a commuting time variable is included. The paper proposes that LDC should be compensated in wage, be increased in distance, and the regions with more commuters? reception should pay higher premium wage. The results suggest a premium in 19% for LDC; but it's depending of the workplace of each commuter, where it reception pay higher premium wage. |
| Keywords: | Long Distance Commuting, Labor Market, Wage, Chile. |
| JEL: | J61 R23 |
| Date: | 2013–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cat:dtecon:dt201301&r=tre |
| By: | Dusan Paredes Araya (IDEAR - Department of Economics, Universidad Católica del Norte - Chile); Iván Jamett Sasonov (IDEAR - Department of Economics, Universidad Católica del Norte - Chile) |
| Abstract: | This paper suggests that long distance commuters obtain a wage compensation of 10% on average. With respect to the length of the trip, wages increase 5.7% per commuted hour. Regions with the highest influx of commuters are simultaneously those with higher wage compensations. This research suggests that the labor market alone does not seem to present evidence which foreshadows a reduction in LDC flows Moreover, this paper display how the labor market offers workers higher incentives in order to maintain the flow of long distance commuting. |
| Keywords: | Long Distance Commuting, Coarsened Exact Marching, wage compensation, wage distance gradient. |
| JEL: | J61 R23 |
| Date: | 2013–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cat:dtecon:dt201302&r=tre |
| By: | John Tang |
| Abstract: | Railroads in Meiji Japan are credited with facilitating factor mobility as well as access to human and financial capital, but the impact on firms is unclear. Using a newly developed firm-level dataset and a difference-in-differences model that exploits the temporal and spatial variation of railroad expansion, I assess the relationship between railways and firm activity across Japan. Results indicate that railroad expansion corresponded with increased firm activity, particularly in manufacturing, although this effect is mitigated in less populous regions. These findings are consistent with industrial agglomeration in areas with larger markets and earlier development among both new and existing establishments. |
| Keywords: | agglomeration, entrepreneurship, firm genealogy, late development |
| JEL: | L26 N75 O53 |
| Date: | 2013 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:csg:ajrcwp:1302&r=tre |