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on Transport Economics |
| By: | Géraldine Ang; Virginie Marchal |
| Abstract: | Transport infrastructure is a pillar of economic development and a key contributor to climate change. Globally, transport-related greenhouse gas emissions are expected to double by 2050 in the absence of new policies. There is an urgent need to scale-up and shift transport infrastructure investments towards lowcarbon, climate-resilient transport options and help achieving the environmental, social and economic benefits associated with sustainable transport infrastructure. Given the extent of investment required to meet escalating global transportation infrastructure needs, and the growing strains on public finances, mobilising private investment at pace and at scale will be necessary to facilitate the transition to a greener growth. Investment barriers, however, often limit private investment in sustainable transport infrastructure projects, due to the relatively less attractive risk-return profile of such projects compared to fossil fuelbased alternatives. In part, this can be attributed to market failures and government policies that fall short of accounting for the full costs of carbon-intensive road transport and the benefits of sustainable transport modes. |
| Keywords: | development, transport, infrastructure, climate change, urban planning, transport policies, private investment, climate finance |
| JEL: | G18 L92 O18 Q01 Q50 R40 |
| Date: | 2013–05–21 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:oec:envaaa:56-en&r=tre |
| By: | Lee, Jing Fong Jennifer; Williams, Jeffrey |
| Abstract: | Road users have heterogeneous preferences regarding travel choices, such as time-of-day to travel, routes, and willingness to carpool. Understanding the variation in preferences would allow better modeling of the temporal distribution of travel demand and the development of pricing policies. This study examines the demographic and socioeconomic profiles of motorists at different times of day at six locations in southern California by using on-road remote-sensing measurements and license plates images obtained in 2007 and 2008 by the California South Coast Air Quality Management District (SCAQMD). The remote sensing data provide license plate images in addition to speed, time to the second, and emissions. By matching the license plate images to California Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) registration records, anonymized individual vehicle ownership records can be obtained. The missing demographic and socioeconomic profiles of vehicle owners are supplemented with census data at the spatially fine level of census block group. In contrast to person-based methods like traditional travel surveys, remote sensing methods do not track individuals’ behavior over a day (or longer), but provide several advantages: 1) the precise time log of the trips; 2) fewer missing data since correct license numbers are registered for most of the vehicles passing a monitoring site; and 3) data acquired for any desired length of monitoring time at minimal cost. From 98 remote-sensing emissions monitoring sites, located for the SCAQMD at highway entrances and interchanges with the hope of identifying gross emitters, six sites were chosen for this study for a detailed analysis. Three of these six sites were in Los Angeles County and three in Orange County. The selected sites experienced some of the worst congestion in Los Angeles and Orange counties. The neighborhoods around the study sites represent different land use characteristics, such as residential, shopping, commercial and industrial. By examining the speed patterns of the highway ramps at the monitoring sites, peak hours at four of the six study locations have been identified. Not all the study locations share the same peak-hours pattern, however. Among the four locations with varying speed patterns over a day, three of them were compared with the highway mainline speed data in close proximity to the study sites. The two sets of speed data show close correlations. The peak hours used in this study were based on the actual speed patterns at ramps. This study focuses on the differences of the profiles of motorists during peak and non-peak hours. This study uses a continuous-time survival model to analyze the varying demographic and socioeconomic profiles of motorists in the weekdays in Los Angeles and Orange counties. The availability of the precise time of passing vehicles makes it appropriate for using a continuous time approach. The extended Cox model with a non-parametric baseline hazard is used to accommodate both the time-invariant and time-varying effects of the covariates. The empirical results indicate that those who travel in the peak hours are more likely to be younger, to have lower education attainment, to have lower median household income, more likely to be non-English speakers and to be non-white, and less likely to be in management and professional occupations. This study demonstrates an application of the remote sensing data to the analysis of the costs of traffic congestion at a spatially and temporally disaggregated level. The results show that the burden of congestion is not evenly distributed among income groups. The congestion cost borne by the bottom income group is comparatively small even though they represent the highest share of the total observations at some study locations. |
| Keywords: | Traffic congestion, survival analysis, value of time delay, remote sensing, census proxy, southern California, Environmental Economics and Policy, |
| Date: | 2013 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:aaea13:150017&r=tre |
| By: | Andersson, Henrik |
| JEL: | D61 J17 R41 |
| Date: | 2013–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ner:toulou:http://neeo.univ-tlse1.fr/3478/&r=tre |
| By: | Kenneth Small (Department of Economics, University of California-Irvine); Chen Feng Ng (Department of Economics, California State University at Long Beach) |
| Abstract: | We extend the traditional road investment model, with its focus on capacity and congestion as measures of capital and its utilization, to include free-flow speed as another dimension of capital. This has practical importance because one can view free-flow speed as a continuous proxy for road type (e.g. freeway, arterial, urban street). We derive conditions for optimal investment in capacity and free-flow speed, and analyze the optimal balance between the two. We then estimate cost functions for capital and user costs and apply the resulting model using parameters representing large US urban areas. We show that providing high free-flow speed may be quite expensive, and there is sometimes a tradeoff between it and capacity. We find suggestive evidence that representative freeways in most large urban areas provide too high a free-flow speed relative to capacity, thus making the case for reexamination of typical design practice. |
| Keywords: | Capacity; Free-flow speed; Highway design; Optimal highway investment; Congestion |
| JEL: | L91 R42 |
| Date: | 2013–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:irv:wpaper:121309&r=tre |
| By: | Massimo Florio (DEAS, Universita' di Milano); Silvia Vignetti (CSIL Centre for Industrial Studies) |
| Abstract: | This paper draws and expands from a recent ex-post evaluation carried out for the European Commission aimed at assessing the long term effects produced by a sample of ten major infrastructures in the Transport and Environment sectors and interpreting the key determinants of the observed performance. This evaluation study offered a unique opportunity to draw conclusions on the value of performing ex-post evaluations and to test an innovative evaluation design combining cost-benefit analysis (CBA) with qualitative assessment and adopting a long-run perspective (30 years), which extends into both the past and the future, and requires a mix of retrospective and prospective analysis. This paper presents the potential of ex-post CBA to assess long term impacts of major infrastructure projects and discusses some methodological and institutional implications related to its use. |
| Keywords: | Cost-benefit analysis, Ex-post evaluation, Infrastructures |
| JEL: | D61 H54 R58 |
| Date: | 2013–05–22 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:mst:wpaper:201302&r=tre |
| By: | Jérôme Massiani (Department of Economics, University of Venice Cà Foscari) |
| Abstract: | Stated Preferences are, together with Bass diffusion and, to a lesser extent, Total Cost of Ownership, the most popular methods to forecast the future diffusion of electric and alternative fuel vehicles. In this contribution, we compare the merits and limitations of SP relative to other methods. We also review the empirical results provided by SP surveys and assess their validity for modeling market diffusion. We also propose a meta-analysis-based Synthetic Utility Function that consolidates results across various studies and can be used, for simulation purpose, in a Discrete Choice Model context. Such an approach makes the simulation results less dependent of single surveys’ idiosyncrasies, and hence is helpful for the formulation of robust policy recommendations. |
| Keywords: | Stated Preferences, Alternative fuel vehicle, market diffusion |
| JEL: | C53 O33 |
| Date: | 2013 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ven:wpaper:2013:12&r=tre |
| By: | Nunez, hector; Onal, Hayri |
| Abstract: | In this paper, we simulate the Brazilian agriculture and transportation fuel sectors using a price endogenous mathematical programming model to analyze the impacts of recent changes in fuel policies and strong demand in world sugar markets on producers’ supply responses, consumers’ driving demand, fuel choice, and ethanol trade with the rest of the world. We also determine the land use change, Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emissions, and economic surplus implications. The analysis considers various blending rates and taxation of different types of fuels. The model results show that when the ethanol blending rate is reduced in response to the increased sugar demand and resulting short supply of ethanol, the driving demand by conventional vehicles would be reduced significantly. When the tax rate is dropped by 7.5% and the blending rate remains at high levels, flex-fuel car users would switch from E100 to gasohol. Despite the reduction in driving demand, the total direct GHG emissions from Brazil would increase significantly due to the consumption of a more carbon intensive fuel blend. |
| Keywords: | Price endogenous, mathematical programming, fuel policy, Brazil, land use, greenhouse gas emissions, Environmental Economics and Policy, Resource /Energy Economics and Policy, C61, Q10, Q48, Q54, |
| Date: | 2013 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:aaea13:149973&r=tre |
| By: | Espey, Molly |
| Abstract: | Many aspects of automobile markets have changed significantly over the past decade, from vehicle weigh and power to technology for improvements in fuel economy, fundamentally altering tradeoffs among vehicle characteristics. Further, several significant laws were passed mandating increases in vehicle fuel economy. To understand the impact of such legislation, it is critical to know how consumers value fuel economy and other vehicle characteristics. While previous research has estimated the value of automobile fuel economy using hedonic analysis, this research adds to this literature by examining how this value changes over time, in particular in light of changing fuel prices over time, and highlights the significance of uncertainty in fuel economy measures in making such as estimation. |
| Keywords: | Resource /Energy Economics and Policy, |
| Date: | 2013 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:aaea13:150689&r=tre |
| By: | Vítor Caldeirinha (Centro de Estudos de Gestão; School of Economics and Management (ISEG)); J. Augusto Felício (School of Economics and Management; Technical University of Lisbon); Andreia Dionísio (CEFAGE-UÉ, Évora University (UÉ)) |
| Abstract: | This paper focuses on the port and container terminal characteristics and evaluates its contribution to performance measured by the efficiency, productivity, activity and customer satisfaction. A Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) methodology was developed to determine which factors are characteristics of a port and container terminal. A questionnaire was submitted to senior managers of companies currently operating in twelve container terminals, both Portuguese and Spanish, and 122 validated answers were obtained. The results confirm the influence of the port and terminal characteristics on the terminal container performance through of the efficiency, productivity, and activity level and customer satisfaction. |
| Keywords: | Port characteristics; Container terminal; Terminal performance. |
| JEL: | R42 |
| Date: | 2013 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cfe:wpcefa:2013_13&r=tre |
| By: | Cerruti, Davide |
| Abstract: | The paper analyzes the impact of a vehicle pollution charge (Ecopass), enforced at peak time, on nitrogen oxides concentration in Milan. Using hourly data on pollution concentration and a vector autoregressive model, I estimate the short and long run eects of the policy, the eects outside the Ecopass area and during o-peak time. Results suggest that Ecopass reduced pollution in the short run, but had no eect in the long run. The eect on zones outside Ecopass area is not homogeneous, suggesting substitution eects in some areas of the city. There is no systematic evidence of increased pollution levels during o-peak time due to Ecopass. |
| Keywords: | Environmental Economics and Policy, Public Economics, Resource /Energy Economics and Policy, |
| Date: | 2013 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:aaea13:150575&r=tre |
| By: | Melstrom, Richard T.; Lupi, Frank |
| Abstract: | This paper proposes using a control function to correct for endogeneity in recreation demand models. The control function approach is contrasted with the method of alternative specific constants (ASCs), which has been promoted in prior research. As an application, we consider the case of travel cost endogeneity in the demand for Great Lakes recreational fishing. Using data on Michigan anglers, we employ a random utility model of site choice. We show that either ASCs or the control function will correct for travel cost endogeneity, although we find that the model with ASCs produces significantly weaker results. Overall, compared with traditional approaches control functions may offer a more flexible means to eliminate endogeneity in recreation demand models. |
| Keywords: | Recreation demand, random utility model, travel cost method, travel cost endogeneity, control function, alternative specific constants, recreational fishing, Environmental Economics and Policy, Research Methods/ Statistical Methods, |
| Date: | 2013 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:aaea13:149732&r=tre |
| By: | Hueth, Brent; Taylor, Christopher W. |
| Keywords: | Consumer/Household Economics, Demand and Price Analysis, Livestock Production/Industries, |
| Date: | 2013–06–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:aaea13:150506&r=tre |
| By: | Espey, Molly |
| Keywords: | Resource /Energy Economics and Policy, |
| Date: | 2013 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:aaea13:150691&r=tre |