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on Transport Economics |
| By: | Monica Beuran (World Bank - Washington District of Columbia (United States)); Marie Castaing Gachassin (CES - Centre d'économie de la Sorbonne - CNRS : UMR8174 - Université Paris I - Panthéon-Sorbonne); Gaël Raballand (World Bank - Washington District of Columbia (United States)) |
| Abstract: | As planned large investments in road infrastructure continue to be high on the agenda of many African countries, only few of these countries have actually ammended their investments strategy. In many cases, there seems to be a preference for a status quo that can easily be explained by political economy factors driving the policies in the sector. This paper first presents data on the state of roads in Sub-Saharan Africa (length, density, condition) as well as on investments in the sector over the last decades. It then demonstrates how most countries' strategies are based on some misperceptions and recommends some changes to improve the developmental impact of roads investments. Better prioritization of investments, better procurement and contract management, better projects implementation and better monitoring are still needed, in spite of the efforts observed in the last 10 years. |
| Keywords: | Transport; roads; Sub-Saharan Africa; strategy; infrastructure; procurement |
| Date: | 2013–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:journl:halshs-00830006&r=tre |
| By: | Vigren, Andreas (VTI) |
| Abstract: | The main objective of this paper is to investigate how different factors affect costs for Swedish Public Transport Authorities (PTA). A theoretical framework is presented for the empirics, a cross sectional regression analysis with cost and supply data from 20 Swedish counties for the year 2012. The most important results are that a one percentage increase in output yield a lower than one percentage increase in cost. The usage of incentives scheme contract do not increase total costs. Lastly, contracts operated by publicly owned operators seem to give higher costs for the PTAs. |
| Keywords: | Public Transport; Cost; Competitive Tendering; Public Transport Authority; Bus operators; Incentives contract; Fixed price contract; Incentives scheme |
| JEL: | H57 R48 |
| Date: | 2014–11–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:ctswps:2014_022&r=tre |
| By: | Koichiro Ito; James M. Sallee |
| Abstract: | This paper analyzes "attribute-based regulations," in which regulatory compliance depends upon some secondary attribute that is not the intended target of the regulation. For example, in many countries fuel-economy standards mandate that vehicles have a certain fuel economy, but heavier or larger vehicles are allowed to meet a lower standard. Such policies create perverse incentives to distort the attribute upon which compliance depends. We develop a theoretical framework to predict how actors will respond to attribute-based regulations and to characterize the welfare implications of these responses. To test our theoretical predictions, we exploit quasi-experimental variation in Japanese fuel economy regulations, under which fuel-economy targets are downward-sloping step functions of vehicle weight. Our bunching analysis reveals large distortions to vehicle weight induced by the policy. We then leverage panel data on vehicle redesigns to empirically investigate the welfare implications of attribute-basing, including both potential benefits and likely costs. This latter analysis concerns a "double notched" policy; vehicles are eligible for an incentive if they are above a step function in the two-dimensional fuel economy by weight space. We develop a procedure for analyzing the response to such policies that is new to the literature. |
| JEL: | H23 L62 Q48 |
| Date: | 2014–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:20500&r=tre |
| By: | Johnson, Kathleen W. (Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (U.S.)); Pence, Karen M. (Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (U.S.)); Vine, Daniel J. (Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (U.S.)) |
| Abstract: | Vehicle purchases fell by more than 20 percent during the 2007-09 recession, and auto loan originations fell by a third. We show that vehicle purchases typically account for an outsized share of the contraction in economic activity during a recession, in part because a concurrent tightening in auto lending conditions makes car purchases less affordable for many households. We explore the link between lending conditions and vehicle purchases with a novel gauge of credit supply conditions--household perceptions of vehicle financing conditions as measured on the Reuters/University of Michigan Survey of Consumers. In both a vector auto-regression estimated on aggregate data and a logit regression estimated on household-level data, this measure indicates that credit conditions are a significant influence on auto sales, as large as factors such as unemployment and income. Estimates from the household-level model show that the new car purchases of households that are more likely to depend on credit are particularly sensitive to assessments of financing conditions, and that households are a bit more likely to purchase vehicles when they expect interest rates to rise in the next year. The results contribute to the literature validating the usefulness of survey measures of household perceptions for forecasting macroeconomic activity. |
| Keywords: | Auto loans; auto sales; credit constraints; Michigan Survey of Consumers |
| Date: | 2014–09–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fip:fedgfe:2014-82&r=tre |
| By: | TALARICO, Luca; SÖRENSEN, Kenneth; SPRINGAEL, Johan |
| Abstract: | In this paper, we propose a new metaheuristic to solve the Risk constrained Cash-in-Transit Vehicle Routing Problem (rctvrp). The rctvrp is a variant of the well-known capacitated vehicle routing problem and models the problem of routing vehicles in the cash-in-transit sector. In the rctvrp, the risk associated with a robbery represents a critical aspect that is treated as a limiting factor instead of the vehicle capacity which is typical of capacitated vehicle routing problems. The risk of being robbed is assumed to be proportional both to the amount of cash being transported and the time/distance covered by the vehicle carrying the cash. The maximum vehicle exposure to risk limited by a certain risk threshold. A new metaheuristic, called aLNS (Ant colony heuristic with Large Neighbourhood Search), is described. The aLNS metaheuristic combines the ant colony heuristic for the travelling salesman problem and a large neighbourhood search heuristic within an iterated local search heuristic framework. A new library of rctvrp instances with known optimal solutions is proposed, and split in two sets named set O and set S respectively. The aLNS algorithm is extensively tested on small, medium and large benchmark instances and compared with all existing solution approaches for the rctvrp problem. |
| Keywords: | Vehicle routing, Risk, Security, Cash-in-transit, Metaheuristic |
| Date: | 2014–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ant:wpaper:2014024&r=tre |
| By: | Spruytte, Jonathan; Tahon, Mathieu; Casier, Koen; Verbrugge, Sofie; Colle, Didier; Pickavet, Mario |
| Abstract: | Underground infrastructure installation is prevalent in Belgium and both maintenance and new installations will lead to large costs. Important reductions in these costs are possible by performing road works in synergy. Formerly the overhead of the cooperation and the limited IT tools and data available limited the operators view on possible synergies and made at the same time exploiting these synergies less obvious and more cumbersome. With the increase of detail in the geographical information bases containing all information on the installation per operator, synergies open up more opportunities and could lead to very important reductions in the operators' costs. In order to reap these benefits, a set of challenges should be overcome. This paper indicates how optimization tools on trench structure and GIS planning can aid in exploring this potential. The first approach indicates how the trench can be optimally organized in order to reduce trench depth, width or overall costs. The second approach indicates how existing planning of road works of several infrastructure owners can be mapped to each other. The planned road works can be rescheduled to optimize overlap between infrastructure owners and group smaller road works into larger chunks, still taking into account timing constraint initially set and keeping budget for each period under control. The combination of both optimizations will allow operators to optimally align their mid- and long-term planning and use an optimal trench, reducing costs. It also indicates which data should be shared and how the optimization should be performed. |
| Keywords: | Network deployment,scheduling,infrastructure networks,synergies |
| Date: | 2014 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:itse14:101396&r=tre |
| By: | Juchem Neto, Joao Plinio; Claeyssen, Julio Cesar Ruiz; Porto Junior, Sabino da Silva |
| Abstract: | In this paper we introduce capital transport cost in an unidimensional unbounded economy described by a spatial Solow model with capital-induced labor migration. Proceeding with a linear stability analysis of its spatially homogeneous equilibrium solution, we show that exists a critical value for the capital transport cost where the dynamic behavior of the economy changes, provided the capital-induced labor migration intensity is big enough. On one hand, if capital transport cost is bigger than this critical value, the homogeneous equilibrium of the model is stable, and the economy converges to this spatially homogeneous state in the long run; on the other hand, if transport cost is smaller than this critical value, the equilibrium is unstable, and the economy may develop distinct spatio-temporal dynamics, including the formation of stable economic clusters and spatio-temporal economic cycles, depending on the other parameters of the model. This result, though obtained using a different formalism, is consistent with the main results of the standard core-periphery model used in the New Economic Geography literature, where a small transport cost is essencial to the formation of spatial economic agglomeration. Finally, we close this work validating the linear stability analysis results through numerical simulations, and verifying that the introduction of a positive transport cost in the model causes a break in the symmetry of the spatial economic agglomerations generated. |
| Keywords: | Spatial Solow Model, Regional Science, Economic Agglomeration, Economic Geography. |
| JEL: | O40 R12 |
| Date: | 2014–11–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:59766&r=tre |
| By: | Flores-Fillol, Ricardo; Iozzi, Alberto; Valletti, Tommaso |
| Abstract: | Airports have become platforms that derive revenues from both aeronautical and commercial activities. The demand for these services is characterized by a one-way complementarity in that only air travelers can purchase retail goods at the airport terminals. We analyze a model of optimal airport behavior in which this one-way complementarity is subject to consumer foresight, i.e., consumers may not anticipate in full the ex post retail surplus when purchasing a flight ticket. An airport sets landing fees, and, in addition, also chooses the retail market structure by selecting the number of retail concessions to be awarded. We find that, with perfectly myopic consumers, the airport chooses to attract more passengers via low landing fees, and also sets the minimum possible number of retailers in order to increase the concessions’ revenues, from which it obtains the largest share of profits. However, even a very small amount of anticipation of the consumer surplus from retail activities changes significantly the airport’s choices: the optimal airport policy is dependent on the degree of differentiation in the retail market. When consumers instead have perfect foresight, the airport establishes a very competitive retail market, where consumers enjoy a large surplus. This attracts passengers and it is exploited by the airport by charging higher landing fees, which then constitute the largest share of its profits. Overall, the airport’s profits are maximal when consumers have perfect foresight. Keywords: two-sided markets, platform pricing, one-way demand complementarity, consumer foresight. JEL classification: L1, L2, L93. |
| Keywords: | Organització industrial, Aviació comercial, Aeroports, Comerç al detall, Consumidors, 338 - Situació econòmica. Política econòmica. Gestió, control i planificació de l'economia. Producció. Serveis. Turisme. Preus, |
| Date: | 2014 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:urv:wpaper:2072/242278&r=tre |
| By: | Jean-François Caulier (CES - Centre d'économie de la Sorbonne - CNRS : UMR8174 - Université Paris I - Panthéon-Sorbonne); Michel Grabisch (CES - Centre d'économie de la Sorbonne - CNRS : UMR8174 - Université Paris I - Panthéon-Sorbonne, EEP-PSE - Ecole d'Économie de Paris - Paris School of Economics - Ecole d'Économie de Paris); Agnieszka Rusinowska (CES - Centre d'économie de la Sorbonne - CNRS : UMR8174 - Université Paris I - Panthéon-Sorbonne, EEP-PSE - Ecole d'Économie de Paris - Paris School of Economics - Ecole d'Économie de Paris) |
| Abstract: | Most allocation rules for network games presented in the literature assume that the network structure is fixed. We put explicit emphasis on the construction of networks and examine the dynamic formation of networks whose evolution across time periods is stochastic. Time-series of networks are studied that describe processes of network formation where links may appear or disappear at any period. Moreover, convergence to an efficient network is not necessarily prescribed. Transitions from one network to another are random and yield a Markov chain. We propose the link-based allocation rule for such dynamic random network formation processes and provide its axiomatic characterization. By considering a monotone game and a particular (natural) network formation process we recover the link-based flexible network allocation rule of Jackson. |
| Keywords: | Dynamic networks; network game; link-based allocation rule; Markov chain; characterization |
| Date: | 2013–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:journl:halshs-00881125&r=tre |
| By: | Dreyer, Heiko |
| Abstract: | This contribution argues and proves empirically that trade in agricultural products could be the higher the more distant two trading partners are. Distance in agricultural trade does not only reflect transport costs but also differences in climatic and cultivation conditions and, thus, in resource endowment of two trading partners. A gravity model is enhanced by different variables that capture differences in factor endowment. The model is estimated for an annual panel of agricultural trade flows of nearly 10,000 country pairs for the period 1970 to 2010. We show that the interpretation of the distance coefficient as transport costs’ effect is misleading as the transport cost related effect of distance is underestimated if the model does not account for differences in growing conditions. Particular, a trade increasing effect for North South distance shows up. Moreover, we find that this pattern is clearer the more disaggregated the product group is. |
| Keywords: | Trade, Transport costs, distance, North South, International Relations/Trade, |
| Date: | 2014 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:aaea14:170455&r=tre |