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on Transport Economics |
| By: | Karen Geurts |
| Abstract: | Recent transport research suggests that car use is reaching its saturation level in many advanced economies. Particularly in metropolitan areas, car use is declining in favour of slow and public transport modes. Also young adults are found to have shifted travel preferences away from private cars. Looking at changes in transport modes for travel to work and school, we find similar trends in Belgium. The results are based on recent mobility data from the Belgian Labour Force Survey (LFS) and the Socio-Economic Survey of 2001. |
| JEL: | R41 |
| Date: | 2014–10–15 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fpb:wpaper:1407&r=tre |
| By: | Carlos Augusto Olarte Bacares (CES - Centre d'économie de la Sorbonne - CNRS : UMR8174 - Université Paris I - Panthéon-Sorbonne) |
| Abstract: | The relationship between accessibility or the degree of improvement of urban transport and criminality has been underestimated and close to forgotten. This paper aims to reveal the importance of public transport policies in the evolution of crime configuration in a city. The hypothesis that the probability of transport improvements in a zone depends on some of its socio-economic characteristics is adopted. The use of the propensity score matching technique reveals that the presence of improvements of public transport in a zone of the city has a direct and significant impact on the increase of some types of crime. Likewise, spatial econometrics results expose that crime tends to be contagious in neighbouring zones. The presence of the Transmilenio system in Bogota may share out criminality to other zones of the city. Negative externalities like the better mobility of offenders and, then, their possible choice to expand their criminal activities to new zones, can spoil the positive effects of enhancement of public transport. Far from suggesting no developing public transport or isolating some "dangerous" neighbourhoods or inhabitants, this article shows that improvement of public transport may not only generate positive externalities; policy makers should take into consideration the mutation and shift of criminal behaviours in order to identify possible solutions such as the construction of more establishments providing health, welfare and sporting activities, as is evoked in the results. In this way, the "boomerang effect" of the improvement to transport will be reduced. |
| Keywords: | Urban public transports improvements; propensity score matching; crime contagion; spatial dependence |
| Date: | 2014–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:journl:halshs-00973408&r=tre |
| By: | Carlos Augusto Olarte Bacares (CES - Centre d'économie de la Sorbonne - CNRS : UMR8174 - Université Paris I - Panthéon-Sorbonne) |
| Abstract: | Previous research has proved the existence of a causal relationship between the concentration of jobs in a city and the income of inhabitants. Other researchers have studied the close and nearly causal relationship between those variables and the infrastructure such as highways in different zones of a city. Nevertheless, no one study has taken into account the degree to which each area of a city benefits from the latest improvements to public transport. The aim of this research is to analyse the relationship between the size of the labour market, the income and the employment concentration with respect to improvements to public transport (Transmilenio) in Bogota. The degree of enhancement of public transport in a zone is suspected to be endogenous. Through the use of OLS estimations and then 2SLS, the validation of endogeneity provides sufficient tools to infer causality of improvement of public transport. The size of companies, defined by the number of jobs they offer, plays the role of instrumental variable. In essence, the number of jobs, the size of the labour market and income are largely defined by the level of improvement to urban public transport in each zone of the city but the causality relationship changes depending on the size of companies established in each zone. In the case of Bogota, public transport improvements seams to have a causality relationship with the income of inhabitants in each zone and the number of jobs, and this changes with respect to the size of enterprises. In contrast, the size of the labour market, defined as the number of jobs reachable in a specific time, is not determined by the degree of the presence of public transport enhancement. |
| Keywords: | Causality; improvements of public transports; endogeneity; effective size of labor market; size of enterprises |
| Date: | 2014–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:journl:halshs-00973398&r=tre |
| By: | Abate, Megersa (VTI) |
| Abstract: | Although the aviation industry is increasingly becoming important for Africa's economic development and integration, the ability of airlines to access foreign markets remains hindered by restrictive regulatory policies. Attempts have been made to fully liberalize the intra-African air transport market. Except for general assertions about the merits/demerits of liberalization, our empirical understanding of the welfare effects of such polices in Africa remains rudimentary. This study empirically measures the economic effects of air transport liberalization, mainly on two supply side variables: fare and service quality, measured as departure frequency. The results show up to 40 % increase in departure frequency in routes that experienced some type of liberalization compared to those governed by restrictive bilateral air service agreements. While the effect of liberalization is substantial in improving service quality, there is no evidence of its fare reducing effect. |
| Keywords: | Air transport; Liberalization; Yamoussoukro decision; Bilateral air service agreements |
| JEL: | L51 L93 R40 |
| Date: | 2014–11–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:ctswps:2014_023&r=tre |
| By: | Mitusch, Kay; Liedtke, Gernot; Guihery, Laurent; Bälz, David |
| Abstract: | We analyse the potential for shifting freight transports to the railways in Western and Central Europe. This potential arises for large and concentrated freight flows over long distances of about 300 km or more. However, we show that there are only few such freight flows in Europe, and that they are concentrated or connected to the central European population centers, sometimes called the "Blue Banana". As a consequence, the European railway freight corridors according to EU Regulation 913/2010 should be divided into two distinct groups: first tier and second tier corridors. Substantial innovations should be introduced on the first tier corridors first, in order to increase efficiency and reduce noise. This refers to core innovations for rolling stock like the introduction of automatic couplings, electronic or electro-pneumatic brakes, and modern bogies. |
| Keywords: | freight transport,railways,corridors,rolling stock,innovation policy |
| JEL: | R48 L92 Q55 |
| Date: | 2014 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:kitwps:61&r=tre |
| By: | René Bohnsack (University of Amsterdam Business School - University of Amsterdam Business School); Jonatan Pinkse (MTS - Management Technologique et Strategique - Grenoble École de Management (GEM)); Ans Kolk (Amsterdam Business School - University of Amsterdam) |
| Abstract: | Sustainable technologies challenge prevailing business practices, especially in industries that depend heavily on the use of fossil fuels. Firms are therefore in need of business models that transform the specific characteristics of sustainable technologies into new ways to create economic value and overcome the barriers that stand in the way of their market penetration. A key issue is the respective impact of incumbent and entrepreneurial firms' path-dependent behaviour on the development of such new business models. Embedded in the literature on business models, this paper explores how incumbent and entrepreneurial firms' path dependencies have affected the evolution of business models for electric vehicles. Based on a qualitative analysis of electric vehicle projects of key industry players over a five-year period (2006-2010), the paper identifies four business model archetypes and traces their evolution over time. Findings suggest that incumbent and entrepreneurial firms approach business model innovation in distinctive ways. Business model evolution shows a series of incremental changes that introduce service-based components, which were initially developed by entrepreneurial firms, to the product. Over time there seems to be some convergence in the business models of incumbents and entrepreneurs in the direction of delivering economy multi-purpose vehicles. |
| Keywords: | Sustainable technology; business models, evolution; path dependencies; electric vehicles |
| Date: | 2014 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:journl:hal-00936886&r=tre |
| By: | Jeon, Hocheol |
| Abstract: | The rising rate of obesity has become a prominent social concern in the U.S. and through-out the world. Several recent literature examines how obesity influences households driving or vehicle choice behavior. While the results in prior studies are compelling, the studies suffer from two shortcomings. First, the researches rely on aggregate data (national or county level), rather than individual level observations, potentially masking important factors determining individual choices on vehicles and driving. Second, while they are able to establish a link between obesity and vehicle choice or driving, linking vehicle choice in turn to overall emissions requires information regarding vehicle miles driven. The objective of this study is to address these two limitations using household observations from the Panel Study of Income Dynamics (PSID), jointly modeling the impact of obesity on the vehicle choice and vehicle miles traveled (VMT). In particular, we investigate the impact of obesity and overweight by employing both reduced-form (linear panel model) and structural model (joint discrete/continuous choice model). Our empirical study suggests that the comprehensive impacts of obesity and overweight on gasoline consumption are little or ambiguous. In other words, the effect of the policy to reduce the rate of obesity and overweight are not as rosy as prior studies expect. |
| Keywords: | Obesity and Overweight, VMT, Fuel Economy, Environmental Economics and Policy, Health Economics and Policy, |
| Date: | 2014–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:aaea14:170550&r=tre |
| By: | REYNAERT, Mathias |
| Abstract: | Emission standards are one of the major policy tools to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from transportation. The welfare effects from this type of regulation depend on how ?firms choose to abate emissions: by changing relative prices, by downsizing their fl?eet or by adopting technology. This paper studies the response of fi?rms to a new emission standard in the European car market using panel data covering 1998-2011. The data show that ?rms choose to comply with the regulation by adopting new technology. To evaluate the welfare e¤ects of the regulation I estimate a structural model using data from before the policy announcement and explicitly test the ability of the model to explain the observed responses. I fi?nd that, because the abatement is done by technology adoption, consumer welfare increases and overall welfare effects depend on market failures in the technology market. The design of the regulation matters to induce technology adoption. |
| Date: | 2014–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ant:wpaper:2014025&r=tre |
| By: | Andrew M. Warner |
| Abstract: | This paper looks at the empirical record whether big infrastructure and public capital drives have succeeded in accelerating economic growth in low-income countries. It looks at big long-lasting drives in public capital spending, as these were arguably clear and exogenous policy decisions. On average the evidence shows only a weak positive association between investment spending and growth and only in the same year, as lagged impacts are not significant. Furthermore, there is little evidence of long term positive impacts. Some individual countries may be exceptions to this general result, as for example Ethiopia in recent years, as high public investment has coincided with high GDP growth, but it is probably too early to draw definitive conclusions. The fact that the positive association is largely instantaneous argues for the importance of either reverse causality, as capital spending tends to be cut in slumps and increased in booms, or Keynesian demand effects, as spending boosts output in the short run. It argues against the importance of long term productivity effects, as these are triggered by the completed investments (which take several years) and not by the mere spending on the investments. In fact a slump in growth rather than a boom has followed many public capital drives of the past. Case studies indicate that public investment drives tend eventually to be financed by borrowing and have been plagued by poor analytics at the time investment projects were chosen, incentive problems and interest-group-infested investment choices. These observations suggest that the current public investment drives will be more likely to succeed if governments do not behave as in the past, and instead take analytical issues seriously and safeguard their decision process against interests that distort public investment decisions. |
| Keywords: | Public investment;External borrowing;Mexico;Bolivia;Korea, Republic of;Taiwan Province of China;Philippines;Capital expenditure;Infrastructure;Economic growth;Cross country analysis;Public Investment; Infrastructure; Economic Growth; Public Capital; Big Push |
| Date: | 2014–08–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:imf:imfwpa:14/148&r=tre |