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on Transport Economics |
| By: | Berliant, Marcus; Watanabe, Hiroki |
| Abstract: | Zipf’s law is one of the best-known empirical regularities in urban economics. There is extensive research on the subject, where each city is treated symmetrically in terms of the cost of transactions with other cities. Recent developments in network theory facilitate the examination of an asymmetric transport network. In a scale-free network, the chance of observing extremes in network connections becomes higher than the Gaussian distribution predicts and therefore it explains the emergence of large clusters. The city-size distribution shares the same pattern. This paper decodes how accessibility of a city to other cities on the transportation network can boost its local economy and explains the city-size distribution as a result of its underlying transportation network structure. Finally, we discuss the endogenous evolution of transport networks. |
| Keywords: | Zipf’s law; city-size distribution; scale-free network |
| JEL: | L14 R12 R40 |
| Date: | 2015–09–19 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:66802&r=all |
| By: | Miquel-Ángel Garcia-López (Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona & IEB); Camille Hémet (Universitat de Barcelona & IEB); Elisabet Viladecans-Marsal (Universitat de Barcelona & IEB) |
| Abstract: | This paper analyzes the influence of transportation infrastructure, and in particular of the Regional Express Rail (RER), on employment and population growth in the Paris metropolitan area between 1968 and 2010. In order to make proper causal inference, we rely on historical instruments and control for all other transportation modes that could be complement or substitute to the RER. A dynamic analysis accounting for spatial heterogeneity reveals that for municipalities located less than 13 kilometers from an RER station, each kilometer closer to the station increases employment and population growth by 12% and 8% respectively. Regarding the time pattern of these effects, we find no impact of the RER expansion on employment growth during the first part of the period, while the effect on population growth appears earlier but declines over time. |
| Keywords: | Urban growth, urban spatial structure, transportation |
| JEL: | R11 R12 R42 L91 |
| Date: | 2015 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ieb:wpaper:doc2015-20&r=all |
| By: | Chao Wei (George Washington University); Shanjun Li (Cornell University) |
| Abstract: | During the recent economic crisis, many countries have adopted stimulus programs designed to achieve two goals: to stimulate economic activity in lagging durable goods sectors and to protect or even enhance environmental quality. The environmental benefits are often viewed and much advocated as co-benefits of economic stimulus. This paper investigates the potential tradeoff between the stimulus and environmental objectives in the context of the popular U.S. Cash-for-Clunkers (CFC) program by developing and estimating a dynamic discrete choice model of vehicle ownership. Results from counterfactual analysis based on several specifications all show that the design elements to achieve environmental benefits significantly limit the program impact on demand stimulus: the cost of vehicle demand stimulus after netting out environmental benefits can be up to 77 percent higher under the program than that from an alternative policy design without the design elements aimed at the environmental objective. |
| Date: | 2015 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:red:sed015:722&r=all |
| By: | Shaun Larcom; Ferdinand Rauch; Tim Willems |
| Abstract: | We estimate that a significant fraction of commuters on the London underground do not travel their optimal route. Consequently, a tube strike (which forced many commuters to experiment with new routes) taught commuters about the existence of superior journeys, bringing about lasting changes in behaviour. This effect is stronger for commuters who live in areas where the tube map is more distorted, thereby pointing towards the importance of informational imperfections. We argue that the information produced by the strike improved network-efficiency. Search costs are unlikely to explain the suboptimal behaviour. Instead, individuals seem to under-experiment in normal times, as a result of which constraints can be welfare-improving. |
| Keywords: | Experimentation, learning, optimization, rationality, search |
| JEL: | D83 L91 R41 |
| Date: | 2015–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cep:cepdps:dp1372&r=all |
| By: | Mauro Massaro (Istiuto Regionale per la Programmazionae Economica della Toscana); Leonardo Piccini (Istiuto Regionale per la Programmazionae Economica della Toscana) |
| Abstract: | Local public transport has long been the object of a complex reform process directed at reducing the costs and improving the supply of services. The strategy proposed at European level is competition on the market, similarly to other local public services. Tuscany has been one of the first regions to actually implement the process. The experiment of a unique bidding system is currently under way, so it might represent a relevant case study on the possible effects of reform. Although not over yet, the competitive bid has already entailed some important transformations in the system of local public transport, starting processes of business integration, consolidation of operators by way of shareholding, and cost efficiency. |
| Keywords: | public transport, road transport |
| JEL: | R42 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:irp:report:569&r=all |
| By: | George Hall (Brandeis University); Adam Copeland (Federal Reserve Bank of New York); Louis Maccini (Johns Hopkins University) |
| Abstract: | We study the impact of interest rates changes on both the demand and supply of new light vehicles in an environment where consumers and manufacturers face their own interest rates. An increase in the consumers’ interest rate raises their cost of financing and thus lowers the demand for new vehicles. An increase in the manufacturers’ interest rate raises their cost of holding inventories. Both channels have equilibrium e↵ects that are amplified and propagated over time through inventories, which serve as a way to both smooth production and facilitate greater sales at a given price. Through the estimation of a dynamic stochastic market equilibrium model, we find evidence of both channels at work and of the important role played by inventories. A temporary 100 basis-point increase in both interest rates causes vehicle production to fall 12 percent and sales to fall 3.25 percent at an annual rate in the short run. |
| Keywords: | interest rates, automobiles, inventories, Bayesian maximum likelihood |
| JEL: | E44 G31 |
| Date: | 2015–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:brd:wpaper:94&r=all |
| By: | Pierre M. Picard (CREA, Université de Luxembourg); Alessandro Tampieri (CREA, Université de Luxembourg); Xi Wan (CREA, Université de Luxembourg) |
| Abstract: | This paper analyzes optimal slot allocation in the presence of airport congestion. We model peak and offpeak slots as vertically differentiated products, and congestion limits the number of peak slots that the airport can allocate. Inefficiency emerges when the airport does not exploit all its slots. We show that for a private airport, inefficiency may arise if the airport is not too congested and the per-passenger fee is small enough, while with a public airport it does not emerge. Furthermore the airport, irrespective of its ownership, tends to give different slots to flights with same destination if the underlying market is a duopoly, and a single slot if the underlying market is served by a monopoly. |
| Keywords: | Slot allocation, Airport congestion, Vertical differentiation |
| JEL: | R41 H23 H21 |
| Date: | 2015 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:luc:wpaper:15-10&r=all |
| By: | ALVAREZ-SANJAIME, Oscar; CANTOS-SANCHEZ, Pedro; MONER-COLONQUES, Rafael; SEMPERE-MONERRIS, José J. |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cor:louvrp:2503&r=all |
| By: | Robin Burgess; Remi Jedwab; Edward Miguel; Ameet Morjaria; Gerard Padró i Miquel |
| Abstract: | Ethnic favoritism is seen as antithetical to development. This paper provides credible quantification of the extent of ethnic favoritism using data on road building in Kenyan districts across the 1963–2011 period. Guided by a model it then examines whether the transition in and out of democracy under the same president constrains or exacerbates ethnic favoritism. Across the post-independence period, we find strong evidence of ethnic favoritism: districts that share the ethnicity of the president receive twice as much expenditure on roads and have five times the length of paved roads built. This favoritism disappears during periods of democracy. |
| JEL: | D72 H54 J15 O15 O17 O22 R42 |
| Date: | 2015–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ehl:lserod:61947&r=all |
| By: | Bilotkach, Volodymyr; Hüschelrath, Kai |
| Abstract: | In the last two decades, airline alliances were not only successful in extending the size of their networks, but also received approvals by public authorities to intensify their cooperation through to merger-like revenue-sharing joint ventures (JVs). We empirically investigate the impact of the implementation of such joint ventures on both the respective airlines' competitive strategies as well as productive efficiency. Using U.S. DOT T100 International Segment data and applying airline-market fixed effects models, we find that joint ventures - compared to services with a lower degree of cooperation - lead to a 3-5 percent increase in capacity between the respective partner airlines' hub airports; however, this is done at the expense of services elsewhere in the network. Productive efficiency, as measured by load factors, is found to be 0.5-5 percent lower for joint venture routes compared to routes operated under antitrust immunity only. We use our empirical results to discuss implications for the balancing of competition and cooperation in transatlantic airline markets. |
| Keywords: | air transportation,alliances,antitrust immunity,efficiencies,GMM estimator |
| JEL: | L41 L93 K21 |
| Date: | 2015 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:zewdip:15059&r=all |
| By: | Michael Brock (University of East Anglia); Charles Lester |
| Abstract: | This paper provides a snapshot of people's attitudes regarding the facilities housed at Brandon Country Park, a local amenity located in Thetford Forest, Suffolk. Using both short answer face-to-face surveys and a computer-based 'management task', this project invited respondents to indicate whether they felt the park managers were maximising this public amenity and, if not, where alterations could be made to more efficiently utilise this space. Our results indicate that people are reasonably content with the services provided, yet some small improvements could be made to raise the park's appeal and/or efficiency. Alterations could include raising car parking charges and considering more carefully how to target the accessibility of the Park. For the latter, this concerns both the type of activities held and the respective transportation links. The objective of the project was to investigate how Brandon Country Park can operate more effectively. However, it is our belief that these surveys can serve as useful tools for a much wider spectrum of environmental public amenity managers creating some first insights regarding they could perform and take forward key investment and planning decisions. |
| Keywords: | collective decision-making, local public goods, forest management, environmental sustainability, biodiversity conservation |
| JEL: | D71 H4 Q23 Q26 Q28 Q57 |
| Date: | 2015–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:uea:wcbess:15-07&r=all |
| By: | Michael L. Anderson |
| Abstract: | There is strong evidence that short-run fluctuations in air pollution negatively impact infant health and contemporaneous adult health, but there is less evidence on the causal link between long-term exposure to air pollution and increased adult mortality. This project estimates the impact of long-term exposure to air pollution on mortality by leveraging quasi-random variation in pollution levels generated by wind patterns near major highways. We combine geocoded data on the residence of every decedent in Los Angeles over three years, high-frequency wind data, and Census Short Form data. Using these data, we estimate the effect of downwind exposure to highway-generated pollutants on the age-specific mortality rate by using bearing to the nearest major highway as an instrument for pollution exposure. We find that doubling the percentage of time spent downwind of a highway increases mortality among individuals 75 and older by 3.6 to 6.8 percent. These estimates are robust and economically significant. |
| JEL: | I12 Q53 |
| Date: | 2015–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:21578&r=all |
| By: | Vincent FRIGANT; Marina FLAMAND |
| Abstract: | This paper wishes to contribute to the literature about the industrial firms\' motivations to invest in Corporate Venture Capital programs. In a first part, we build a typology on CVC objectives based on a literature review. Then we apply this typology to carmakers’ CVC programs. We study 13 worldwide car manufacturers. Results show a poor interest of car makers vis-à-vis CVC programs. However, the existing programs show that strategic objectives are the most common objectives even if some others objectives are also pursued, like the “relational objective”. Summarizing the results, we identify four typical behaviors of carmakers vis-à-vis CVC programs. We conclude by a discussion about the automotive industry specificity, and we call upon other sectoral studies based on a qualitative method.The diversity of carmakers\' behaviors vis-a-vis the Corporate Venture Capital |
| Keywords: | Corporate Venture Capital, CVC, Innovation, Automotive, Investment strategy, Entrepreneurial Finance |
| JEL: | G3 G34 L62 M13 |
| Date: | 2015 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:grt:wpegrt:2015-24&r=all |