|
on Transport Economics |
| By: | Bastian, Anne (KTH); Börjesson, Maria (KTH); Eliasson, Jonas (KTH) |
| Abstract: | Many western countries have seen a plateau and subsequent decrease of car travel during the 21st century. What has generated particular interest and debate is the statement that the development cannot be explained by changes in traditional explanatory factors such as GDP and fuel prices. Instead, it has been argued, the observed trends are indications of substantial changes in lifestyles, preferences and attitudes to car travel; what we are experiencing is not just a temporary plateau, but a true “peak car”. However, this study shows that the traditional variables GDP and fuel price are in fact enough to explain the observed trends in car traffic in all the countries included in our study: the United States, France, the United Kingdom, Sweden and (to a large extent) Australia and Germany. We argue that the importance of the fuel price increases in the early 2000’s has been underappreciated in the studies that shaped the later debate. Results also indicate that GDP elasticities tend to decrease with rising GDP, and that fuel price elasticities tend to increase at high price levels and during periods of rapid price increases. |
| Keywords: | Peak car; Fuel price elasticity; GDP elasticity; Travel demand |
| JEL: | D61 H54 R41 R42 R48 |
| Date: | 2016–04–19 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:ctswps:2016_013&r=tre |
| By: | Witte, Christian; Marner, Torsten; Klumpp, Matthias |
| Abstract: | The global use of delivery vehicles with combustion motors is increasingly responsible for air pollution and the emission of greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide. For this reason, the use of electric vehicles is discussed in order to minimize the emissions of increasing freight traffic. In many publications a significant future role of electric mobility in the logistics sector is discussed. Especially in the field of reverse logistics high logistical and technical requirements do occur if enterprises make use of electric vehicles. This is particularly due to the large quantities of materials that have to be transported in this specific sector. Central restrictions of electric vehicles like the load weight and the range lead to modified delivery processes. These processes have to be examined to ensure the reliability of reverse logistics if electric vehicles are used. Funded by the State of North Rhine-Westphalia and the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) the project partners FOM University of Applied Sciences, University of Duisburg-Essen (UDE), and the enterprise Noweda and Zentek investigate the operational change areas by using electric vehicles in their common project E-Route. In the field of reverse logistics this research contribution examines the niche in which electric vehicles can be used efficiently. The value of this paper is to provide guidance for further research and to give information for companies who are interested in gaining information concerning the chances and risks of implementing e-vehicles to their existing transport fleet. |
| Date: | 2015 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:fomild:46&r=tre |
| By: | Dumortier, Jerome; Zhang, Fengxiu; Marron, John |
| Abstract: | Taxes on gasoline and diesel are the primary sources of transportation funding at the state and federal level. Due to inflation and improved fuel efficiency, these taxes are increasingly inadequate to maintain the transportation system. In most states and at the federal level, the real fuel tax rates decrease because they are fixed at a cents-per-gallon amount rather than indexed to inflation. In this paper, we provide a forecast on state and federal tax revenue based on different fuel taxation policies such as indexing to inflation, imposing a sales tax on gasoline and diesel, or using a mileage fee on vehicles. We compare how those taxation policies perform compared to the policies states use currently under different macroeconomic conditions relating to the price of oil, economic growth, and vehicle miles traveled. The baselines projections indicate that between 2015 and 2040, fuel tax revenue will decrease 52.2%-54.9% in states that do not index taxes to inflation and 22.6%-22.9% that do currently index to inflation. Switching to a mileage fee increases revenue between 15.6%-26.9% in 2040 compared to 2015. Indexing fuel taxes to inflation in addition to imposing a states' sales tax increases revenue significantly but suffers from a continuous decline in the long-run due to increased fuel efficiency. Our results indicate that although a mileage fee is politically and technologically difficult to achieve, it avoids a declining tax revenue in the long-run. |
| Keywords: | gasoline taxes, diesel taxes, VMT fee, simulation, motor fuel tax revenue, Public Economics, Resource /Energy Economics and Policy, |
| Date: | 2016–04–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:iuspea:233758&r=tre |
| By: | Rabah Arezki; Patrick Bolton; Sanjay Peters; Frederic Samama; Joseph Stiglitz |
| Abstract: | This paper investigates the emerging global landscape for public-private co-investments in infrastructure. The creation of the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank and other so-called “infrastructure investment platforms” are an attempt to tap into the pool of both public and private long-term savings in order to channel the latter into much needed infrastructure projects. This paper puts these new initiatives into perspective by critically reviewing the literature and experience with public private partnerships in infrastructure. It concludes by identifying the main challenges policy makers and other actors will need to confront going forward and to turn infrastructure into an asset class of its own. |
| Keywords: | Infrastructure, public private partnership, long-term investors, savings, and investment policy |
| JEL: | H49 H54 G30 G38 |
| Date: | 2016 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:oxf:oxcrwp:166&r=tre |
| By: | Congressional Budget Office |
| Abstract: | Federal spending on highways does not correspond very well with how the roads are used. CBO examines three approaches lawmakers could consider to make highway spending more productive. |
| JEL: | H41 H54 H76 R41 R42 R48 |
| Date: | 2016–02–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cbo:report:501502&r=tre |
| By: | Catalini, Christian (Massachusetts Institute of Technology); Fons-Rosen, Christian (Universitat Pompeu Fabra); Gaule, Patrick (CERGE-EI) |
| Abstract: | We test how a reduction in travel cost affects the rate and direction of scientific research. Using a fine-grained, scientist-level dataset within chemistry (1991-2012), we find that after Southwest Airlines enters a new route, scientific collaboration increases by 50%, an effect that is magnified when weighting output by quality. The benefits from the lower fares, however, are not uniform across scientist types: younger scientists and scientists that are more productive than their local peers respond the most. Thus, cheaper flights, by reducing frictions otherwise induced by geography and allowing for additional face-to-face interactions, seem to enable better matches over distance. |
| Keywords: | scientific collaboration, air travel, temporary co-location, face-to-face meetings |
| JEL: | O3 R4 L93 |
| Date: | 2016–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp9897&r=tre |
| By: | Loan T. Le (Faculty of Economics, Nong Lam University) |
| Keywords: | Biofuels, Transport, Vietnam |
| Date: | 2016–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:eep:pbrief:pb20160423&r=tre |
| By: | Xu, Kun |
| Abstract: | Despite the great achievement of eliminating poverty, the gap of income between different social classes is still enlarging, and infrastructure construction is deemed as valuable policy for controlling income inequality. This paper firstly testifies if water infrastructures exert significant influence on regional income, and then analyzes the co-mechanism among population, transportation and water infrastructures, and finally verifies heterogeneity of the influence. Empirical results show that: water infrastructure exerts significantly greater impact than population and transportation infrastructure on regional income; population factors and transportation effect on mode of the influence; regional difference exists, that’s eastern and central China show absolutely adverse effect of the influence with western and northern China. Therefore, investment on infrastructure construction needs to decline on, such as sewage, and construction plan should take consideration of, for instance, population of area, blocks, and water reservation, and etc. |
| Keywords: | Urban Water Infrastructure; Income Inequality; Population Growth; Transportation Infrastructure |
| JEL: | H5 O4 |
| Date: | 2015–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:71077&r=tre |