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on Transport Economics |
| By: | Madanat, Samer; Horvath , Arpad; Mao, Chao; Cheng, Han |
| Abstract: | Public transit systems with efficient designs and operating plans can reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions relative to low-occupancy transportation modes, but many current transit systems have not been designed to reduce environmental impacts. This motivates the study of the benefits of design and operational approaches for reducing the environmental impacts of transit systems. For example, transit agencies may replace level-of-service (LOS) by vehicle miles traveled (VMT) as a criterion in evaluating design and operational changes. Previous studies have demonstrated in an idealized singletechnology transit system the potential of reducing GHG emissions by lowering the transit level-of-service (LOS) provided to the users. In this research, we extend the analysis to account for a more realistic case: a transit system with a hierarchical structure (trunk and feeder lines) providing service to a city where demand is elastic. By considering the interactions between the trunk and the feeder systems, the study provides a quantitative basis for designing and operating integrated urban transit systems that can reduce GHG emissions and costs to both transit users and agencies. The study shows that highly elastic transit demand may cancel emission reduction potentials resulting from lowering LOS, due to demand shifts to lower occupancy vehicles, causing unintended consequences. However, for mass transit modes, these potentials are still significant. Transit networks with buses, bus rapid transit or light rail as trunk modes should be designed and operated near the cost-optimal point when the demand is highly elastic, while this is not required for metro. We also find that the potential for unintended consequences increases with the size of the city. The results are robust to uncertainties in the costs and emissions parameters. The study also includes a discussion of a current transit system. Since many current transit systems have not yet been optimally designed, it should be possible to reduce their GHG emissions without sacrificing the LOS. A case study of the MUNI bus system in San Francisco is used to validate this conjecture. The analysis shows that reductions in GHG emissions can be achieved when societal costs are reduced simultaneously. The cost-optimal MUNI bus system has a societal cost of 0.15 billion $/year and emits 1680 metric tons of greenhouse gases. These figures only amount to about half of the cost and a third of the emissions in the current MUNI bus system. The optimal system has a lower spatial availability but a higher temporal availability of bus service than the current system, which highlights the potential benefits of providing more frequent express bus services. |
| Keywords: | Engineering, transit system design, greenhouse gas emission, feeder transit, elasticity, cost minimization, continuum approximation |
| Date: | 2016–05–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cdl:itsrrp:qt25x1b693&r=tre |
| By: | Daganzo, Carlos F; Lehe, Lewis |
| Abstract: | Amid growing recognition of the costs of downtown congestion and scarcity of revenues for new roads, congestion pricing for downtown areas -- a practice we call “zone pricing†-- has begun to receive wide attention. From 1975-2003, zone pricing failed to spread beyond Singapore, but by the 2000’s technological advances had made the practice more widely practical. Now London, Stockholm, Milan and Gothenburg have schemes of their own, and zone pricing is on the agenda in many world cities. The research summarized in this report has sought to advance practical knowledge of zone pricing in several ways. First, we have created a very detailed, scholarly history of zone pricing, covering the circumstances under which cities have implemented zone pricing, what technologies have been used and what results these cities have obtained. Second, we investigated the theory of “usage tolls.†A drawback of all tradition zone pricing systems is that, for practical reasons, they fail to charge different tolls to drivers who use the network to different degrees: someone who enters the downtown and immediately parks pays the same toll as someone who circles for an hour. But with new technology it will be possible to charge drivers for some index of road use, such as how far or how long they travel inside the network. Our research highlights two major advantages of usage tolling: (i) it can reschedule trips in optimal ways; (ii) it can discourage long trips -- such as those traveling across the downtown between points outside -- from happening by car in the first place. In both cases, an interesting result is the added precision of usage tolls means congestion reduction can be accomplished while charging drivers relatively little. We cite this as a political advantage that will help make zone pricing more palatable. |
| Keywords: | Engineering, congestion, pricing, zone pricing, tolls, economics |
| Date: | 2016–04–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cdl:itsrrp:qt39f0v6kq&r=tre |
| By: | Ilker Ersegun Kayhan (Department of Banking and Finance,Eastern Mediterranean University, Gazimagusa, Mersin 10, Turkey); Glenn P. Jenkins (Queen’s University, Canada and Eastern Mediterranean University, North Cyprus) |
| Abstract: | In toll-road projects there is exogenous demand risk. Thus, the government may be required to provide a minimum-traffic guarantee to induce potential private partners to participate. The government must offer the most appropriate level of guarantee while also justifying this controversial fiscal policy tool to society. This study demonstrates the use of financial modeling, risk analysis, and economic evaluation in a toll-road project in Turkey, contributing to the narrowing of a capacity gap in the field. One criterion is proposed to produce a socially equitable guarantee level. This case study exemplifies the policy implications discussed in the conclusions. |
| Keywords: | Toll-road project, financial modelling, economic evaluation, risk analysis, fiscal policy, Turkey |
| JEL: | D61 L91 H54 O52 |
| Date: | 2016–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:qed:dpaper:288&r=tre |
| By: | Woodard, Joshua; Dutta, Tridib; Xue, Lin |
| Abstract: | Interactions between rail and transportation networks on commodity price behavior and grain flows remains an important issue in the agricultural sector, from both an industry and policy perspective. This study explores the determinants of commodity price basis and basis convergence with a particular focus on the influence of futures market speculation in conjunction with rail rates and transportation networks, and finds that speculative positions have a significant widening impact on the basis. An overview of the data automation and data sourcing routines used in the study, employing the Ag-Analytics.org platform, is also presented. |
| Keywords: | Agribusiness, Agricultural and Food Policy, Financial Economics, Public Economics, |
| Date: | 2016 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:aaea16:236159&r=tre |
| By: | Huijink, Sybren (Tilburg University, School of Economics and Management) |
| Abstract: | This dissertation deals with two topics that arise when transportation companies cooperate. The first chapters of this dissertation focus on a cooperation structure used in practice. In this structure, the companies agree on a pricing mechanism for which each company can outsource orders to other members of the structure. The chapters analyze what the pricing mechanism should be and which orders a company should outsource. When cooperating, the companies often have less costs which result in gains. But how should these gains be divided over the companies? Cooperative game theory provides divisions. The focus of the second part is on a new proportional solution concept, the proportionate nucleolus, and a new bankruptcy rule, the clights rule. |
| Date: | 2016 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:tiu:tiutis:56e4dc8a-f5e0-4faa-bd70-4d945d6c03ab&r=tre |
| By: | Jeffrey R. Campbell; Thomas Hubbard |
| Abstract: | Interstate Highway openings were permanent, anticipated demand shocks that increased gasoline demand and sometimes shifted it spatially. We investigate supply responses to these demand shocks, using county-level observations of service station counts and employment and data on highway openings' timing and locations. When the new highway was close to the old route, average producer size increased, beginning one year before it opened. If instead the interstate substantially displaced traffic, the number of producers increased, beginning only after it opened. These dynamics are consistent with Hotelling-style oligopolistic competition with free entry and sunk costs and inconsistent with textbook perfect competition. |
| JEL: | L13 L22 L81 |
| Date: | 2016–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:22289&r=tre |
| By: | Schweizer, Heidi |
| Keywords: | Agricultural and Food Policy, Crop Production/Industries, |
| Date: | 2016–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:aaea16:236025&r=tre |
| By: | Kimbrough, Gray (University of North Carolina at Greensboro, Department of Economics) |
| Abstract: | A wealth of research has shown that the commutes of American women are shorter, both in time and distance, than those of American men. This study takes advantage of a large, nationally representative dataset, the American Time Use Survey (ATUS), to examine this relationship. A basic labor supply model is presented, with testable predictions about relationships between commuting time and worker characteristics that could explain the gender gap. Additionally, the detailed commuting characteristics derived from the ATUS make possible an examination of gender differences in the character of commutes, including the number, length, and type of stops along the way. Results show that women tend to make more stops between home and work. Even controlling for marital status and the presence of children, women are more likely to be accompanied by children for their commute. Moreover, the stops made by women along this journey tend to be longer than those for men. These differences in commute character necessitate the use of a methodology that accounts for stop duration in the calculation of commuting time. Blinder-Oaxaca decompositions are performed to decompose the gender commuting gap by estimating a model in which these characteristics are fully interacted with gender. Results support two previously proposed explanations for the gender commuting gap, based on gender differences in wages and types of jobs held. The evidence does not support the explanation that women's greater household responsibility contributes to the gender commuting gap. |
| Keywords: | commuting; gender; household travel behavior |
| JEL: | J16 J22 R40 |
| Date: | 2016–05–31 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ris:uncgec:2016_004&r=tre |
| By: | Almeida, Alexandre N.; Santos, Augusto S.; Halmenschlager, Vinícius; Gilio, Leandro; Diniz, Tiago B.; Ferreira, Alexandre A. S. |
| Abstract: | The objective of this paper is to investigate the relationship between the fleet of flex-fuels vehicles and CO2 emissions in Brazil. We analyzed the robustness of parametric and semiparametric analyses using a panel data set at the state level from 1998 to 2013. In both analyses, we find that there is a strong negative correlation between CO2 emissions and flex-fuels vehicles. Moreover, our results also suggest that there are: 1) there is evidence of an Environment Kuznets Curve for flex-fuel vehicles; 2) a negative relationship between sugar cane cropped area (due to carbon sequestration) and CO2 emissions and; 3) a positive relationship between livestock and CO2 emissions. |
| Keywords: | flex-fuels vehicles, CO2 emissions, semiparametric models, Brazil, Environmental Economics and Policy, C14, O13, Q53, |
| Date: | 2016–05–24 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:aaea16:235733&r=tre |
| By: | Wetzstein, Brian; Florax, Raymond; Foster, Ken; Binkley, James |
| Keywords: | Marketing, |
| Date: | 2016 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:aaea16:235944&r=tre |
| By: | VINÍCIOS POLONI SANT' ANNA; SÉRGIO KANNEBLEY JÚNIOR |
| Date: | 2016 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:anp:en2015:125&r=tre |
| By: | De Laporte, Aaron; Ripplinger, David |
| Abstract: | Changes in crop prices have encouraged farmers to consider alternatives, such as potential advanced bioenergy feedstocks, including energy beets. This paper employs an integrated biophysical, economic and GIS-based transportation model to examine the supply of beet-bioethanol from five sites in North Daktoa. The study finds that beet bioethanol could provide net benefits to farmers and ethanol producers in the state, under current market conditions, but only if the bioethanol plant site is carefully selected. More specifically, a 20,000,000 gallon ethanol plant in Valley City could have net returns of $436,049. This plant would acquire 760,000 tons of beets from around the plant site and further east toward the Red River Valley from 22,682 acres of cropland an average distance of 15.7 miles away. The average yield of the selected cropland is 33.5 tons/ac with average net farm returns of $26.09/acre above opportunity costs. Opportunity and transportation costs can substantially change the attractiveness of croplands for beet production. The current market opportunity presented by beet bioethanol at $1.50/gal ethanol is not particularly attractive, but as ethanol prices increase, this opportunity could become attractive at a number of sites throughout the state. |
| Keywords: | Energy Beets, Bioenergy Supply, Bioethanol, Agribusiness, Community/Rural/Urban Development, Crop Production/Industries, Farm Management, Industrial Organization, Production Economics, |
| Date: | 2016–08–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:aaea16:235852&r=tre |
| By: | Alderighi, Marco; Gaggero, Alberto A; Piga, Claudio A |
| Abstract: | An often disregarded, albeit central, aspect of the airline pricing's problem consists in assigning a fare to all the available seats on an airplane at the beginning of and during the whole booking period. We show how a flight's fare distribution is set in practice and how it changes over time using evidence from a leading European low-cost carrier. Such pricing behavior is consistent with the main predictions from the theoretical model we present. First, fare distributions are increasing across seats because a lower fare for the seat on sale enhances the likelihood of selling the subsequent seats. Second, over time fare distributions move, on average, downward to reflect the perishable nature of a flight's seats. Third, due to the increasing profile of the fare distributions across seats, we find that the price observed by prospective buyers tends to increase as the date of departure nears. |
| Keywords: | dynamic pricing, option value, seat inventory control, low-cost carriers |
| JEL: | D22 D90 L11 |
| Date: | 2016–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:71674&r=tre |