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on Transport Economics |
| By: | Tainá Souza Pacheco; André Luis Squarize Chagas |
| Abstract: | The São Paulo Metropolitan Area has been suffering for several years from enormous congestions that causes many problems, such as air and noise pollution, and productivity losses. Until now a day, the city has never had a policy to solve the causes of the problem. Automobile users cause external costs to other individuals and do not pay for it. Those who commute by car take into account only private costs, lower than the total social one, which considers also external costs. Thus, there is an excessive use of the roads and, consequently, congestion. A congestion pricing policy imposes to car users an expense as a way to internalize the costs generated to society by them. At the same time, this policy generates revenues for investment in the city's transport system. This work aims to estimate the demand of different transport modes in the São Paulo Metropolitan Area and simulate how the demand would respond to an implementation of a congestion charge for cars, in a specific area of the city. For this, we use a mixed multinomial logit model, based on Origin-Destination Research. As the variable dependent on the modal choice for commuting, we consider six different modes of transport: walking and cycling (1), buses (2), car (3), subway and train (4), taxi (5) and motorcycle (6). As explanatory variables, we use cost and time travel, besides socioeconomic characteristics of the individuals. We simulate the congestion price policy imposing an additional fee to car journeys intended to or that pass through the restricted area. Our results suggest that an urban toll would have a positive impact on reducing the number of car commuters (each $1 fee would reduce in 6.18% the demand for car commuters), increasing the number of trips in other modes, especially public transport (2.18% for buses and 1.16% for subway and train), and non-motorized transport (walking and cycling, 2.53%). As an additional benefit to public budget, the congestion charging generates revenues for the city to invest in transport infrastructure. |
| Keywords: | Congestion Charging; Urban Toll; Mixed Logit; Urban Travel Demand; São Paulo Metropolitan Area. |
| JEL: | R41 D49 C35 |
| Date: | 2016–12–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:spa:wpaper:2016wpecon35&r=tre |
| By: | Marion Drut |
| Abstract: | Spatial and environmental issues related to mobility are exacerbated in urban areas. Road congestion, rivalry of use for parking spaces and air pollution are major issues regularly at the heart of local transportation policies. They have been dealt with through various approaches. Mass transit have recently been fostered as a solution against road congestion and rivalry of use. These spatial issues relate to the space consumed by transportation modes. Private cars are assumed to consume larger quantities of space than mass transit, while offering similar services, namely origin-to-destination trips. Similarly, cars are the most polluting mode and transportation policies fostering bicycles have thrived in order to reduce air pollution, in particular CO2, and NOX emissions and PM. However, private cars remain the leading transportation mode for commuting trips (except in some large cities, such as Paris where mass transit is the leading mode). On the contrary, shared modes such as taxis, car-sharing and self-service cars or bicycles are often overlooked in transportation policies. In this article, I focus on shared modes, namely vehicle-sharing and self-service vehicles. The contribution is twofold. First, I explore the mechanisms through which shared modes help reduce road congestion and rivalry of use for parking spaces, as well as air pollution, compared to private modes. Second, I highlight the fact that transportation modes do not provide similar services to users. Therefore, gross comparisons in terms of time-space consumptions between modes (Marchand, 1993) are oversimplifying. I suggest to put these gross estimations into perspective accounting for additional services provided by transportation modes. Refined measures of time-space consumptions are presented. When the service provided is accounted for, the gap between mass transit and private cars is reduced. More importantly, the results show that car-sharing and self-service cars constitute relevant alternatives to private cars in terms of time-space consumption per unit of service provided. The analysis provides guidelines for decision-makers since it clearly indicates orders of magnitude for time-space consumptions from various transportation modes. The study reveals that both types of shared modes help reduce spatial and environmental issues related to mobility in urban areas and as such constitute key components of a comprehensive and efficient transportation system. For instance, I demonstrate that shared low-carbon modes, such as self-service bicycles, have the potential to reduce simultaneously both spatial (congestion and rivalry of use) and environmental (air pollution) issues in medium-sized city. Furthermore, I mention the limits of the present organization for shared modes. More precisely, the need for institutionalizing is highlighted for car-sharing, and network expansion required for self-service vehicles. |
| Keywords: | mobility; shared modes; spatial issues; time-space consumption |
| JEL: | D6 D61 Q28 Q30 |
| Date: | 2016–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wiw:wiwrsa:ersa16p118&r=tre |
| By: | Mingfei Ma; Ying Jin |
| Abstract: | Beijing has undergone rapid urbanisation from 1950-2010. The main built-up area expanded concentrically from 100 to 1210 km2. Its urban fringe became popular for new developments, some placed haphazardly. The government concentrated efforts in ?stopping concentric fringe expansion?. E.g. on neighbourhood and district levels, the government intended to densify roads, increase neighbourhood density and improve public transport. However, the effects remain unclear. The LUTI model is widely used to assess the effects of planning policies at entire city scale, and generate the whole metropolitan area?s spatial pattern. However, it is insensitive to micro-level (neighbourhood or district) built form change. E.g. there are two policy scenarios with the same floorspace supply quantity, one case is that all houses concentrate around road nodes, the other that houses distribute sparsely. Given equal floorspace provisions, regardless of built form, the LUTI model will compute the same spatial patterns. However, in reality, different built forms will lead to different policy performances. Most LUTI models, to the best of our knowledge, are incapable of measuring this difference. Therefore, this paper augments existing LUTI models with a LUTI framework compliant built form component, allowing investigations into the impact of built form on whole city function. In our newly assembled model, we quantify the effects of built form change on route selection change. Then, the micro-level travel behaviour change is passed to the macro-level MEPLAN transport model (Echenique, 2004, 2011). Finally, we input the MEPLAN results, including generalised travel cost, distance and time, into a LUTI framework (Jin, Echenique, & Hargreaves, 2013) to simulate population distribution, changes on price level and spatial costs. We then apply this model to Beijing?s case in order to: validate the micro built form component in the general LUTI framework; predict the impacts of alternative built forms in reshaping the city?s fringe; gain insights into how built form at the urban fringe shapes the bigger scale spatial structure. We first calibrate a 130-zone recursive spatial equilibrium model using observed data for 1990-2010. Alternative built forms at the urban fringe for 2000 and 2010 that share the same floorspace provision are tested. These scenarios include densification around subway stations and decreasing road density in built-up area. The model results will show each area?s spatial cost from its built form. The analyses suggest that under rapid transformative urban change, the built form has an indirect but significant impact on the economic performance of the entire city, through travel behaviour change. In densification scenarios, access trip length decreases, as does the spatial cost and price level. In road density restriction scenarios, spatial costs increase in the entire city. These results allow understanding of the impact to whole city economic performance from built form at the neighbourhood scale. They also provide insights into designing better built forms, as such design on neighbourhood and district scale are more feasible in practical implementation ? not only for cities in emerging economies but also fast-growing cities in the developed economies that are revisiting the design. |
| Keywords: | Computable general equilibrium; land use-transport interaction model; urban growth; access link; recursive dynamics |
| Date: | 2016–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wiw:wiwrsa:ersa16p203&r=tre |
| By: | Kenneth Gillingham; Anders Munk-Nielsen |
| Abstract: | The consumer price responsiveness of driving demand is central to the welfare consequences of fuel price changes. This study uses rich data covering the entire population of vehicles and consumers in Denmark to find a medium-run price elasticity of driving of -0.30. We uncover an important feature of driving demand: two small groups of much more responsive households that make up the lower and upper tails of the work distance distribution. The first group lives close to work in urban areas. The second group lives outside of major urban areas and has the longest commutes. Access to public transport appears to be the force behind the existence of the tails, enabling the switch away from driving. We find that a fuel price increase of 1 DKK/liter implies an average deadweight loss of 0.66 DKK/liter, but there is considerable heterogeneity and the tails bear a larger share of the loss. |
| JEL: | Q4 Q5 R2 R4 |
| Date: | 2016–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:22937&r=tre |
| By: | Olofsson, Sara (The Swedish Institute for Health Economics (IHE), Lund, Sweden); Gerdtham , Ulf-G (Department of Economics, Lund University); Hultkrantz , Lars (Örebro University, School of Business, Sweden); Persson , Ulf (The Swedish Institute for Health Economics (IHE), Lund, Sweden) |
| Abstract: | The value of a Quality-Adjusted Life-Year (QALY) and the Value of a Statistical Injury (VSI) are important measures within health economics and transport economics. Several studies have therefore estimated people’s WTP for these estimates, but most results show problems with scale insensitivity. The Chained Approach (CA) is a method developed to reduce this problem. The objective of this study was to estimate the value of a QALY and VSI in the context of non-fatal road traffic accidents using CA. Data was collected from a total of 800 individuals in the Swedish adult general population using two web-based questionnaires. The result showed evidence of scale sensitivity both within and between samples. The value of a QALY based on trimmed individual estimates where close to constant at €300,000 irrespective of the type and size of the QALY gain. The study shows promising results for using the original CA to estimate the value of a QALY and VSI. It also supports the use of a constant value of a QALY, but at a higher level than what is currently applied by HTA’s. |
| Keywords: | contingent valuation; chained approach; scale sensitivity; quality-adjusted life-years; willingness-to-pay |
| JEL: | D61 D80 I18 J17 |
| Date: | 2016–12–13 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:lunewp:2016_033&r=tre |
| By: | Tovar Reaños, Miguel Angel; Sommerfeld, Katrin |
| Abstract: | This paper provides the first empirical evidence of the distributional effects of subsidies for the purchase of alternative vehicles based on an extended version of Hausman's exact consumer surplus. Consistently with economic theory, we estimate changes in household welfare, inequality and social welfare corresponding to different reforms. First, we find that an additional tax on conventional fuel is regressive. However, returning the additional tax revenue via lump-sum transfers can alleviate this effect. Second, when the additional revenue is also used to finance subsidies for electrical and compressed natural gas (CNG) vehicles, households that own such vehicles experience welfare gains. However, this policy also increases income inequality and decreases social welfare. |
| Keywords: | Transport policies,Distributional effects,Electrical vehicles,Passenger cars |
| JEL: | Q41 R48 C33 |
| Date: | 2016 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:zewdip:16090&r=tre |
| By: | Arik Levinson |
| Abstract: | Economists promote energy taxes as cost-effective. But policymakers raise concerns about their regressivity, or disproportional burden on poorer families, preferring to set energy efficiency standards instead. I first show that in theory, regulations targeting energy efficiency are more regressive than energy taxes, not less. I then provide an example in the context of automotive fuel consumption in the United States: taxing gas would be less regressive than regulating the fuel economy of cars if the two policies are compared on a revenue-equivalent basis. |
| JEL: | H23 |
| Date: | 2016–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:22956&r=tre |
| By: | Matsumura, Toshihiro; Yamagishi, Atsushi |
| Abstract: | We investigate public infrastructure investment that reduces production costs in oligopoly markets. The government decides on its public investment based on cost/benefit analysis that estimates the benefit as a reduction in production costs. In the short run, equilibrium investment falls short of the social optimum level (i.e. underinvestment) because it neglects the welfare gain of the subsequent production expansion. In the long run, equilibrium investment may exceed the social optimum level (i.e. overinvestment), depending on the demand and cost functions. This simple cost/benefit measure is thus conservative in the short run, but may not be from the long-run viewpoint. |
| Keywords: | cost-reducing public investment, free entry market, excessive investment |
| JEL: | D61 H54 L13 |
| Date: | 2016–09–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:75625&r=tre |
| By: | Leonardo Cardoso; Mauricio Bittencourt; Elena Irwin |
| Abstract: | In a competitive market situation, a symmetric price transmission is expected, and the speed of adjustment of the market should be equal, no matter in which direction input prices are going (up or down). When inputs? prices increase, firms need to pass on costs to avoid negative profit situation. When they go down, firms? reaction is in a direction to avoid market share losses. Therefore, if firms react faster when inputs? prices increase than when they decrease (positive asymmetry), it means a capture of consumers? surplus by the firms. When firms? reaction is slowly when inputs? prices decrease than when they decreases (negative asymmetry), the surplus transfer is from firms to consumers. So far, studies regarding price asymmetry in Brazil used only aggregated database, which likely suffers by summation bias. In a hypothetical city with just two gas stations, one with positive asymmetric behavior and other with negative one, there is high chance that this city accepts the null of a symmetric behavior. The present study will try to overcome this problem with a gas station level dataset. The National Agency for Petroleum, Natural Gas and Biofuels (ANP) has a detailed database with weekly information for gas stations in an unbalanced database, where more than 40% of population is covered every week. This firm-level database has information as purchase and selling price for gasoline, name of gas stations, brand and complete address. This information allows answering if there is price asymmetry in Brazil at firm level. Because database has more than 2 million of observations for more than 17.000 different gas stations, it is also possible to obtain results of price asymmetry against fixed effects to check which of these effects matter to change the likelihood of firms to have price asymmetry. Results indicate that there is heterogeneity regarding price transmission among firms: 71% of gas stations had no asymmetry, 23% had a positive asymmetry pattern and 6% of them had negative asymmetry. Regarding which fixed effects could explain the probability to have a positive asymmetry, higher margins, and a minor number of rivals nearby and be a non-white flag increase the probability of having positive asymmetry. These results strength relations between market power and positive asymmetry and inaugurate a link between spatial competition and price asymmetry transmission. |
| Keywords: | Firms heterogeneity; asymmetric price; gas stations; gasoline |
| JEL: | C24 D22 L11 R32 |
| Date: | 2016–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wiw:wiwrsa:ersa16p796&r=tre |
| By: | von Graevenitz, Kathrine |
| Abstract: | This article reports a complete two stage hedonic analysis for road noise. For the estimation of the hedonic price function I develop a spatial research design which simultaneously reduces the risk of omitted variable bias and the risk of measurement error in the noise measure. The preference parameters are identified following the approach developed in Bajari and Benkard (2005) by using a simple functional form for utility. Preferences are very heterogeneous and observable demographic characteristics explain 30 percent of the variation in taste for quiet. Results are used to discuss willingness to pay for noise reductions from two policy measures. |
| Keywords: | hedonic method,traffic noise,preferences,measurement error |
| JEL: | Q51 Q53 R23 R41 D12 |
| Date: | 2016 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:zewdip:16087&r=tre |
| By: | H. Spencer Banzhaf; Taha Kasim |
| Abstract: | Analyses of polities to reduce gasoline consumption have focused on two effects, a compositional effect on the fuel economy of the automotive fleet and a utilization effect on how much people drive. However, the literature has missed a third effect: a matching effect, in which high-utilization households are matched to fuel-efficient vehicles in equilibrium. We show that higher gas prices should lead to stronger assortative matching. Empirical estimates using US micro-level data are consistent with this hypothesis. We find the effect of a gas tax through the matching effect is larger than the compositional effect, with a $1 tax saving 1.7% of gas consumption. |
| JEL: | Q4 Q5 |
| Date: | 2016–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:22983&r=tre |