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on Transport Economics |
| By: | Xin Deng |
| Abstract: | With the exponential growth of the national vehicle fleet in the last three decades, most cities in China are facing mounting pressure to tackle congestion and air pollution problems caused by motor vehicles. Beijing, the capital city, is a good case to study how municipal governments address those issues. To alleviate road congestion and pollution, the government has invested heavily in road infrastructure, advanced traffic management technology and also introduced stringent standards on vehicular emissions. However, city planners have been over-relying on command and control measures including travel demand management, which have proven to be costly and inefficient in controlling motor vehicle ownership and usage—the fundamental causes of congestion and emissions. Economic measures including road pricing and vehicle registration auction schemes are superior and should be adopted in travel demand management in the future. |
| Keywords: | congestion, air pollution, motor vehicles, China, travel demand management |
| Date: | 2017–02–24 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:een:appswp:201726&r=tre |
| By: | G. de Jong (VU Amsterdam, The Netherlands); C.L. Behrens (VU Amsterdam, The Netherlands); H. van Herk (VU Amsterdam, The Netherlands); E.T. Verhoef (VU Amsterdam, The Netherlands) |
| Abstract: | We posit and empirically test the hypothesis that airlines are able to charge a fare premium in markets that originate in their domestic country relative to similar markets that originate in foreign countries. To this end, we focus on intercontinental one-stop air travel trips for which the main, intercontinental, flight legs are identical, while the feeder legs depart from a mixture of domestic- and foreign origins. We collect a unique database of published fares for such trips and estimate reduced form fare regressions with main flight leg fixed effects. We find that trips from and to domestic airports (compared with foreign airports) are characterized by about 9.5 per cent higher fares, even after adding controls for airport dominance, trip operating costs, the competitive environment and origin catchment area characteristics. These findings demonstrate that airlines have substantial domestic market power, enabling them to raise fares at their domestic airports irrespective of aforementioned market conditions. The magnitude of this domestic country effect is large relative to the traditional airport dominance effect, suggesting that the distinction between domestic- and foreign origins is a crucial determinant of the degree of market power that airlines can exert in the international airline industry. |
| Keywords: | market power, airline competition, price discrimination, international aviation |
| JEL: | L11 L13 L93 R40 |
| Date: | 2017–01–13 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:tin:wpaper:20170009&r=tre |
| By: | Escobari, Diego |
| Abstract: | This paper uses the random-coefficients logit methodology that controls for potential endogeneity of prices and allows for general substitution patterns to estimate various demand systems. The estimation takes advantage of an original ticket-level revealed preference data set on travels from the New York City area to Toronto that contains prices and characteristics of not only flight choices but also of all non-booked alternative flights. Consistent with having higher valuations, our results show that travelers buying closer to departure have a higher utility of flying. Moreover, consumers' heterogeneity decreases as the flight date nears. At the carrier level, we identify which carriers have more price-sensitive consumers and which carriers face greater competition. In addition, the results suggest that our multi-airport metropolitan area can be considered as a single market and that JFK and Newark are relatively closer substitutes. Overall, consumers are more willing to switch to alternative carriers than between airports or departure times. |
| Keywords: | Airline choice; Airport choice; Departure time choice; Substitution patterns; Airline demand; Elasticities |
| JEL: | C33 C36 D12 D40 L93 R41 |
| Date: | 2017–06–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:79857&r=tre |
| By: | Muhammad Adeel; Anthony Gar-On Yeh; Feng Zhang |
| Abstract: | This paper explores public transport related issues and their impact on activity participation in everyday life in the Pakistani urban context. The study is based on primary data collected through questionnaire survey from four case study communities in the twin cities of Rawalpindi and Islamabad, each of whom experience reduced access to public transport. Results show that out of home activity uptake is gender segregated. Men were more likely to travel for almost all activities. They were also more likely to either walk or use public transport for daily activity participation. On the other hand, women participated less frequently in the out of home activities. They were more likely to use personal automobile as well. Quantitative analyses highlight that transport related issues such as the financial costs of travel, availability and quality of public transport played a major role in shaping individual's activity participation. People often cut down their activities that required the use of motorized, particularly public transport. Women appeared to be additionally disadvantaged due to limited access to economic resources and increased reliance on personal means of transportation in the study area. |
| Keywords: | transport policy; public transport; activity participation; poverty; social exclusion; Pakistan |
| JEL: | L91 L96 |
| Date: | 2016–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ehl:lserod:65025&r=tre |
| By: | Alfredo Marvão Pereira; Rui Manuel Pereira (Department of Economics, The College of William and Mary, Williamsburg VA 23187) |
| Abstract: | This study analyzes the effects of infrastructure investment on labor productivity at the industry level using a newly developed data set for infrastructure investments in Portugal. We consider twenty-two sectors and twelve infrastructure assets. We focus on the differential effects on traded and non-traded sectors. We find, first, that investment in national roads have positive effects, particularly large for public services, while the effects of investments in municipal roads are mixed, and investments in highways have mostly benefited the non-traded sectors. Second, we find that railroad investments, and to a lesser extent airports have clearly biased labor productivity gains toward the non-traded sectors, while the effects of port investments are more muted and mixed. Third, for social infrastructure investments, the effects tend to be large and again particularly favorable to the non-traded sectors. Fourth, for public utilities the effects are in general small, with the exception of investments in telecommunications, which have large positive effects mainly on non-traded sectors. We conclude that infrastructure investments have contributed to the growth of labor productivity in Portugal but have done so in a way that has benefitted mostly non-traded goods sectors. This may be a matter of concern for a small open economy in a currency union and with a development model greatly reliant on exports. |
| Keywords: | Infrastructure Investment, Labor Productivity, Traded and non-traded sectors, VAR, Portugal |
| JEL: | C32 E22 H54 O52 L90 L98 |
| Date: | 2017–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:mde:wpaper:0071&r=tre |
| By: | Rosita Dellios |
| Abstract: | Much has been written about China's grand project of the twenty-first century, the Silk Road Economic Belt and the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road—or the Belt and Road Initiative. It is set to lift living standards through the provision of infrastructure and better connectivity where these are lacking. While economic resources are enumerated, and the maps of roads and corridors have been drafted, the cultural dimension is understudied. Beijing has not helped in this regard. Apart from vague slogans like ‘win–win cooperation’, ‘mutual respect’ and ‘community of common destiny’, there has been no concerted effort to showcase China's thought culture that is eminently suited to precisely this type of venture. If collaboration, even more than connectivity, is the necessary glue for bringing the regions of the Belt and Road together, then China needs to heed the advice of its own great philosophers. |
| Keywords: | silk roads, Belt and Road Initiative, Chinese philosophy, China's foreign policy, Bandung spirit |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:een:appswp:201716&r=tre |
| By: | Lonzius, Marc Christopher; Lange, Anne |
| Date: | 2017 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:dar:wpaper:84640&r=tre |
| By: | Flores Aguilar, Adrián; Hidalgo Arellano, Marcos; Peralta Quesada, Leda |
| Abstract: | The present study explores opportunities and challenges to increase energy efficiency in government vehicle fleets through electrification. It identifies international best practices in relation to fleet electrification, suggests the most suitable comprehensive approach for a fleet transition, and recommends the most immediate actions to deploy. Considering the leading role that the public sector plays in promoting the use of renewable energies and enhancing energy efficiency, the study presents a roadmap for government fleet transitions of vehicles that have equivalent alternatives in the market. |
| Keywords: | SISTEMAS DE TRANSPORTE, TRANSPORTE, TRANSPORTE PUBLICO, RECURSOS ENERGETICOS, RENDIMIENTO ENERGETICO, INNOVACIONES TECNOLOGICAS, FINANCIACION, POLITICA DE TRANSPORTE, DESARROLLO SOSTENIBLE, TRANSPORT, TRANSPORT SYSTEMS, PUBLIC TRANSPORT, ENERGY RESOURCES, ENERGY EFFICIENCY, TECHNOLOGICAL INNOVATIONS, FINANCING, TRANSPORT POLICY, SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT |
| Date: | 2017–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ecr:col033:41812&r=tre |
| By: | Khadraoui, Djamel; FELTUS, Christophe |
| Abstract: | Smart Mobility is proved to be a high priority topic in regard to arising European societal challenges. Deploying smart mobility required both technological and monitoring knowledge, and one important key features of the initiative stay in the multiplicity of the final users. Its goal is, depending on the type of users, to provide the required accurate data through a dynamic monitoring application. This implies to collect data coming from physical sensors deployed in all the parking areas of a region. Those sensors are simple, meaning that the information that they can collect is limited to an entry or exit signal of a vehicle. This paper presents an architecture for applying the visualization of smart monitoring architecture to a distributed ubiquity mobility platform and show a deployment in the frame of a use case. The later has been developed in a European region and consists in a smart mobility monitoring project. |
| Keywords: | Mobility; Visualization; Model; Self-adaptability; Self-management; Monitoring; Automatic Context-aware system. |
| JEL: | Y20 Y60 Y90 Z0 |
| Date: | 2017 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:79811&r=tre |
| By: | Hunold, Matthias; Muthers, Johannes |
| Abstract: | We characterize mixed-strategy equilibria in a setting with capacity constrained suppliers which can charge location based prices to different customers. The equilibrium prices weakly increase in the transport distance between supplier and customer, whereas the margins decrease. Despite prices above costs and excess capacities, the competing suppliers exclusively serve their home markets in equilibrium. Competition yields volatile market shares and an inefficient allocation of more distant customers to firms. Even ex-post subcontracting may restore efficiency only partly. The suppliers sometimes do not cross-supply each other as this can intensify competition by relaxing the receiver's capacity constraint. We use our findings to discuss recent competition policy cases and provide hints for a more refined coordinated-effects analysis. |
| Keywords: | Bertrand-Edgeworth,capacity constraints,inefficient competition,spatial price discrimination,subcontracting,transport costs |
| JEL: | L11 L41 L61 |
| Date: | 2017 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:dicedp:254&r=tre |