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on Transport Economics |
| By: | Tay-Ryang Koo; Christine Lim; Frédéric Dobruszkes |
| Abstract: | Unlike income or relative prices, air transport attributes and tourism demand on a given route can be endogenous. Using instrumental variables, this study attempted to account for the circular causality in estimating the effect of direct air service on tourism demand. Although we found evidence of endogeneity, the nature of the circular causation is context-specific; while direct air service can be regarded as an exogenous variable in one direction, it can have an endogenous relationship on the other. Findings emphasise the need to explicate information about the network nature of transportation and its endogenous relations with tourism. |
| Keywords: | Air transport liberalization; Direct air services; Endogeneity; Instrumental variable; LIML estimator; Tourism demand |
| Date: | 2017 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ulb:ulbeco:2013/259047&r=tre |
| By: | Kahlen, M.T.; Ketter, W.; Gupta, A. |
| Abstract: | Electric vehicles have the potential to be used as virtual power plants to provide reliable back-up power. This generates additional profits for carsharing rental firms, who rent vehicles by the minute. We show this by developing a discrete event simulation platform based on real-time locational information (GPS) of 1,100 electric cars from Daimlers carsharing service Car2Go in San Diego, Amsterdam, and Stuttgart. We design trading prices (bids and asks) for participating in the respective operating reserve markets, markets for back-up power guaranteeing replacement when a power source fails, to sell the storage from idle electric vehicles. These trading prices are calibrated and tested with operating reserve market data. We investigate the influence of the charging infrastructure density, battery technology, and rental demand for vehicles on the payoff for the carsharing operator. We show that virtual power plants create sustainable revenue streams for electric vehicle carsharing companies without compromising their rental business. |
| Keywords: | FleetPower, car sharing, virtual power plants, sustainability, smart electricity markets |
| Date: | 2017–10–31 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ems:eureri:102565&r=tre |
| By: | Dürr, Niklas S.; Hüschelrath, Kai |
| Abstract: | We study patterns of entry and exit in the German interurban bus industry in the first three years after its deregulation in January 2013. Using a comprehensive data set of all firm and route entries and exits, we find that the industry grew much quicker than originally expected - with particularly a few new entrants being most successful in quickly extending their route networks from regional to national coverage. Although the clear majority of routes is operated on a monopoly basis, competition does play a key role on routes with a sufficiently large base of (potential) customers. From a spatial perspective, three years after deregulation, the entire interurban bus network connects 60 percent of all 644 larger German cities - with the intensity of entry being dependent on the number of inhabitants, average income, the share of under 24 years old and the presence of intermodal competition by intercity railway services. |
| Keywords: | deregulation,interurban bus services,entry,exit,competition |
| JEL: | L11 L41 L43 L92 K21 K23 |
| Date: | 2017 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:zewdip:17041&r=tre |
| By: | Lukas Buchheim; Martin Watzinger |
| Abstract: | We estimate the causal impact of a sizable German infrastructure investment program on employment at the county level. The program focused on improving the energy efficiency of school buildings, making it possible to use the number of schools as an instrument for investments. We find that the program was effective, creating one job for one year for each €25’000 of investments. The employment gains reached their peak after nine months and dropped to zero quickly after the program’s completion. The reductions in unemployment amounted to two-thirds of the job creation, and employment grew predominately in the construction and non-tradable industries. |
| Keywords: | infrastructure investments, job creation, employment dynamics, countercyclical fiscal policy |
| JEL: | E24 E62 H72 J23 |
| Date: | 2017 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ces:ceswps:_6383&r=tre |
| By: | Anthony Strittmatter; Michael Lechner |
| Abstract: | The disclosure of the VW emission manipulation scandal caused a quasi-experimental market shock in the observable quality of VW diesel vehicles. We consider a classical model for adverse selection and sorting to derive an empirically testable hypothesis about the impact of observable quality on the supply of used cars. We test the hypothesis with data collected from an online car selling platform which reflects about 50% of the German used-car market. The empirical approach is based on a conditional difference-in-differences method. We find that the supply of used VW diesel vehicles increases after the VW emission scandal. This finding is consistent with the predictions of the theoretical model. Furthermore, we find the positive supply effects increase with the probability of manipulation. |
| Keywords: | supply of used cars, quality of durable goods, sorting, difference-in-differences, management fraud |
| JEL: | D82 L15 L62 |
| Date: | 2017 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ces:ceswps:_6480&r=tre |
| By: | A. Kerem Cosar; Banu Demir Pakel |
| Abstract: | We quantify the effect of container technology on transport costs and trade by estimating the modal choice between containerization and breakbulk shipping using micro-level trade data. The model is motivated by novel facts that relate container usage to shipment, destination and firm characteristics. We find container transport to have a higher first-mile cost and a lower distance elasticity, making it cost effective in longer distances. At the median distance across all country pairs, the box decreases variable shipping costs between 16 to 22 percent. The box explains a significant amount of the global trade increase since its inception: a quantitative exercise suggests that Turkish and U.S. maritime exports would have been about two-thirds of what they are today in the absence of containers. |
| Keywords: | containerization, globalization, transportation, trade |
| JEL: | F10 F14 |
| Date: | 2017 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ces:ceswps:_6311&r=tre |
| By: | Scott L. Baier; Amanda Kerr; Yoto V. Yotov |
| Abstract: | We review and interpret the main theoretical developments in the gravity literature from its very early, a-theoretical applications to the latest structural contributions. We also discuss challenges and implement methods to estimate empirical gravity equations. We finish with a presentation and examples of numerical simulations with the structural gravity model. Throughout the analysis we attempt to emphasize the links and importance of transportation costs for the trade literature and we outline avenues where we believe interdisciplinary contributions between the international trade and transportation economics fields will be most valuable. |
| Keywords: | structural gravity, estimation, simulation, transportation costs |
| JEL: | F10 F43 O40 |
| Date: | 2017 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ces:ceswps:_6357&r=tre |
| By: | ISHIKAWA, Jota; TARUI, Norio |
| Abstract: | Trade barriers due to transport costs are as large as those due to tariffs. This paper incorporates the transport sector into a standard model of international trade and studies the effects of trade and industrial policies. Transport firms need to commit to a shipping capacity sufficient for a round trip, with a possible imbalance of shipping volumes in two directions. This imbalance is known as the “backhaul problem.” As transport firms attempt to avoid this problem, a tariff in one sector may affect other independent import and/or export sectors. In particular, domestic tariffs may backfire: domestic exports may also decrease, harming domestic export sectors and the domestic economy. This finding contributes to the literature on how import liberalization may generate a positive effect on the liberalizing country’s exports by identifying a new channel through endogenous changes in transport costs given the backhaul problem. |
| Keywords: | Transport sector, transport cost, backhaul problems, international shipping, tariffs |
| JEL: | F12 F13 R40 |
| Date: | 2017–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hit:hiasdp:hias-e-57&r=tre |
| By: | Mogens Fosgerau (Department of Economics, University of Copenhagen); Gege Jiang (Department of Economics, Hong Kong University of Science and Technology) |
| Abstract: | This paper sets up a rational inattention model for the choice of departure time for a traveler facing random travel time. The traveler chooses how much information to acquire about the travel time out-come before choosing departure time. This reduces the cost of travel time variability compared to models in which the information is exogenously fixed . |
| Keywords: | rational inattention; random travel time variability; value of reliability; discrete choice |
| JEL: | D1 D8 R4 |
| Date: | 2017–09–26 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:kud:kuiedp:1721&r=tre |
| By: | Anuj Kapoor (University of Utah); Catherine Tucker (MIT Sloan) |
| Abstract: | Online rating systems can lead, on occasion, to reviews that are unfair or unrepresentative of the true quality provided. On the one hand, receiving an unfairly low rating once, might induce someone a platform supplier to exert more effort and receive a better rating the next time. On the other hand, it might dispirit suppliers and make them exert less effort. We use data from a ride-sharing platform in India where driver ratings were made particularly salient to the driver after each trip. Our data suggests that if a customer experiences a ride cancellation, they are more likely to unfairly blame the replacement driver. We use this as a exogenous source of unfair negative ratings for the driver. We show that drivers are more likely to respond negatively to a bad rating and receive subsequently bad ratings if they were blameless for the previous negative rating. This effect is larger in contexts where there is a higher potential for an emotional response and when there is a greater need for driver skill in the subsequent ride. |
| Keywords: | The Sharing Economy, User Generated Content, Ratings |
| JEL: | L86 M37 |
| Date: | 2017–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:net:wpaper:1719&r=tre |