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on Transport Economics |
| By: | Koorosh Gharehbaghi; Kathryn Robson; Neville Hurst; Maged Georgy |
| Abstract: | The aim of this paper is to review the abandoned "East West link road project" in Melbourne, Australia. Increased population growth, increasing life expectations and rates of family formation combine to place significant pressure on Melbourne’s infrastructure. In addition, the shift from rural to urban living -especially in Melbourne, exacerbates such impacts. Such demands expose the limitations of existing Melbourne transportation networks. As a consequence on-going transportation infrastructure planning is constantly required for greater Melbourne and its authorities, along with some alignment at the national level. Subsequently Melbourne transportation infrastructure planning needs to carefully adopt a long-term approach. While the processes of land acquisition, design and delivery of transportation infrastructure cannot be achieved in the short term, long-standing strategies need to be cautiously established. For Melbourne in particular, the financing of such long-term assets is problematic and thus possess uncertain conditions, especially when dealing with transportation forecasting and future modeling. Going back to mid-1990s such forward transportation planning was essential to ensure a high-level livability for Melbournians. As Melbourne continues to expand both in population and geographically it was to cope with such demand that the East West Link project was proposed. This project was seen as crucial, not only to uphold the livability status, but also to sustain and prolong Melbourne's ageing road transportation infrastructure. However, soon after their election win in late 2014, the Victorian labor government scrapped this project. In doing so, certain transportation outlook was unfortunately neglected. This paper investigates some of the key missed opportunities of the East West Link project. |
| Keywords: | Infrastructure; Traffic Analysis; Transport Infrastructure Development Modeling (TIDM); Transportation Planning and Implementation |
| JEL: | R3 |
| Date: | 2019–01–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:arz:wpaper:eres2019_47&r=all |
| By: | Palm, Matthew; Niemeier, Deb |
| Abstract: | California taxpayers have supported more than a billion dollars of bonds to support affordable infill housing in neighborhoods with access to rail transit. The cost of constructing subsidized affordable housing in California has significantly increased over the past several years, leading the Legislative Analyst’s Office to conclude that the state’s affordable housing construction programs alone cannot solve the state’s housing crisis. There has been limited analysis of the interactions between policies that prioritize affordable housing development in transit- and jobs-rich neighborhoods and the cost of affordable housing in general. To better understand this interaction, this project studied the key drivers of affordable housing production costs across four regional metropolitan areas in California: Metropolitan Transportation Commission (MTC), Sacramento Area Council of Governments (SACOG), San Diego Association of Governments (SANDAG), and Southern California Association of Governments (SCAG). This brief summarizes the findings of that study. View the NCST Project Webpage |
| Keywords: | Business, Social and Behavioral Sciences, Accessibility, Employment, Housing, Land use planning, Policy analysis, Sustainable development, Transit oriented development, Vehicle miles of travel |
| Date: | 2019–08–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cdl:itsdav:qt37g1f9sk&r=all |
| By: | Anne Wenche Emblem; Theis Theisen |
| Abstract: | Over the last decades, there has been considerable interest in the use of tolls on cars driving into towns. Not only has this been a hot political topic; this issue has also attracted substantial attention from economists. The focus in most of the economics literature has been on how tolls impact traffic volumes, and on how tolls may be used to reduce negative externalities of car use. Less attention has been devoted to how property values and house prices inside and outside toll rings may be affected. From the urban economics literature, it is however well known, that local commuters’ cost of accessing centrally located amenities and work-places will be discounted into house prices. The magnitude of this effect will be contingent on the extent to which tolls also reduce congestion, external effects related to noise, etc. Moreover, since the imposition of a toll ring will alter the long-run spatial equilibrium of a town and the surrounding area, it will set into motion processes of sorting and re-location of households, and possibly also a re-location of some work-places. Consequently, the effects of tolls on house prices may be quite different in the short-run and long-run.In this paper we aim to determine the long-run impact of a toll ring on house prices. In order to assess how much a household initially residing outside the toll ring may gain from relocating to a dwelling within the toll ring we construct a simple household model for choice of location. In the empirical part of the paper we exploit a sample of about 15000 dwellings sold during an eight-year period in the Norwegian town of Kristiansand. We estimate various hedonic house price functions that account for not only whether the house lies within the toll ring or not, but also the precise location of houses and the distance from houses to important amenities. Accounting for other factors beside that of toll, that may impact the sales price of a house, is important in order to identify the impact of the toll ring on house prices. Our findings indicate that introducing a toll ring increases the price of houses located inside this ring with 3 percent. We expect that our findings will be useful in the discussion on establishing toll rings around towns, and on road pricing in general. These issues are particularly relevant for the Norwegian context, where tolls recently have become increasingly more important, not only as means to reduce congestion and other negative externalities, but also as a part of financing the construction of new roads. |
| Keywords: | Housing Prices; road toll |
| JEL: | R3 |
| Date: | 2019–01–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:arz:wpaper:eres2019_151&r=all |
| By: | A. Kerem Cosar (University of Virginia); Latchezar Popov (Texas Tech University); Sophie Osotimehin (UQAM) |
| Abstract: | What are the aggregate, sectoral, and regional effects of major technological advances and productivity improvements in shipping goods and transmitting data? This paper aims to provide theoretical and quantitative answers to this question. The theory features a realistic and novel treatment of freight and tradability of services in a multi-sector, multi-region model: each intermediate input, be it a good or a tradable service, requires the complementary supply of hauling and communication, respectively. Their low substitutability bestows transport and communication a critical role in establishing the spatial links between other sectors in the input-output structure. Existing work on modeling and quantifying trade costs, and the input-output structure of the economy typically follow separate tracks, without a unifying framework that treats freight and communication costs as determined by productivities of the sectors supplying these services. Workhorse models of economic geography investigating the effect of transportation technology and infrastructure feature a single-sector model of trade with iceberg trade costs but abstract from realistic input-output linkages in a multi-sector setting. General equilibrium models of the macroeconomy, on the other hand, typically feature a single region and thus abstract from spatial interactions across regions. None of these models distinguish transportation and communication in terms of their substitutability. We bring these two separate approaches together in order to analyze the aggregate, sectoral and regional effects of reductions in the cost of overcoming distance. |
| Date: | 2019 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:red:sed019:237&r=all |
| By: | Bruno de Borger (University of Antwerp); Ismir Mulalic (Technical University of Denmark); Jan Rouwendal (Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam) |
| Abstract: | Most studies of the effects of transport infrastructure on the performance of individual firms have focused on marginal expansions of the rail or highway network over time. In this paper, we study the short-run effects of a large discrete shock in the quality of transport infrastructure, viz. the opening of the Great Belt bridge connecting the Copenhagen area with a neighboring island and the mainland of Denmark. We analyse the effect of the opening of the bridge on the productivity of firms throughout the country using a two-step approach: we estimate firm- and year-specific productivity for a large panel of individual firms, using the approaches developed by Levinsohn and Petrin (2003) and De Loecker (2011). Then, controlling for firm-fixed effects, we relate productivity to a calculated measure of accessibility that captures the effect of the opening of the bridge. We find large productivity effects for firms located in the regions near the bridge, especially for relatively small firms in the construction and retail industry. Estimation results further suggest statistically significant but small positive wage effects throughout the country, even in regions far from the bridge. Finally, there is some evidence that the bridge has stimulated new activities in the Copenhagen region at the expense of firms disappearing on the neighboring island Funen. |
| Keywords: | production functions, productivity, accessibility, agglomeration, transport infrastructure |
| JEL: | R12 H54 O18 |
| Date: | 2019–09–13 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:tin:wpaper:201900065&r=all |
| By: | Rowangould, Dana; Karner, Alex; Wu, Yizheng; Igbinedion, Ofurhe; London, Jonathan |
| Abstract: | Understanding the public health impacts of transportation plans can inform decision making and project prioritization. Because each plan and regional context is different, there is a need for site-specific methods to assess the extent and distribution of health impacts of changes to a region’s transportation system. To fill this need, researchers have developed the Integrated Transport and Health Impact Model (ITHIM), which predicts the public health impacts of transportation and land use scenarios from expected changes in air quality, traffic safety, and physical activity. However, current transportation health impact assessment models (including ITHIM) operate at coarse geographic scales (e.g., region or county) to quantify health changes. This research builds on previous work using ITHIM to generate demographically explicit health outcomes to provide neighborhood-level estimates of public health changes predicted from transportation plan scenarios in Sacramento, California. We assess the impacts of regional transportation plan scenarios on public health via changes in traffic injury and physical activity. Zip-code level results are mapped using a customizable web interface. Illustrative results indicate that the adopted regional transportation plan will lead to improved health outcomes, largely driven by the benefits of increased physical activity. However, these estimates vary widely across the region, with some communities expected to experience adverse impacts and others obtaining higher levels of benefit. We note that some of the variation may be the result of modeling noise, and we identify promising avenues for improving the robustness of estimates at small spatial scales. Disaggregation is important from sustainability and equity perspectives to determine the locations where and populations for whom the physical activity benefits of non-motorized transportation are outweighed by increased exposure to the risk of air pollution and injury or death. Providing an accessible, web-based tool to illustrate the effects of transportation plans and in communities across a region has the potential to elevate health and equity considerations in transportation decision making. The methods developed in this study can be refined and improved and applied elsewhere by modifying the source code, which is publicly available. View the NCST Project Webpage |
| Keywords: | Engineering, Medicine and Health Sciences, Decision support systems, Equity (Justice), Land use planning, Metropolitan planning organizations, Nonmotorized transportation, Performance measurement, Public health, Regional planning, Transportation planning, Websites (Information retrieval) |
| Date: | 2019–06–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cdl:itsdav:qt7g81p3vb&r=all |
| By: | Chris Eves |
| Abstract: | An increasingly important issue facing developing cities is the requirement for more airports or more development of existing airports to cater for the increasing level of business, leisure and tourism air travel.In several major international cities, the airport is located in residential areas that have developed after the construction of the airport, with development further from the actual airport now under aircraft flight paths. In such residential affected suburbs, the issue of aircraft noise is raised, with an emphasis on the impact on property prices and values.There have been numerous research papers addressing the impact on price based on hedonic price models, with most of these studies showing a decline in prices for affected houses, and a smaller number of studies showing that location close to a major airport can result in higher prices due to the employment opportunities provided by major airports such as Heathrow, London.Although these studies have focussed on possible decreases or increases in house prices due to aircraft noise, there have been limited studies in relation to the long-term investment performance of houses under, adjoining or in view of aircraft flight paths and subject to aircraft noise.This paper analyses the residential property sales for 53 suburbs in Brisbane over the period 1988-2017 to assess the investment performance of these suburbs. The suburb selection includes those directly under the existing runway flight paths, several suburbs adjoining existing flight paths, and a range of suburbs that are currently not subject to aircraft noise but will be under the flight paths of the proposed second runway at Brisbane Airport that is under construction.The results show the long-term capital return based on median and average house prices, the long-term volatility and risk/return ratios for each suburb. These are compared based on the level of noise affectations. |
| Keywords: | Aircraft noise; capital growth; House Prices; Investment returns; property stigma |
| JEL: | R3 |
| Date: | 2019–01–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:arz:wpaper:eres2019_51&r=all |
| By: | Matthew Delventhal (Claremont McKenna College) |
| Abstract: | In this paper I develop a quantitative dynamic spatial model of global economic development over the long run. There is an agricultural (ancient) sector and a non-agricultural (modern) sector. Innovation, technology diffusion, and population growth are endogenous. A set of plausible parameter restrictions makes this model susceptible to analysis using classic network theory concepts. Aggregate connectivity is summarized by the largest eigenvalue of the matrix of inverse iceberg transport costs, and the long-run path of the world economy displays threshold behavior. If transport costs are high enough, the world remains in a stagnant, Malthusian steady state; if they are low enough enough, this sets off an endogenous process of sustained growth in population and income. Taking the model to the data, I divide the world into 16,000 1 degree by 1 degree quadrangles. I infer bilateral transport costs by calculating the cheapest route between each pair of locations given the placement of rivers, oceans and mountains. I infer a series of global transport networks using historical estimates of the costs of transport over land and water and their evolution over time. I then simulate the evolution of population and income from the year 1000 until the year 2000 CE. I use the model to calculate two sets of location-specific efficiency parameters, one for the ancient sector and one for the modern sector, that rationalize both the year 1000 population distribution and the year 2000 distribution of income per capita. I then calculate the relative contributions of each set of efficiency wedges, and key historical shifts in transport costs, to the year 2000 variance of per-capita real income. |
| Date: | 2019 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:red:sed019:840&r=all |
| By: | Tunbosun Oyedokun; Neil Dunse; Colin Jones; Jinhyun Hong |
| Abstract: | Active travel continues to gain increasing policy attention and wider acceptance, especially in cities with strong commitment to environmental sustainability. Over the last decade, the promotion of active travel has moved from the fringes of urban transport policy to a much more central role in the planning of cities and their transport networks. Active or sustainable travel, as an alternative to motorised transport modes, is considered an efficient means of reducing energy consumption and carbon emissions in cities while also helping active travellers to maintain quality health and wellbeing. Consequently, cities have continued to introduce policies as well as develop transport strategies that are aimed at ensuring adequate provision of active travel facilities (ATFs) in buildings. Commercial offices as workplace for a large proportion of the city dwellers, are expected to incorporate ATFs in their design to help in promoting active travel in cities. Active travel might be useful for achieving transport, health and green agenda, but its sustainability tends to depend on acceptance by property owners (who should provide relevant facilities) and occupiers (who should demand the facilities during letting). Property investors need to be convinced about the added-value potential of provision of ATFs in terms of lettability and rental value, and is a vital motivation for increased investment, which will help to sustain active travel agenda. However, there is a dearth of evidence whether making provision for ATFs is helping to raise the lettability and rental value of offices to justify their investment. Based on this premise, this study explores the link between active travel policies and the office property market, with a focus on facilities provision, lettability and attitudes of office owners and occupiers, using evidence from British popular bicycle cities. Preliminary findings from analysis of rent and building-specific data obtained from CoStar will be presented. |
| Keywords: | active travel facilities; cycling; lettability; Office Buildings; Rental value |
| JEL: | R3 |
| Date: | 2019–01–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:arz:wpaper:eres2019_193&r=all |
| By: | Tidiane Ly (GATE Lyon Saint-Étienne - Groupe d'analyse et de théorie économique - ENS Lyon - École normale supérieure - Lyon - UL2 - Université Lumière - Lyon 2 - UCBL - Université Claude Bernard Lyon 1 - Université de Lyon - UJM - Université Jean Monnet [Saint-Étienne] - Université de Lyon - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, USI - Università della Svizzera italiana) |
| Abstract: | This paper studies local governments' public policies in a metropolitan area plagued by traffic congestion, where both residents and workers consume local public goods. We develop a new spatial sub-metropolitan tax competition model which features a central city surrounded by suburban towns linked by mobile capital and mobile residents who commute to work. We show that Pareto-efficiency is achieved if towns can retain their workers using labor subsidies. Otherwise, traffic congestion in the city is inefficiently high and local governments respond by setting inefficient public policies: (1) the city over-taxes capital and under-taxes residents, which leads to too little capital and too many residents in the city; (2) local public goods are under-provided in the city and over-provided in the towns. |
| Keywords: | Mobility,Tax competition,Urban economics,Traffic congestion,Public goods |
| Date: | 2019 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:wpaper:halshs-02283118&r=all |
| By: | Frondel, Manuel; Horvath, Marco; Vance, Colin; Kihm, Alexander |
| Abstract: | Drawing on panel data on daily fuel prices covering over 5,000 filling stations in Germany, this paper documents a change in the stations' price setting behavior following the introduction of a legally mandated online price portal in 2013. Prior to the portal, positive asymmetry is found on the basis of error correction models, with prices following the "rockets and feathers" pattern that is typically found for fuels. In the aftermath of the portal, by contrast, negative asymmetry is observed: fuel price decreases in response to refinery price decreases are stronger than fuel price increases due to refinery price increases. |
| Keywords: | retail markets,competition,error correction model |
| JEL: | D12 Q41 |
| Date: | 2019 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:rwirep:810&r=all |
| By: | Graham, Daniel J.; Gibbons, Stephen |
| Abstract: | This paper is concerned with the Wider Economic Impacts (WEIs) of transport improvements that arise via scale economies of agglomeration. It reviews the background theory and empirical evidence on agglomeration, explains the link between transport and agglomeration, and describes a three step procedure to appraise agglomeration impacts in a number of different settings. It includes new analytical work on measures of agglomeration and reports agglomeration-productivity elasticity estimates for the UK not previously published in the academic literature. The paper concludes with a set of recommendations for future empirical work on agglomeration and transport appraisal. |
| Keywords: | Agglomeration; Cost benefit analysis; Transport |
| JEL: | J1 |
| Date: | 2019–09–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ehl:lserod:101610&r=all |
| By: | Steven Shavell |
| Abstract: | This article studies a model of liability for automobile accidents in the coming world in which automobiles will be autonomous. In that world, travelers will not be drivers, rendering liability premised on driver fault irrelevant as a means of reducing accident dangers. Moreover, no other conventional principle of individual or of manufacturer liability would serve well to do so. Indeed, in the model considered, strict manufacturer liability, recommended by many commentators, would actually tend to leave accident risks unchanged from their levels in the absence of liability. However, a new form of strict liability––the hallmark of which is that damages would be paid to the state––would be superior to conventional rules of liability in alleviating accident risks and would be easy to administer. |
| JEL: | K13 K2 K32 |
| Date: | 2019–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:26220&r=all |
| By: | de Vos, Duco (Delft University of Technology); van Ham, Maarten (Delft University of Technology); Meijers, Evert J. (Delft University of Technology) |
| Abstract: | Teleworking may increase the willingness to accept a longer commute. This paper presents new evidence of the effect of teleworking on the length of commutes. We use novel panel data from the Netherlands, for the years 2008-2018, and find stronger effects compared to studies that use older data. Between 2008 and 2018 however, the effect was remarkably stable: workers that started teleworking increased their commutes by 12 percent on average. We analyse heterogeneity in the effect of teleworking on commuting across different levels of urbanization and across occupations. This study stresses the effects of teleworking on the geographical scale of labour markets, and provides important inputs for policymakers that aim to promote teleworking. |
| Keywords: | telecommuting, commuting time, information technology, fixed effects |
| JEL: | R11 R41 O18 |
| Date: | 2019–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp12578&r=all |