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on Transport Economics |
| By: | Myers Jaffe, Amy |
| Abstract: | The recent emergence of natural gas as an abundant, inexpensive fuel in the United States could prompt a momentous shift in the level of natural gas utilized in the transportation sector. The cost advantage of natural gas vis-à-vis diesel fuel is particularly appealing for vehicles with a high intensity of travel and thus fuel use. Natural gas is already a popular fuel for municipal and fleet vehicles such as transit buses and taxis. In this paper, we investigate the possibility that natural gas could be utilized to provide fuel cost savings, geographic supply diversity and environmental benefits for the heavy-duty trucking sector and whether it can enable a transition to lower carbon transport fuels. We find that a small, cost-effective intervention in markets could support a transition to a commercially sustainable natural gas heavyduty fueling system in the state of California and that this could also advance some of the state’s air quality goals. Our research shows that an initial advanced natural gas fueling system in California could facilitate the expansion to other U.S. states. Such a network would enable a faster transition to renewable natural gas or biogas and waste-to-energy pathways. Stricter efficiency standards for natural gas Class 8 trucks and regulation of methane leakage along the natural gas supply chain would be necessary for natural gas to contribute substantially to California’s climate goals as a trucking fuel. To date, industry has favored less expensive technologies that do not offer the highest level of environmental performance. |
| Keywords: | Engineering |
| Date: | 2019–09–26 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cdl:itsdav:qt23g1443q&r=all |
| By: | Xiaojuan Yu (Huazhong University of Science and Technology); Vincent van den Berg (Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam); Erik Verhoef (Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam) |
| Abstract: | We investigate the impacts of in-vehicle activities of commuters in the autonomous car on aggregate travel patterns. We allow for an autonomous car to affect the utility difference between being at home and being in the vehicle differently than the utility difference between being at work and being in the vehicle, compared to the differences experienced with a normal car. This affects the relative importance of values of travel delays, schedule delays early, and schedule delays late. Hence multiple possible changes in travel patterns may occur when autonomous cars become available. Switching to an autonomous vehicle may impose a net negative or positive externality, by raising the marginal external cost of autonomous cars themselves while lowering that of normal cars. We examine three provision regimes: marginal cost pricing, second-best pricing and profit-maximizing pricing by a private monopoly. The second-best mark-up (over marginal cost) rises with the price sensitivity, due to the increasing marginal external cost. Surprisingly, for the monopoly, mark-up may rise or fall with the price sensitivity, depending on the relative strength of the externality and of market power, where the former tends to raise it, and the latter tends to reduce it. Furthermore, the difference of the mark-up between private monopoly and second-best public provision falls as the demand becomes more price-sensitive. |
| Keywords: | Autonomous cars, Bottleneck model, Traffic congestion, Private vs public provision |
| JEL: | H23 D62 R48 |
| Date: | 2019–09–20 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:tin:wpaper:20190067&r=all |
| By: | Hardman, Scott |
| Abstract: | In this study, the author presents results from a survey of 906 FCV and 12,910 BEV households in California. They investigated the sociodemographic profile of FCV buyers and compare them to BEV households. FCV and BEV households are similar in many areas. There is no significant difference in household income, number of people in the household, number of vehicles in the household, gender, or level of education. However, FCV and BEV households do differ in some key areas. Compared to BEV households, FCV households are slightly older; less own their own home; more live in an apartment, condo, or townhouse; they have owned more alternative fuel vehicles previously (but fewer BEVs); they have higher VMT; and slightly longer commutes. These differences may explain why these households choose to adopt a FCV. As fewer FCV households own their home, and more live in multi-unit dwellings they may have more barriers to accessing recharging from home, which may be why they selected a FCV rather than a BEV. Their slightly longer commutes and higher VMT may mean they perceive FCVs to be a better fit with their household’s travel patterns, though their commutes are well within the range of a BEV. View the NCST Project Webpage |
| Keywords: | Social and Behavioral Sciences, Fuel cell vehicle, battery electric vehicle, electric vehicle |
| Date: | 2019–09–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cdl:itsdav:qt866706mr&r=all |
| By: | Keith Head (Sauder School of Business (Columbia University)); Thierry Mayer (Département d'économie) |
| Abstract: | This paper estimates the role of country-variety comparative advantage in the decision to offshore assembly of more than 2000 models of 197 car brands headquartered in 23 countries. While offshoring in the car industry has risen from 2000 to 2016, the top five offshoring brands account for half the car assembly relocated to low-wage countries. We show that the decision to offshore a particular car model depends on two types of cost (dis)advantage of the home country relative to foreign locations. The first type, the assembly costs common to all models, is estimated via a structural triadic gravity equation. The second effect, model-level comparative advantage, is an interaction between proxies for the model’s skill and capital intensity and headquarter country’s abundance in these factors. |
| Keywords: | Offshoring; Gravity; Multinational Production; Comparative Advantage; Motor Vehicles |
| Date: | 2019–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:spo:wpmain:info:hdl:2441/lmb2g91ru9ipp4r5ubgh2jjtr&r=all |
| By: | Daniel P. Gross |
| Abstract: | Collusion is widely condemned for its negative effects on consumer welfare and market efficiency. In this paper, I show that collusion may also in some cases facilitate the creation of unexpected new sources of value. I bring this possibility into focus through the lens of a historical episode from the 19th century, when colluding railroads in the U.S. South converted 13,000 miles of railroad track to standard gauge over the course of two days in 1886, integrating the South into the national transportation network. Route-level freight traffic data reveal that the gauge change caused a large shift in market share from steamships to railroads, but did not affect total shipments or prices on these routes. Guided by these results, I develop a model of compatibility choice in a collusive market and argue that collusion may have enabled the gauge change to take place as it did, while also tempering the effects on prices and total shipments. |
| JEL: | F14 F15 L15 L41 L92 N71 |
| Date: | 2019–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:26261&r=all |
| By: | SIGUE, Moussa; SIRPE, Gnanderman |
| Abstract: | This paper assesses the non-linear effects of road infrastructure investment on the structural competitiveness of Burkina Faso's economy. After retaining the period from 1980 to 2015, the quadratic and spline estimation revealed a non-linearity between the structural economy competitiveness and investment in road infrastructure. Indeed, the quadratic estimate identified non lineary U-shaped inverted with an optimal threshold of 10.11%. With regard to the spline estimation, it also highlighted this nonlinearity and gave an optimal interval of [5%;15%]. The economic policy implication that emerges from these results is that in order to benefit from optimal structural competitiveness, the investment’s share in road infrastructure in the total investment budget must be between5% and 15%. |
| Keywords: | Structural competitiveness; Investment in road infrastructure; Non-linearity; Burkina Faso |
| JEL: | F43 H54 R42 |
| Date: | 2019–09–23 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:96142&r=all |
| By: | Yang Chen; Linchuan Yang |
| Abstract: | Urban rail transit (URT) plays a major role in mitigating numerous contemporary problems (e.g., traffic congestion and greenhouse gas emissions). A multitude of Chinese cities has released URT development plans. However, construction and operation of URT would cause heavy debt burdens for local government. Value capture schemes can be used to finance URT development and its first step is understanding the relationship between URT and property prices. Though numerous studies in the West have focused on this topic, limited studies have been conducted in urban China. Moreover, most studies are silent on 1) whether or not transfer stations provide larger premiums than non-transfer stations, and 2) whether or not URT accessibility benefits are more perceptible in peripheral areas than in central areas. In light of this, based on 722 residential complexes samples in Shenzhen, China, a set of hedonic pricing models is developed to examine the impacts of URT accessibility on property values. The findings are as followings: (1) URT accessibility offers positive externalities; (2) An inverted-U relationship exists between URT accessibility and property prices; (3) Transfer stations provide larger accessibility benefits than non-transfer stations; (4) the URT accessibility benefits are more notable in peripheral areas than in central areas. Though the first two findings are in line with most of the relevant studies, the last two findings have seldom been identified in existing studies, which represent the potential contributions of this work. Practical implications of our findings, such as diversified or location-specific value capture schemes are further discussed. |
| Keywords: | Hedonic Pricing Model; Property price; Sub-market effect; Transfer station; Urban rail transit accessibility |
| JEL: | R3 |
| Date: | 2019–01–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:arz:wpaper:eres2019_89&r=all |
| By: | Martin Telecký (Department of Accounting and Finances, Faculty of Economics, University of South Bohemia In České Budějovice) |
| Abstract: | The submitted paper analyses the financial health evaluation of the public transport company. The main goal of the paper is to analyse determining of the provable loss amount in the public line transport, track-based transport and municipal public transport pursuant to Government Decree No. 493/2004 Sb., Regulation No. 241/2005 Sb. and Regulation No. 296/2010 Sb. and the methods of payment of subsidies in the regional and long-distance transport. Basic characteristics or the explanatory power of individual legal regulations addressing the issue of economically substantiated costs and revenues and the payment of the relevant amount of compensation (subsidy) arising from the basic transport services prove that Regulation No. 296/2010 Sb. promotes higher financial drawing from public budgets for the needs of ensuring basic transport services and for the renewal of the fleet as compared with Government Decree No. 493/2004 Sb. in case of the public line transport and Regulation No. 241/2005 Sb. in case of the public track-based transport. The partial goal of the thesis is to classify the cost and revenue items affecting the amount of the subsidy and to propose effective classification in individual groups of economically substantiated costs on the basis of their explanatory power. |
| Keywords: | Public transport, Basic transport services, Provable loss, Economically substantiated costs, Financial health of the company, Public finance |
| JEL: | R40 M41 |
| Date: | 2019–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:boh:wpaper:01_2019&r=all |
| By: | Boarnet, Marlon G.; Burinskiy, Evgeny; Bostic, Raphael; Rodnyansky, Seva; Prohofsky, Allen |
| Abstract: | This project brief summarizes findings from a project aimed at addressing the question of "Is new rail transit associated with displacement of low-income residents in near-rail neighborhoods?" To address this question, the researchers used annual data on household locations and incomes from 1994 to 2012 to examine neighborhood income distributions and the pattern of residential moves by income in Los Angeles rail transit neighborhoods. The Los Angeles metropolitan area presents an ideal study area for analyzing transit-oriented development (TOD) and potential displacement. Since 1990, the Los Angeles Metropolitan Transit Authority (Metro) has opened 93 new rail-transit stations. An additional 17 are under construction. View the NCST Project Webpage |
| Keywords: | Social and Behavioral Sciences, Demographics, Households, Land use, Land values, Persons by socioeconomic levels, Rail transit, Rail transit stations, Real estate development, Socioeconomic development |
| Date: | 2019–09–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cdl:itsdav:qt2hv4h0r8&r=all |
| By: | Richard Blundell; Ran Gu; Søren Leth-Petersen; Hamish Low; Costas Meghir |
| Abstract: | We specify an equilibrium model of car ownership with private information where individuals sell and purchase new and second-hand cars over their life-cycle. Private information induces a transaction cost and distorts the market reducing the value of a car as a savings instrument. We estimate the model using data on car ownership in Denmark, linked to register data. The lemons penalty is estimated to be 18% of the price in the first year of ownership, declining with the length of ownership. It leads to large reductions in the turnover of cars and in the probability of downgrading at job loss. |
| JEL: | D12 D14 D4 E21 |
| Date: | 2019–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:26281&r=all |