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on Transport Economics |
| By: | Barde, Sylvain (University of Kent); Klein, Alexander (University of Kent) |
| Abstract: | This paper constructs general road transport costs in the United States between 1955 and 2010 combining stock measures of transportation network with fuel consumption, driving speed, fuel prices, and labour costs. This results in a novel data set of 3105×3105 county-pairs for seven benchmark years. Using a county-level counterfactual analysis, we precisely quantify the reduction of the transport cost generated by Interstate Highway System. We document an inverted U-shape pattern for road transport costs, peaking in 1980, explained by initially increasing labor costs, followed by cost reductions due to trucking industry deregulation and the completion of the IHS. |
| Keywords: | Transport costs, Interstate Highway System, Road Network, Dijkstra’s algorithm JEL Classification: N72, N92, O18, R41 |
| Date: | 2021 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cge:wacage:597&r= |
| By: | Nakamura, Ryota; Albanese, Andrea; Coombes, Emma; Suhrcke, Marc |
| Abstract: | This study investigates the impact of economic incentives on travel-related physical activity, leveraging the London Congestion Charge's disincentivising of sedentary travel modes via increasing the cost of private car use within Central London. The scheme imposes charges on most types of cars entering, exiting and operating within the Central London area, while individuals living inside the charging zone are eligible for a 90% reduction in congestion charges. Geographical location information provides the full-digit postcode data necessary to precisely identify the eligibility for the discount of participants in the London Travel Demand Survey for the period 2005-2011. Using a boundary regression-discontinuity design reveals a statistically significant but small impact on active commuting (i.e. cycling and walking) around the border of the charging zone. The effect is larger for lower-income households and car owners. The findings are robust against multiple specifications and validation tests. |
| Keywords: | economic incentive,health behaviour,London Congestion Charge,geographical information system,regression-discontinuity |
| JEL: | D04 I12 R48 |
| Date: | 2021 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:glodps:1006&r= |
| By: | Pike, Susan; Handy, Susan |
| Abstract: | The California Department of Transportation set a goal of doubling walking and transit use and tripling bicycling in the state between 2010 and 2020. However, the most recent comprehensive travel surveys, the 2012 California Household Travel Survey (CHTS) and the California results from the 2017 National Household Travel Survey (NHTS), suggest that the state is moving in the wrong direction. These surveys seemed to show that a smaller share of trips were made by walking or biking in 2017 than in 2012, while private vehicle mode share increased. It is unclear whether the decline represents real changes stemming from various demographic or other factors or is instead related to methodological differences between the two surveys. Researchers at the University of California, Davis used the publicly available 2012 CHTS and 2017 NHTS California add-on data to examine the impact of methodological differences on the changes in mode shares over this five-year period and conducted a preliminary investigation into the role of demographic and other factors in these changes. This policy brief summarizes the findings from that research and provides policy implications. View the NCST Project Webpage |
| Keywords: | Social and Behavioral Sciences, Bicycling, Data preparation, Modal shift, Modal split, Travel behavior, Walking |
| Date: | 2021–12–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cdl:itsdav:qt5cw6c5f5&r= |
| By: | Marion Bachelet (MCC Berlin); Matthias Kalkuhl (MCC Berlin, University of Potsdam); Nicolas Koch (MCC Berlin, Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK), IZA) |
| Abstract: | The COVID-19 pandemic created the largest experiment in working from home. We study how persistent telework may change energy and transport consumption and costs in Germany to assess the distributional and environmental implications when working from home will stick. Based on data from the German Microcensus and available classifications of working-from-home feasibility for different occupations, we calculate the change in energy consumption and travel to work when 15% of employees work full time from home. Our findings suggest that telework translates into an annual increase in heating energy expenditure of 110 euros per worker and a decrease in transport expenditure of 840 euros per worker. All income groups would gain from telework but high-income workers gain twice as much as low-income workers. The value of time saving is between 1.3 and 6 times greater than the savings from reduced travel costs and almost 9 times higher for high-income workers than low-income workers. The direct effects on CO2 emissions due to reduced car commuting amount to 4.5 millions tons of CO2, representing around 3 percent of carbon emissions in the transport sector. |
| Keywords: | commuting, home office, COVID-19, energy expenditure, carbon emissions |
| JEL: | I31 R21 R41 Q41 Q54 |
| Date: | 2022–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pot:cepadp:41&r= |
| By: | Daudin, Guillaume; Héricourt, Jérôme; Patureau, Lise |
| Abstract: | International transport costs do have an additive part. How large is it? Does it matter? This paper provides new answers to these questions. Using information contained in the US imports flows from 1974 to 2019, we develop an empirical model that disentangles the ad-valorem and the additive components of international transport costs. The per-unit component of transport costs represents a sizeable share of total transport costs, between 30% and 45% depending on the year and the transport mode considered. We then investigate the important consequences of additive costs, under two different perspectives. First, modelling varying additive costs modifies the decomposition of transport costs time trend between the reduction in “pure†transport costs and trade composition effects, the latter playing a minor role. Second, we revisit the welfare gains of the transport cost reduction in presence of additive costs. In this regard, we shed light on the welfare variations induced by the international trade acceleration and the “hyper-globalization†, as well as the key role of additive transport costs in determining those welfare variations. Neglecting the additive component substantially underestimates the welfare gains of the transport cost decrease. |
| Keywords: | Transport costs estimates, non-linear econometrics, period 1974-2019, additive costs, trade composition effects, gains from trade |
| Date: | 2022–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cpm:docweb:2203&r= |
| By: | Massimiliano Ferraresi (European Commission, Joint Research Centre (JRC), Ispra, Italy); Leonzio Rizzo (University of Ferrara, Ferrara, Italy and IEB, Barcelona, Spain.); Riccardo Secomandi (University of Ferrara, Ferrara, Italy.) |
| Abstract: | It is widely recognized that politicians deliberately allocate goods and services just prior to the election, and road investments are arguably among the most visible infrastructure to influence voters. Using a comprehensive dataset on Italian municipalities over the period 2010-2015, we test whether investments in roads and transport services are affected by political manipulations close to elections using as independent variables the year-in-term dummies. We exploit the staggered time of local election to show, indeed, that investment spending on road and transport in the year before election is 30% higher than in the electoral year. Further analyses suggest that our results are more marked (i) in cities guided by a mayor who can run for re-election and (ii) in municipalities with a lower share of educated voters. We isolated the portion of the (exogenous) correlation between the probability of observing an accident and the amount of expenditure on road services that is induced by the political cycle by using the year-in-the-term dummies as instruments. We did not detect any relationship between the increase of investments in road services induced by the political cycle and the local need for road safety, as the probability of having an accident in local roads remained unchanged. Taken together, these findings suggest that politicians manipulate the budget only for re-electoral purposes. Therefore, it is needed a rule, binding visible expenditures, such as those on road services, of the year before the election, or allowing visible expenditures not to exceed those of the previous year within the mandate of the mayor. Such rules would let avoid or at least reduce the estimated inefficient spending by properly programming investment according to real needs and not to electoral convenience. |
| JEL: | D72 H12 H77 Z18 |
| Date: | 2021–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ipu:wpaper:107&r= |
| By: | Andrea Ferloni (Institute of Geography and Sustainability (IGD), University of Lausanne- UNIL) |
| Abstract: | The transition to Electric Vehicles (EVs) is a coevolutionary process involving at least three sectors—EV, battery, and smart grid—in replacing combustion cars. This paper contributes to research on the geography of transitions by linking increased relatedness between technologies over time with their co-location, exploring the spatial emergence of transition industries and the role of local economic systems in enabling it. Patent citations are used to construct three main paths from 1920 to 2020 that permit to geolocate key inventions and to elaborate on the role of cities in supporting knowledge exchanges and recombinations. The case study suggests that a coevolutionary perspective can contribute to understanding the geography of transitions in three ways: by showing how new technology configurations imply varying power relations between industrial fields, by elaborating on the capacity of urban regions to adapt to these, and by illustrating the role of actors and networks in this process. |
| Keywords: | Coevolution, Electric Vehicle, Geography of transitions, Large Urban Regions, Patent networks, Main path analysis |
| Date: | 2021 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:aoe:wpaper:2110&r= |
| By: | Preuß, Sabine; Kunze, Robert; Zwirnmann, Jakob; Meier, Jonas; Plötz, Patrick; Wietschel, Martin |
| Abstract: | Plug-in electric vehicles (PEV) are widely considered a promising option to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in transport. The electricity used for charging is decisive for the environmental assessment of PEV. Most studies assume the average grid mix for charging. This article provides a systematic overview of existing studies and additional data on the electricity contracts of users and charge point operators (CPO) as well as the share of renewables in the charged electricity for PEV in Europe. We combine survey data with existing studies and cover a noteworthy share of the European PEV market and CPO. Our results show that the actual share of renewables in electricity contracts for home and work charging as well as for public CPO is much higher than in the European grid mix. Despite discussions around the methodological use of contracted renewable electricity, our findings imply that many previous studies underestimated the well-to-wheel life-cycle benefits of PEV. |
| Date: | 2021 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:fisisi:s112021&r= |
| By: | Rik L. Rozendaal; Herman R. J. Vollebergh |
| Abstract: | This article tests the effects of fuel economy and greenhouse gas emission standards on the direction of innovation, in particular on breakthrough technologies in the automotive industry. We develop an intuitive measure of standard stringency that captures the policy’s most important features for the decision as to whether or not to innovate. To test the role of these standards relative to prices and taxes, we construct a firm-level panel of patents in clean and dirty automotive technologies for the years 2000-2016. Our results indicate that standards are a very robust driver inducing clean innovation, whereas taxes also seem to play a role but prices (net of taxes) do not. This effect is driven by patenting for breakthrough technologies, in particular electric vehicle and hydrogen fuel cell technologies. We find no evidence that these policies negatively impact dirty innovation. |
| Keywords: | environmental policy instruments, regulatory stringency, innovation, directed technical change |
| JEL: | O30 Q55 Q58 |
| Date: | 2021 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ces:ceswps:_9422&r= |
| By: | Bush, Kristen M.; Lozano, Mark T.; Niemeier, Deb; Kendall, Alissa |
| Abstract: | Senate Bill 350 (SB 350) requires the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) to direct utilities to undertake transportation electrification (TE) activities and to ensure that, among other factors, access to TE-related opportunities for low- and moderate-income communities, as well as disadvantaged communities (DACs) increase as TE becomes more widespread. This research explores the range of tangible benefits that the implementation of TE programs can achieve for DACs. The research questions examine how funds spent to date through SB 350 target investment intended to support DACs; how public and private investments in DACs ensure energy justice, transportation justice, and equity, and finally how perceptions and priorities of stakeholders inform the implementation of TE programs. The researchers collected metrics from various California sources and across the literature, and then asked stakeholders in the CPUC Service List associated with SB 350 proceedings to rank and provide their expert opinion on various metrics by their relative importance. From this information, a final weighted evaluation framework was created. The most important metrics for projects targeted under SB 350 were tangible benefits for local community members; improvements in local air pollution; transparent and collaborative community engagement; consideration of end-of-life impacts, and enhanced access to additional sustainable technologies. The least important metrics include forecasted business closures; potential for accident zones; effects on native flora and fauna; upstream impacts (i.e., through raw material acquisition or construction phases), and/or the support of distributed generation and the development of micro-grids in electrification plans. The framework developed as part of this research supports program evaluation by guiding program administrators through a set of questions designed to facilitate a detailed account of expected outcomes and potential externalities. View the NCST Project Webpage |
| Keywords: | Social and Behavioral Sciences, Disadvantaged Communities, Senate Bill 350, transportation electrification, evaluation framework |
| Date: | 2022–01–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cdl:itsdav:qt9tc331hz&r= |
| By: | Sarah Cordes (Temple University); Samantha Trajkovski (Center for Policy Research, Maxwell School, Syracuse University, 426 Eggers Hall, Syracuse, NY 13244); Christopher Rick (Center for Policy Research, Maxwell School, Syracuse University, 426 Eggers Hall, Syracuse, NY 13244); Meryle Weinstein (New York University); Amy Ellen Schwartz (Center for Policy Research, Maxwell School, Syracuse University, 426 Eggers Hall, Syracuse, NY 13244) |
| Abstract: | This article explores how researchers can use pupil transportation data to explore key questions about the role of transportation in educational access and equity, such as how students get to school and the effect of transportation on student outcomes. We first describe different sources of transportation data that are available to researchers, provide a brief review of relevant literature, and discuss potential sources of measurement error in pupil transportation data. Next, we use administrative data from New York City to illustrate how pupil transportation data can be used to understand transportation eligibility and assignment as well as to describe the characteristics of students’ commutes to school. For example, we find that not all students assigned for free transportation take it up. Specifically, although 47 percent of K-12 students in 2017 were eligible for pupil transportation based on distance with another 9 percent of students receiving exceptions, only 45 percent of students were assigned to a full-fare MetroCard, general education bus, or special education bus. Further, we find the average commute to school for walkers and bus riders is quite similar—around 30 minutes—although there is wide variation as some students experience very short or very long commutes. We end with a discussion of the importance of the institutional context when conducting research using pupil transportation data and best practices when using administrative data. |
| Keywords: | Education, Pupil Transportation, School Bus, Commuting |
| JEL: | I20 I24 I29 |
| Date: | 2021–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:max:cprwps:243&r= |
| By: | Nilkanth Kumar (Center of Economic Research (CER-ETH), ETH Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland); Nirmal Kumar Raut (Central Department of Economics (CEDECON), Tribhuvan University, Kathmandu, Nepal); Suchita Srinivasan (Center of Economic Research (CER-ETH), ETH Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland) |
| Abstract: | This article sheds light on a scarcely explored area of research related to herd behavior in urban settings of developing economies, where the use of motorized twowheelers has been increasing rapidly. Using primary survey-based data from Nepal, we examine whether potential motorcycle buyers in the Kathmandu valley exhibit herd behavior or price-conscious behavior when making a hypothetical choice decision and then evaluate the determinants of the observed behavior. Using factor analysis, the paper identifies distinct homogeneous groups of respondents based on their preferences towards motorcycle attributes and on their psychological traits and attitudes. Not only do we find a prevalence of herding in the choice of motorcycles, the results also find strong suggestive evidence that, in addition to gender and income, several latent factors related to preferences and psychological traits might play a crucial role in determining the herd behavior. We discuss policy implications in the context of consumer behavior and environmental policy in the backdrop of rapid vehicle demand and dangerous air pollution levels. |
| Keywords: | herd behavior; determinants; motorcycle choice; psychological factors; bounded rationality; Nepal |
| JEL: | D12 D83 D91 Q58 |
| Date: | 2022–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:eth:wpswif:22-366&r= |
| By: | Abhinav Garg; Naman Shukla; Lavanya Marla; Sriram Somanchi |
| Abstract: | Traditional AI approaches in customized (personalized) contextual pricing applications assume that the data distribution at the time of online pricing is similar to that observed during training. However, this assumption may be violated in practice because of the dynamic nature of customer buying patterns, particularly due to unanticipated system shocks such as COVID-19. We study the changes in customer behavior for a major airline during the COVID-19 pandemic by framing it as a covariate shift and concept drift detection problem. We identify which customers changed their travel and purchase behavior and the attributes affecting that change using (i) Fast Generalized Subset Scanning and (ii) Causal Forests. In our experiments with simulated and real-world data, we present how these two techniques can be used through qualitative analysis. |
| Date: | 2021–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:arx:papers:2111.14938&r= |
| By: | Roberto Bonfatti; Giovanni Facchini; Alexander Tarasov; Gian Luca Tedeschi; Cecilia Testa |
| Abstract: | This paper studies the role played by politics in shaping the Italian railway network, and its impact on long-run growth patterns. Examining a large state-planned railway expansion that took place during the second half of the 19th century in a recently unified country, we first study how both national and local political processes shaped the planned railway construction. Exploiting close elections, we show that a state-funded railway line is more likely to be planned for construction where the local representative is aligned with the government. Furthermore, the actual path followed by the railways was shaped by local pork-barreling, with towns supporting winning candidates more likely to see a railway crossing their territory. Finally, we explore the long-run effects of the network expansion on economic development. Employing population and economic censuses for the entire 20th century, we show that politics at a critical junction played a key role in explaning the long-run evolution of local economies. |
| Keywords: | Infractural Development, Political Economy |
| Date: | 2021 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:not:notgep:2021-06&r= |
| By: | Paul H. Jung; Jean-Claude Thill; Luis Armando Galvis-Aponte |
| Abstract: | We investigate the effect of domestic armed violence brought about by political instability on the geography of distance frictions in freight mobility and the resulting differential access of regions to global markets. The Colombian transportation system has been found to be impeded by deficiencies in landside transport infrastructure and institutions, and by fragmented political environments. The micro-level analysis of U.S.-bounded export shipping records corroborates that export freight shipping from inland regions is re-routed to avoid exposures to domestic armed violence despite greatly extended landside and maritime shipping distances. We exploit the trajectories of freight shipping from Colombian regions and spatial patterns of violent armed conflicts to see how unstable geopolitical environments are detrimental to freight shipping mobility and market openness. The discrete choice model shows that the shipping flow is greatly curbed by the extended re-routing due to domestic armed violence and that inland regions have restricted access to the global market. The perception of risk and re-routing behavior is found heterogeneous across shipments and conditional to shipment characteristics, such as commodity type, freight value and shipper sizes. The results highlight that political stability must be accommodated for improved freight mobility and export-oriented economic development in the global South. **** RESUMEN: En este documento se investiga el efecto de la violencia armada doméstica provocada por la inestabilidad política sobre las fricciones de la distancia en la movilidad de carga. Además, el efecto de esas fricciones sobre el acceso diferencial de las regiones a los mercados globales. Se concluye que el sistema de transporte colombiano se ve obstaculizado por deficiencias en la infraestructura e instituciones de transporte terrestre y por entornos políticos fragmentados. El análisis a nivel micro de los registros de exportaciones hacia Estados Unidos corrobora que el envío de carga de exportación desde las regiones del interior se redirige para evitar exposiciones a la violencia armada doméstica a pesar de las amplias distancias de envío marítimo y terrestre existentes. Aprovechamos las trayectorias del transporte de carga desde las regiones colombianas y los patrones espaciales de los conflictos armados violentos para ver cómo los entornos geopolíticos inestables son perjudiciales para la movilidad del transporte de carga y la apertura del mercado. A través de un modelo de elección discreta se muestra que el flujo de envío se ve frenado por el desvío debido a la violencia armada doméstica y que las regiones del interior tienen acceso restringido al mercado global. La percepción de riesgo y comportamiento de redireccionamiento se considera heterogénea entre los envíos y está condicionada a las características del envío, como el tipo de mercancía, el tamaño y el valor del flete. Los resultados resaltan que el conseguir la estabilidad política puede ayudar a mejorar la movilidad de carga y el desarrollo económico orientado a la exportación en el Sur global. |
| Keywords: | violence, trade, discrete choice model, Colombia, violencia, comercio internacional, modelos de elección discreta, Colombia |
| JEL: | F14 R10 C25 |
| Date: | 2021–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:bdr:region:303&r= |