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on Transport Economics |
| By: | Brancaccio, Giulia; Kalouptsidi, Myrto; Papageorgiou, Theodore |
| Abstract: | Transportation infrastructure is vital for the smooth functioning of international trade. Ports are a crucial gateway to this system: with more than 80% of trade carried by ships, they shape trade costs, and it is critical that they operate efficiently. Yet ports are susceptible to disruptions, causing costly delays. With enormous budgets spent on infrastructure to alleviate these costs, a key policy question emerges: in a world with high volatility, what are the returns to investing in infrastructure? To address this question, we introduce an empirical framework that combines insights from queueing theory to capture port technology, with tools from demand estimation. We use our framework, together with a collection of novel datasets, to quantify the costs of disruptions and evaluate transportation infrastructure investment. Our analysis unveils four policy-relevant messages: (i) investing in port infrastructure can lead to substantial trade and welfare gains, but only if targeted properly- in fact, net of costs, the marginal return to investment is positive at a minority of US ports; (ii) there are sizable spillovers across ports, as investing in one port can decongest a wider set of ports, suggesting that decision-making should not be decentralized to local authorities; (iii) the economies of scale arising from queuing would lead a planner to concentrate investment in large, geographically dispersed megaports; (iv) macroeconomic volatility can drastically change returns to investment. |
| Keywords: | transportation, infrastructure, ports, congestion, macroeconomic volatility, disruptions, spillovers |
| Date: | 2025 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:iedlwp:336695 |
| By: | Alliott, Olivia (University of Cambridge); Guell, Cornelia; Ogilvie, David; Hadfield-Hill, Sophie; Panter, Jenna |
| Abstract: | Background: Active travel to and from schools offers important health and environmental benefits, yet car use remains dominant, contributing to congestion, pollution and safety risks. Schemes to restrict private motor vehicles are increasingly being implemented around schools to address these issues, but evidence on how they might work to impact the school journey across different contexts is limited. Aims and Objectives: To explore the mechanisms through which schemes might influence school travel behaviour and how the impacts vary across different contexts. Methods In-person walk-along and online interviews were conducted with 24 families, five teachers and four local authority representatives across three regions (Perth and Kinross, Haringey and Sheffield) across the United Kingdom between September 2024 and April 2025. Ethnographic observations were also carried out. Transcripts were analysed drawing on Braun and Clarke’s reflexive thematic analysis, guided by realist evaluation principles and ethnographic observations to identify contexts, mechanisms and outcomes using NVivo. Results: Common context-mechanism-outcome (CMO) configurations were identified reflecting congruent narratives across participants. For example, In contexts where families previously relied on driving for the school journey (Context), increased inconvenience functioned as a mechanism (Mechanism), encouraging a shift towards hybrid journeys and or a full shift to active travel (Outcome). CMOs were broadly captured by two themes: i) considering change and adapting routines: how families responded to schemes, and ii) navigating challenges and building momentum: how schemes evolved in practice. Participants highlighted the potential for schemes to promote active travel to school, improving experiences of the journey and their health, while also noting unintended consequences such as displaced traffic, pushback from some community members and challenges for families with specific access needs. These experiences showed how supportive infrastructure, meaningful consultation and framing around children’s health and safety shape the impact and acceptability of the schemes. Conclusion: The capacity for schemes to promote healthier and more sustainable school travel, while also generating unintended consequences, suggests that effective implementation requires supportive infrastructure, sustained community engagement and alignment with broader policy priorities. Keywords: active travel; school journey; traffic restriction schemes; school streets; qualitative research; public health |
| Date: | 2026–02–12 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:osf:socarx:naxqs_v1 |
| By: | Driscoll, Daniel; Kiefel, Max; Larsen, Mathias |
| Keywords: | state capacity; industrial policy; international political economy; critical minerals; electric vehicles; climate change; geopolitics |
| JEL: | R14 J01 |
| Date: | 2026–02–04 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ehl:lserod:137142 |
| By: | Ying Chen; Paul Cheshire; You-Sin Wang; Xiangqing Wang |
| Abstract: | We study how technological innovation has transformed the valuation of consumption services, using the sudden national expansion of food delivery services (FDS) in China as a natural experiment. Using a Bartik-style instrumental variable strategy that interacts national FDS growth with pre-existing restaurant density, we estimate the capitalization of delivery-accessible restaurants into Beijing housing prices. An additional 100 delivery-accessible restaurants raise housing prices by approximately 3 percent. Effects are strongest near the city center, declining by 0.15 percentage points per kilometer from the CBD, consistent with higher adoption rates and time valuations among central residents. Beyond quantity, households also value cuisine diversity. Unlike ride-sharing platforms, which reduce commuting costs and flatten the urban rent gradient, FDS unpacked the food and menu choice element of the restaurant experience, allowing this to be traded as a separate service. By reducing travel costs for consumption rather than commuting, FDS amplifies existing urban price gradients, disproportionately benefits central residents and demonstrates the continuing importance of consumption services in delivering differential welfare in cities. |
| Keywords: | food delivery services, housing markets, urban amenities, platform technology, China |
| Date: | 2026–02–13 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cep:cepdps:dp2151 |
| By: | Demir, Banu; Grover, Arti |
| Abstract: | This paper examines the impact of improvements in digital infrastructure on labor market performance, focusing on employment and productivity, measured by average wages. The empirical setting exploits the staggered expansion of high-speed fiber broadband across provinces in Türkiye, using linked employer-employee administrative data and complementary Labor Force Surveys. Across specifications, better digital connectivity raises formal employment and wages, with effects concentrated in occupations amenable to remote work. Most of these gains arise from workers—disproportionately women—entering teleworkable occupations enabled by high-quality internet access. Detailed occupational data reveal that these effects are driven by within-province switches from non-teleworkable to teleworkable jobs, consistent with the relaxation of mobility constraints and the expansion of work-from-home opportunities as a key channel. Wage gains are concentrated among high-skilled workers, although employment effects also extend to lower-skilled women in teleworkable roles. In contrast to the effects of digital connectivity, comparable investments in road infrastructure that enhance physical connectivity produce more mixed results: reduced travel times can improve access to jobs, but competition from nearby regions may offset these benefits. |
| Date: | 2026–02–17 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wbk:wbrwps:11314 |
| By: | Aleksandra Vujko; Darjan Karabašević; Aleksa Panić; Martina Arsić; Vuk Mirčetić (Assistant Professor, Faculty of Applied Management, Economics and Finance (MEF)) |
| Abstract: | Tourism is a key spatial process linking human mobility, resource consumption, and environmental change. Despite growing awareness of climate risks, sustainable travel behavior often remains inconsistent with pro-environmental attitudes, reflecting the persistent attitude-behavior gap. This study examines how psychological factors-sustainability motives, ecological identity, and climate attitudes-interact with artificial intelligence (AI) transparency to shape travel decisions with spatial and environmental consequences. Using survey data from 1795 leisure travelers and a discrete-choice experiment simulating hotel booking scenarios, the study shows that ecological identity and climate attitudes reinforce sustainability motives and intentions, while transparent AI recommendations enhance perceived clarity, data visibility, and reliability. These transparency effects amplify the influence of eco-scores on revealed spatial preferences, with trust mediating the relationship between transparency and sustainable choices. Conceptually, the study integrates psychological and technological perspectives within a geographical framework of humanenvironment interaction and extends this lens to rural destinations, where travel decisions directly affect cultural landscapes and climate-sensitive ecosystems. Practically, the findings demonstrate that transparent AI systems can guide spatial redistribution of tourist flows, mitigate destination-level climate pressures, and support equitable resource management in sustainable tourism planning. These mechanisms are particularly relevant for rural areas and traditional cultural landscapes facing heightened vulnerability to climate stress, depopulation, and uneven visitation patterns. Transparent and trustworthy AI can thus convert environmental awareness into spatially sustainable behavior, contributing to more resilient and balanced tourism geographies. |
| Keywords: | spatial decision-making, ecological identity, climate attitudes, tourism geography, resource management, rural destinations, cultural landscapes, trust, AI transparency, sustainable travel, sustainable travel AI transparency trust spatial decision-making ecological identity climate attitudes tourism geography resource management rural destinations cultural landscapes |
| Date: | 2025–12–14 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:journl:hal-05475497 |