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on Transport Economics |
| By: | Loa, Patrick PhD; Circella, Giovanni PhD; Lee, Yongsung PhD |
| Abstract: | Ridehailing services (such as those offered by Uber and Lyft) can contribute to increases in vehicle miles traveled (VMT) by attracting demand from more sustainable modes, encouraging additional travel, and driving while not serving passengers . Pooled ridehailing services (i.e., ridehailing services that offer discounted fares in exchange for the potential to be matched with other customers traveling to similar destinations) have been identified as a means of addressing the negative impacts of ridehailing services. However, the impact of pooled ridehailing is heavily influenced by the uptake of these services. The onset of the COVID-19 pandemic substantially influenced travel mode preferences, resulting in an increased preference for individual modes (e.g., private vehicles and active modes) and a reduced preference for shared modes (e.g., public transit and ridehailing)3 . Given the disruptive impacts of the pandemic on travel mode preferences, and the negative impacts of ridehailing services during the prepandemic period, it is crucial to understand whether the pandemic will have long-term impacts on ridehailing use. To examine the long-term impacts of the pandemic, we used data from two web-based surveys of California residents to 1) compare ridehailing use during the pre-pandemic (fall 2019) and post-pandemic (fall 2023) periods, and 2) analyze the factors influencing post-pandemic ridehailing use in California. |
| Keywords: | Social and Behavioral Sciences |
| Date: | 2026–05–01 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cdl:itsdav:qt6x67v8rh |
| By: | Adefemi Abimbola; Kunal Patel; Michael D. Plante; Isabelle Tseng |
| Abstract: | With demand for electric vehicles failing to meet ambitious projections, automakers, battery companies and utilities are reassessing how best to deploy battery power. |
| Keywords: | batteries; electric vehicles; United States |
| Date: | 2026–03–03 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fip:d00001:102866 |
| By: | Blanc, Corin |
| Abstract: | In response to rising urban air pollution, European cities have adopted Low Emission Zones (LEZs), restricting the most polluting vehicles. While effective in improving air quality, these policies remain controversial due to concerns over fairness and acceptability. This paper examines the impact of London’s 2021 and 2023 Ultra Low Emission Zone (ULEZ) expansions on subjective well-being (SWB). Using panel data from the UK Household Longitudinal Study and a staggered difference-in-differences design with individual and year fixed effects, we compare changes in life satisfaction among residents inside and outside the affected areas. We find that the 2021 expansion led to a decline in life satisfaction by approximately 0.4 points – which doubles for low-income households – with no evidence of pre-existing differential trends. We do not detect statistically significant effects within the available post-treatment window on Londoners living in the expanded zone in 2023. We explore the mechanisms driving this decline and find that the well-being loss is fundamentally mediated by car dependency and transport mode availability. While the policy increased reliance on public transport, we show that a higher accessibility to public transport reduces the well-being decline of Londoners. These findings suggest that LEZs can generate short-term welfare costs despite achieving behavioural change, highlighting the need for complementary measures to enhance social acceptability. |
| Keywords: | Subjective well-being, Air pollution, Low-emission zones, Difference-in-differences |
| Date: | 2026–04 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cpm:docweb:2601 |
| By: | Sandrine Levasseur (OFCE, Studies Department, Sciences Po Pari) |
| Abstract: | Electric vehicles (EVs) in the EU face growing turbulence as shrinking consumer subsidies coincide with intensified competition from lower-cost Chinese manufacturers. Recent EU measures - higher tariffs on Chinese EVs and a strategy to reinforce the full industrial value chain - aim to safeguard Europe's automotive capabilities. Yet the easing of CO2 rules for combustion engines and the possible 2026 review of the 2035 phase out date illustrate the challenge of balancing ecological transition, industrial resilience, and household purchasing power. This paper argues for an "electrification shock" to accelerate scale and reduce costs rather than slowing the transition. Demand-side priorities include adapting subsidies to national energy-price conditions, requiring public and corporate fleets to integrate a minimum share of EVs, and ensuring the availability of affordable entry-level models. On the supply side, large-scale support for European battery production and sustained tariff protection are essential to narrow the cost gap with China, while partnerships with Chinese firms must secure genuine technology transfers and protect employment. Such measures must be anchored in a stable and predictable regulatory trajectory, as policy reversals risk deterring investment and slowing the decarbonisation of road transport. |
| Keywords: | Electric vehicles, decarbonisation, EU, China, automotive industry, battery |
| Date: | 2026 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:imk:studie:104-2026 |
| By: | Rathore, Udayan; Singh, Ashish |
| Abstract: | We leverage a quasi-natural experiment from India on introduction of free bus schemes for women to study its impact on women's labour force participation (WLFP) and other welfare indicators. We use two rounds of the representative Time Use Survey (2019 and 2024) and a triple difference estimation strategy, complemented by an event study type framework to identify the causal relationship of interest. Findings reveal that the bus scheme is successful in improving women's paid work participation and the duration of employment. These results are not a continuation of prior trends. The effects are mainly concentrated among early adopters like Punjab and Tamil Nadu, two states with historically different levels of WLFP. Moreover, the effects are disproportionately higher for women residing in more patriarchal districts and those facing higher mobility restrictions. We argue that the scheme works through easing of non-financial binding constraints, which lowers barriers to women's mobility and workforce participation. |
| Keywords: | Women labour force participation, Women's mobility, Patriarchy, Public transit subsidies, Time-Use, India |
| JEL: | J16 J17 J22 J28 R48 O53 |
| Date: | 2026 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:glodps:1755 |
| By: | Nicholas Bloom; Gordon B. Dahl; Dan-Olof Rooth |
| Abstract: | There has been a dramatic rise in disability employment since the pandemic. At the same time, work from home (WFH) has risen four-fold. This paper asks whether the two are causally related. Controlling for compositional changes and labor market tightness, a 1 percentage point increase in WFH increases full-time employment by 1.0% for individuals with a physical disability. The postpandemic increase in working from home explains 68%-85% of the rise in full-time employment. Wage data suggests that WFH increased the supply of workers with a physical disability, likely by reducing commuting costs and enabling better control of working conditions. |
| Keywords: | Disability Employment, Work from Home |
| JEL: | J14 J42 |
| Date: | 2026–04 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:crm:wpaper:26112 |
| By: | Vedunka Kopecna (Institute of Economic Studies, Faculty of Social Sciences, Charles University, Prague, Czech Republic & Charles University, Environment Center); Inaki Veruete Villegas (Institute of Economic Studies, Faculty of Social Sciences, Charles University, Prague, Czech Republic & Charles University, Environment Center) |
| Abstract: | This paper assesses the long-term macroeconomic and environmental impacts of climate policies in the Czech Republic, a coal-dependent economy, under the EU´s Fit-for-55 package. Using a hybrid dynamic Computable General Equilibrium (CGE) model, we integrate a bottom-up electricity module with technology-specific detail and a discrete choice module capturing consumer preferences for vehicle technologies. The model, formulated as a mixed complementarity problem in GAMS, accounts for capacity constraints in power generation and endogenizes vehicle fleet evolution based on choice probabilities. We evaluate two scenarios: With Existing Measures (WEM), reflecting current policies, and With Additional Measures (WAM), which includes coal phase-out, expanded renewables, and the introduction of ETS2. Results show that WAM leads to more than 60% reduction in power sector CO2 emissions by 2040 and 80% battery electric vehicle (BEV) adoption by 2050. However, green investments under WAM do not balance out structural shifts - especially in fossil-related sectors - negatively influencing GDP. This integrated top-down and bottom-up modeling approach offers a robust framework for evaluating economy-wide effects of climate action. Findings inform cost-effective and socially balanced decarbonization strategies for Czech and EU policymakers. |
| Keywords: | Hybrid CGE model; Green Transition; Climate policies; Energy and transport |
| JEL: | C68 D12 D58 H22 H23 Q43 Q52 R42 |
| Date: | 2026–05 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fau:wpaper:wp2026_06 |
| By: | Falagiarda, Matteo; Ongena, Steven; Scopelliti, Alessandro; Beyene, Winta |
| Abstract: | Transitioning to a sustainable economy and reducing air pollution hinge on appropriate economic incentives and financing conditions. The auto loan market offers a prime setting, as lenders’ credit terms can either discourage or incentivize the purchase of high-pollution vehicles. Using loan-level data, we examine how captive and independent banks adjust lending conditions in response to information and regulatory shocks affecting diesel vehicles. Exploiting the 2015 diesel emissions scandal and the introduction of local circulation restrictions, we show that lending responses differ systematically across lender types, with captive banks tending to weaken, rather than reinforce, the effectiveness of environmental regulation for air pollution. JEL Classification: G21, G51, Q53, Q58 |
| Keywords: | captive banks, car circulation restrictions, car loans, diesel emissions scandal, independent banks |
| Date: | 2026–05 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ecb:ecbwps:20263228 |
| By: | Daiwei Chen; Pierre-Alexandre Balland |
| Abstract: | China’s high-speed rail (HSR) network, initiated in 2008, now covers nearly all regionsof the country. This paper analyzes the effect of HSR connection on inter-city scientific collaboration and examines whether this e!ect varies systematically with the complexity of scientific fields. Combining the universe of HSR openings between 2008 and 2020 with OpenAlex publication records, we construct a panel spanning 33, 793 Chinese city pairs. Using a staggered difference-in-differences estimator, we find that HSR increases co-publications among city-pairs with existing collaborative ties by 35.2 percent at the city-pair level. Disaggregating across twenty scientific fields, we show that this effect is quite heterogeneous. Field-level treatment e!ects range from 19.8 to 45.1 percent, and their magnitude is positively and significantly correlated with average team size -a proxy of the fields’ complexity. These results are consistent with the view that face-to-face interaction is still important for knowledge production requiring deep divisions of cognitive labour, and they carry direct implications for the design of transportation and innovation policy. |
| Keywords: | High-Speed Rail (HSR), Scientific Collaboration, Knowledge Complexity, Face-to-Face Interaction |
| JEL: | O33 O38 R11 R58 |
| Date: | 2026–05 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:egu:wpaper:2605 |
| By: | Barua, Srijon (Temple University) |
| Abstract: | Japan's grade separation policy structurally enables below-market community management of under-railway viaduct spaces, yet the social welfare potential of these infrastructural residual spaces remains systematically unrealized in most station areas. Under the 2007 Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism guidelines, railway operators bear a minority share of elevation costs and retain leasing rights over up to eighty-five percent of the resulting under-viaduct area. TauT Hankyu Rakusaiguchi in Kyoto represents one of the most fully documented instances. Since the 2015 Comprehensive Cooperation Agreement between Kyoto City and Hankyu Railway, the project has managed approximately 11, 200 square meters of under-viaduct space in a newly developing station area under a deliberate 0.5 percent internal rate of return framework. This paper asks what made this model work, and what parameters would allow comparable operators and municipal governments to replicate it. Drawing on stakeholder interviews, a multi-year event dataset of 508 events and 120, 754 participants, and accessibility gap analysis across three station areas, the study documents the conditions under which low-IRR management evolves into a self-sustaining infra-ecosystem: an adaptive alignment of product, promotion, and people enabled by catchment population density, co-promotion of social and economic activities, and facility provision targeting identified service gaps. To make this system legible to operators who lack Hankyu's institutional history, the paper introduces social IRR as a measurement framework that stacks monetized community benefits atop commercial cash flows. These findings offer a replicable governance template for under-viaduct activation where the institutional preconditions of public subsidy and multi-stakeholder coordination are present. |
| Date: | 2026–05–08 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:osf:socarx:mvh3g_v1 |
| By: | De Agostini Paola (European Commission - JRC); Trzcinski Kajetan (European Commission - JRC); Klenert David (European Commission - JRC); Weitzel Matthias (European Commission - JRC) |
| Abstract: | This policy note provides a first assessment of the distributional impact of transport fuel price surge on EU household incomes following the conflict in Iran. It does so using the latest EUROMOD tax‑benefit microsimulation model and its Consumption Tax extension. Results are based on weekly Member State petrol and diesel price data reported to DG‑ENER (for 26 EU countries, Malta currently excluded due to missing price data). Price changes are measured as the difference between the most recent observation (23. March 2026) and the average pre-conflict price levels between 1. December 2025 and 23. February 2026. The framework isolates the fuel price shock’s incidence across the income distribution and assesses the extent to which recycling additional VAT revenues (e.g., via direct transfers or lower fuel duties) could cushion household impacts. |
| Date: | 2026–04 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ipt:iptwpa:jrc146449 |
| By: | Riggs, William; D'Agostino, Mollie C |
| Keywords: | Social and Behavioral Sciences |
| Date: | 2026–05–01 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cdl:itsdav:qt2v16q4x2 |