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on Transport Economics |
| By: | Schürenberg-Frosch, Hannah |
| Abstract: | The author shows with pooled OLS estimations based on transport margins from international social accounting data that investments in improved road infrastructure have the potential to significantly reduce transport costs. However, this result can only be clearly confirmed for industrial countries and is of primary importance for production and transportation of agricultural goods. For developing and transition countries, in contrast, the author finds other determinants such as weather conditions to be more important in determining transport costs. A key variable, especially in these countries, is corruption. Very high corruption has the potential to prevent positive effects from road infrastructure on transport costs or to even reverse them. This paper contributes to the literature on infrastructure investment by introducing and applying an internationally comparable measure of transport costs which can be calculated for a large and growing number of countries. The author concludes that investments in transport infrastructure can have substantial positive effects especially on agricultural production and the efficient marketing of agricultural products but only if specific additional conditions are given. -- |
| Keywords: | infrastructure,transport networks,transport costs,agriculture,public investment,development |
| JEL: | O18 O11 R42 |
| Date: | 2012 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:ifwedp:201254&r=tre |
| By: | Llanto, Gilberto M. |
| Abstract: | ASEAN transport cooperation is a key issue in the preparation for an ASEAN Economic Community in 2015. Transport cooperation requires member countries to ratify and sign protocols and agreements that will liberalize the transport sector in ASEAN. The transport sector in this study covers maritime and air transport. This paper examines the progress made by the Philippines in the ratification and implementation of protocols and agreements bearing on the transport sector, and discusses perceived barriers to ratification and implementation. There is a great need for policymaker`s attention to the issue of airport infrastructure deficiencies and other limitations. The Philippines needs very badly an efficient air and maritime transport system in view of its archipelagic geographic condition, and its goal to have better, more efficient, and stronger linkages with regional and global markets. Investments to modernize the country`s international ports and airports are obviously needed. |
| Keywords: | Philippines, maritime transport, logistics, freight forwarders, population aging, elderly work activity, old-age support, labor income age profile, consumption by income group |
| Date: | 2012 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:phd:dpaper:dp_2012-20&r=tre |
| By: | Farid Gasmi; Juan Daniel Oviedo |
| Abstract: | This paper analyzes some optimal fiscal, pricing, and capacity investment policies for controlling regional monopoly power in the natural gas industry. By letting the set of control instruments available to the social planner vary, we provide a characterization of the technological and demand conditions under which “excess” capacity in the transport network arises in response to the loss of the two other control instruments, namely, transfers and pricing. Hence, the analysis yields some insights on an economy’s incentives to invest in infrastructures for the purpose of integrating geographically isolated markets. |
| Date: | 2012–10–29 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:col:000092:010073&r=tre |
| By: | Fosgerau, Mogens |
| Abstract: | This paper considers a congested bottleneck. A fast lane reserves a more than proportional share of capacity to a designated group of travelers. Travelers are otherwise identical and other travelers can use the reserved capacity when it would otherwise be idle. The paper shows that such a fast lane is always Pareto improving under Nash equilibrium in arrival times at the bottleneck and inelastic demand. It can replicate the arrival schedule and queueing outcomes of a toll that optimally charges a constant toll during part of the demand peak. Within some bounds, the fast lane scheme is still welfare improving when demand is elastic. |
| Keywords: | Congestion; Tolling; Bottleneck; Scheduling; Fast lane |
| JEL: | R41 |
| Date: | 2011 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:42271&r=tre |
| By: | Fosgerau, Mogens; de Palma, André |
| Abstract: | We consider dynamic congestion in an urban setting where trip origins are spatially distributed. All travelers must pass through a downtown bottleneck in order to reach their destination in the CBD. Each traveler chooses departure time to maximize general concave scheduling utility. We find that, at equilibrium, travelers sort according to their distance to the destination; the queue is always unimodal regardless of the spatial distribution of trip origins. We construct a welfare maximizing tolling regime, which eliminates congestion. All travelers located beyond a critical distance from the CBD gain from tolling, even when toll revenues are not redistributed, while nearby travelers lose. We discuss our results in the context of acceptability of tolling policies. |
| Keywords: | Dynamic model; Toll policy; Spatial differentiation; Acceptability |
| JEL: | D11 R41 R14 |
| Date: | 2012 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:42270&r=tre |
| By: | Fabiano Mezadre Pompermayer; Erivelton Pires Guedes |
| Abstract: | Este Texto para Discussão faz parte da série de estudos sobre os fundos setoriais realizada pelo Ipea em parceria com o Ministério de Ciência e Tecnologia. O Fundo Setorial de Transportes Terrestres e Hidroviário (CT-Transporte) é, entre os fundos setoriais, o de menor volume de projetos e de recursos empenhados. O motivo para tão baixo desempenho foi a contenção das receitas que o Departamento Nacional de Infraestrutura de Transportes (DNIT) obteria com a exploração da infraestrutura rodoviária pelo setor de telecomunicações. Sem recursos, e com a implantação das Ações Transversais, o financiamento de projetos que seriam potenciais beneficiários do CT-Transporte passou a ocorrer por meio destas ações. Ainda assim, a oferta de recursos financeiros para os projetos em transportes era inferior à demanda. Analisando-se os projetos financiados pelos demais fundos, foi possível identificar mais de 60 projetos que estariam no escopo do CT-Transporte, contra apenas nove pelo fundo específico, evidenciando a incapacidade do fundo de fomentar a pesquisa e o desenvolvimento tecnológico no setor de transportes. A participação de empresas é baixa, apesar de ocorrer nos projetos de maior valor contratado. Considerando-se apenas os projetos diretamente financiados pelo CT-Transporte e pelas Ações Transversais de Transporte e Logística, a participação de empresas é ainda menor. Quanto aos temas estudados nos projetos, os que tiveram mais projetos financiados, bem como maior montante de recursos, foram os de intelligent transport system (ITS), transporte e logística, e transporte hidroviário interior. Poucos projetos em temas importantes para o setor de transportes foram identificados, havendo diversos temas importantes que não foram abordados nos projetos do fundo. This Discussion Paper is part of a series of studies on the Sector Funds conducted by Ipea in partnership with the Brazilian Ministry of Science and Technology. The CT-Transporte is, among sector funds, the smallest in number of projects and committed resources. The reason for such poor performance was the contention of the revenue that the DNIT would get from exploring the use of road infrastructure by the telecommunications industry. Without resources, and after the creation of the so called "Transversal Actions", the financing of projects, that would originally demand resources from the CT-Transporte, started to occur through these new actions. Still, the provision of financial resources for projects in transportation was lower than the demand. Analyzing the projects financed by other funds,we could identify more than 60 projects that would be within the scope of CT-Transporte (versus just nine by the specific fund), showing the inability of the fund to promote research and technological development in the transportation sector. Corporate participation is low, although it occurred in the bigger projects. Considering only the projects directly funded by the CT-Transporte and by the Transversal Actions for Transportation and Logistics, corporate participation is even lower. The topics studied in the projects that were granted with more projects and also more funding are: “Intelligent Transport System (ITS)”, “Transportation and Logistics” and “Inland Waterways and Transportation”. Few projects on issues important to the transportation sector were identified, with several important issues not covered in the projects of the fund. |
| Date: | 2012–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ipe:ipetds:1689&r=tre |
| By: | Farid Gasmi; Juan Daniel Oviedo |
| Abstract: | This paper develops a model of the regulator-regulated firm relationship in a regional natural gas commodity market which can be linked to a competitive market by a pipeline. We characterize normative policies under which the regulator, in addition to setting the level of the capacity of the pipeline, regulates the price of gas, under asymmetric information on the firm’s technology, and may (or may not) operate (two-way) transfers between consumers and the firm. We then focus on capacity and investigate how its level responds to the regulator’s taking account of the firm’s incentive compatibility constraints. The analysis yields some insights on the role that transport capacity investments may play as an instrument to improve the efficiency of geographically isolated markets. |
| Date: | 2012–10–29 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:col:000092:010074&r=tre |
| By: | De Borger, Bruno; Fosgerau, Mogens |
| Abstract: | We study the interaction between pricing, frequency of service and information provision by public transport firms offering scheduled services, and we do so under various regulatory regimes. The model assumes that users can come to the bus stop or rail station at random or they can plan their trips; the fraction of users who plan their trips is endogenous and depends on the frequency of service and on the quality of information provided. Four institutional regimes are considered, reflecting various degrees of government regulation. A numerical example illustrates the theoretical results. Findings include the following. First, fare regulation induces the firm to provide less frequency and less information than is socially optimal. Second, if information and frequency did not affect the number of planning users a higher fare always induces the firm to raise both frequency and the quality of information. With endogenous planning, however, this need not be the case, as the effect of higher fares strongly depends on how frequency and information quality affect the number of planners. Third, a profit-maximizing firm offers more information than a fare-regulated firm. Fourth, if the agency regulates both the fare and the quality of information then more stringent information requirements induce the firm to reduce frequency; this strongly limits the welfare improvement of information regulation. Finally, of all institutional structures considered, socially optimal fares, frequency and quality of information stimulate passengers least to plan their trips, because the high frequency offered reduces the benefits of trip planning. |
| Keywords: | Optimal information provision; Price regulation; Scheduled services |
| JEL: | D21 R40 D82 |
| Date: | 2012 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:42267&r=tre |
| By: | Kumagai, Satoru; Hayakawa, Kazunobu; Isono, Ikumo; Keola, Souknilanh; Tsubota, Kenmei |
| Abstract: | This paper presents a simulation of the reduction of several components in trade cost for Asia and examines its impact on the economy. Our simulation model based on the new economic geography embraces seven sectors, including manufacturing and non-manufacturing sectors, and 1,715 regions in 18 countries/economies in Asia, in addition to the two economies of the US and the European Union. The geographical course of transactions among regions is modeled as determined based on firms’ modal choice. The model also includes estimates of some border cost measures such as tariff rates, non-tariff barriers, other border clearance costs, transshipment costs and so on. Our simulation analysis for Asia includes several scenarios involving the improvement/development of routes and the reduction of the above-mentioned border cost. We have shown that the contribution of physical and non-physical infrastructure improvements conducted together is larger than the sum of the contribution by each when conducted independently. |
| Keywords: | Asia, Transportation, Distribution, Costs, International trade, Geographical simulation, New economic geography, Trade cost |
| JEL: | F15 O53 R15 |
| Date: | 2012–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:jet:dpaper:dpaper369&r=tre |
| By: | Gerhard Streicher (WIFO); Robert Stehrer |
| Abstract: | This paper aims to complement work done within the WIOD project (the "World Input Output Database" project financed by the EU's Seventh Framework Programme), which compiled supply and use tables for 40 countries, covering about 85 percent of the world economy. The paper describes the derivation of international trade and transport margins (TIR services) together with a consistent and balanced system of supply and use tables at the world level. As a by-product, this also yields supply and use tables including valuation matrices for the rest of the world, the approximately 15 percent of the world economy not covered by the 40 countries included in the WIOD database. The procedure assures a "balanced world economy" with respect to trade in all goods and services. |
| Date: | 2012–10–29 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wfo:wpaper:y:2012:i:439&r=tre |
| By: | Kroon, L.G.; Peeters, L.W.P.; Wagenaar, J.C.; Zuidwijk, R.A. |
| Abstract: | In this paper we describe how rolling stock and passenger connections in a cyclic railway timetable can be modeled in a flexible way within the model for the Periodic Event Scheduling Problem (PESP). The PESP model was introduced by Serani and Ukovich (1989). Usually, PESP-models assume that the constraints for rolling stock or passenger connections specify in detail which trains should connect with each other. However, the flexibility described in this paper allows the model to choose which trains should connect with each other in a rolling stock or passenger connection. We express the required number of train compositions in terms of the integer cycle variables of the constraint graph. We also describe an abstract framework, demonstrating that, under certain conditions, the extra flexibility can be modeled purely in terms of PESP constraints. The concept of flexible rolling stock and passenger connections is illustrated by an example based on three intercity lines of Netherlands Railways. |
| Keywords: | cyclic railway timetabling;PESP;rolling stock and passenger connections |
| Date: | 2012–05–17 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:dgr:eureri:1765032996&r=tre |