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on Transport Economics |
| By: | Fumitoshi Mizutani; Yusuke Suzuki; Shuji Uranishi |
| Abstract: | The main purpose of this paper is to estimate and evaluate the social costs of highways in Japan. In general, with more people concerned about protecting the environment at both local and global levels, dependence on vehicular transportation in cities has brought about problems. Too much dependence on autos causes air pollution, which has detrimental health effects. Furthermore, traffic congestion wastes time, money, and energy. The most concerning issue related to continuing dependence on car use is global warming. In order to implement transport policies conducive to creating a sustainable environment, it is necessary to measure correctly the social costs of vehicular transport such as traffic accidents, air pollution, noise, global warming, and traffic congestion. By using a data set from Japan, this paper aims to estimate the social costs of vehicular transport on highways and to evaluate how extensive these social costs are by comparing, for example, highway fares relative to GDP. Our study has several distinguishing characteristics. The most important point is that we estimate each individual highwayÂfs social costs by considering average speed at the peak period, total traffic volume, types of vehicular transport and so on. Second, this study distinguishes five kinds of social costs of vehicular transport for individual highways in Japan: 1) traffic accidents, 2) air pollution, 3) noise, 4) global warming, and 5) traffic congestion. Third, by using a data set of over 50 individual highways in Japan in 2005, we analyze the relationship between the social costs of vehicular transport and traffic volumes in general. Last, by comparing highway fares, the degree of GDP, the fuel tax level, and other factors, we assess the magnitude of social costs, for the purpose of creating prudent transport policy. In order to attain the objectives mentioned above, we organize our study as follows. First, we summarize previous studies, with special attention to the kinds of social costs used, the kinds of sub-items considered in estimating social costs, the aggregate level, the method of estimation, and the magnitude of the social costs of vehicular transport. Second, we explain our method for estimating social costs. In this section, we describe specific equations for the five main categories of highwaysÂf social costs. Third, based on these equations, by using a data set for highways in Japan, we estimate the social costs of vehicular transport on highways. Last, by comparing highway fares, and GDP and so on, we evaluate how extensive highwaysÂf social costs actually are. In this section, we also summarize our major findings. |
| Keywords: | Social Costs; Externalities; Highway; Transportation; Japan |
| JEL: | R41 Q51 |
| Date: | 2015–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wiw:wiwrsa:ersa15p163&r=tre |
| By: | Börjesson, Maria (CTS); Eliasson, Jonas (CTS) |
| Abstract: | Purpose: This chapter provides a thinkpiece on economic evaluation and policy for cycling. Bicycle investments are often motivated by a desire to improve health, the environment and congestion conditions. However, we argue that since the bicycle is a part of the transport system, it should be evaluated as such. Focusing on implications for cycling appraisal in general, we also discuss two conflicting trends in Stockholm: a sharp decrease in cycling in the outer areas, and a sharp increase in the inner parts. Methodology: We use i) travel survey data to analyze the potential to reduce congestion through improvements for cyclists, ii) travel survey data from 19861987 and 2004 and bicycle counts over 25 years and iii) a value of time survey of Stockholm cyclists including questions of exercise habits. Findings Additional benefits in appraisal from reduced car traffic and improved health seem to be small. Given bicyclists’ high values of time and low investment costs, bicycling investments are still likely to be socially beneficial. The conflicting bicycling trends can be explained by i) increased road congestion and improved bicycle infrastructure, ii) increased visibility of bicyclists generating a ‘positive spiral’ iii) increased interest in physical fitness and changes in the relative prices of cars versus central residences turn cycling into a highstatus mode, iv) in peripheral areas, increasing distances and less dense land use patterns decrease cycling levels. Practical implications: The results underscore the need for dense, mixeduse spatial planning and ‘smart’ marketing using the effects of cyclist visibility to reinforce the ‘status’ of cycling. |
| Keywords: | Appraisal; Value of time; Determinants of bicycling; Trends; Bicycle; Cost benefit analysis |
| JEL: | R41 R48 |
| Date: | 2015–10–23 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:ctswps:2015_017&r=tre |
| By: | Francesca Pagliara; João de Abreu e Silva; Guineng Chen |
| Abstract: | In the literature many definitions of megacities and mega-regions are proposed (Urena et al., 2009; Pagliara et al., 2011). For example, Hall (2009) defines a mega city region as a ?series of cities physically separated but functionally networked clustered around one or more larger central cities and are connected with dense flows of people and information using important transport infrastructures?. Transport infrastructures and services are fundamental either for the emergence or the proper functioning of mega cities and regions. High Speed Rail systems are definitely today considered as important infrastructures. By impacting strongly on accessibility patterns, they have revolutionized users? life style together with their mobility behavior thanks to their power of shrinking spaces and shaping places. This contribution is based on the recognition that commuting flows are not enough to justify the formation of a megacity or a mega-region. Even if they can contribute to it, they don?t justify the development of a megapolis. A theoretical model should be specified in order to explain the mechanisms through which metro areas integrate into mega-regions and to understand what is the real role of HSR systems as a variable of this model. This paper attempts to fill this gap, present in the literature, and identify some European corridors having high potential for mega-region formation as supported by High Speed Rail. Examples can be found in France, in Spain and in Italy as well. To achieve this objective, this paper will rely on a thorough literature review aimed at the identification of the possible causal relations between changes in accessibility induced by HSR and the emergence of megacities and megaregions. Moreover a first attempt of specifying the model is proposed. Indeed regression models are defined, where the dependent variables are described in terms of commuting flows, travel time and travel cost of the competing transport modes between metro areas, variables connected with HSR, i.e. comfort, speed, low environmental impact, etc. will be considered as well. Other factors influencing the formation of megacities and megaregions will be introduced and tested. Among them economic variables like the number of jobs, the GDP, etc. Further perspectives should consider that this construct should be tested and synthesized in mathematical terms and then calibrated with the collection of real data. |
| Keywords: | High Speed Rail; Megaregions; Megacities |
| JEL: | R40 R14 |
| Date: | 2015–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wiw:wiwrsa:ersa15p977&r=tre |
| By: | Mercedes Castro-Nuño; José I. Castillo-Manzano; Xavier Fageda |
| Abstract: | Truck operations have recently become an important focus of academic research not only because road freight transport is a key part of logistics, but because trucks are usually associated with negative externalities including pollution, congestion and traffic accidents. While the negative environmental impacts of truck activities have been extensively analyzed, comparatively little attention has been paid to the role of trucks in road accidents. A review of the literature identifies various truck-traffic safety related issues: frequency of accidents and their determinants; risk factors associated with truck driver behavior (including cell phone use, fatigue, alcohol and drugs consumption); truck characteristics and facilities (roadway types, specific lanes and electronic stability programs) to improve performance of vehicle maneuvering; and the safety characteristics of heavy and large trucks. However, to date, there seems to have been developed few studies evaluating the complex coexistence of trucks and cars on roads and that may support the implementation of differential road safety strategies applied to them. This paper focuses on the impact on the traffic fatalities rate of the interaction between trucks and cars on roads. We also assess the efficiency of two stricter road safety regulations for trucks, as yet not harmonized in the European Union; namely, speed limits and maximum blood alcohol concentration rates. For this, econometric models have been developed from a panel data set for European Union during the years 1999?2010. Our findings show that rising motorization rates for trucks lead to higher traffic fatalities, while rising motorization rates for cars do not. Furthermore, we also find that lower maximum speed limits for trucks are effective and maximum blood alcohol concentration rates for professional drivers are only effective when they are strictly set to zero. Therefore, our results point to that the differential treatment of trucks is not only adequate for mitigating an important source of congestion and pollution, but that the implementation of stricter road safety measures in European countries for the case of trucks also contributes significantly to reducing fatalities. In summary, and as a counterpoint to the negative impact of trucks on road traffic accidents, we conclude the effectiveness of efforts made in road safety policy (based on specific traffic regulations by vehicle type imposed by member States) to counteract the safety externalities of freight transportation in the European Union. In certain sense, our study might provide indirect support to public policies implemented at the macro European level to promote multimodal transport corridors. In this respect, there is an increasing focus at the European level on how freight transport can be moved from trucks on roads to more environmentally-sustainable modes, such as rail and ship. |
| Keywords: | Trucks; Road Fatalities; Europe; Speed limits; Blood Alcohol Concentration |
| JEL: | C23 I18 R41 |
| Date: | 2015–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wiw:wiwrsa:ersa15p306&r=tre |
| By: | Jonathan D. Hall |
| Abstract: | This paper shows that a judiciously designed toll applied to a portion of the lanes of a highway can generate a Pareto improvement even before the resulting revenue is spent. I obtain this new result by extending a standard dynamic congestion model to reflect an important additional traffic externality recently identified by transportation engineers: additional traffic does not simply increase travel times, but also introduces frictions that reduce throughput. In particular, I show that as long as some rich drivers use the highway at the peak of rush hour, then adding tolls to a portion of the lanes yields a Pareto improvement. To confirm the relevance of this theoretical possibility in practice, I use survey and travel time data to estimate the joint distribution of driver preferences over arrival time, travel time, and tolls, and use these results to estimate the effects of adding optimal time-varying tolls. I find that adding tolls on up to half of the lanes yields a Pareto improvement, and that the social welfare gains of doing so are substantial—up to $1,740 per road user per year. |
| Keywords: | Congestion pricing, Value pricing, Pareto improvement |
| JEL: | R41 R48 D62 |
| Date: | 2015–10–15 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:tor:tecipa:tecipa-548&r=tre |
| By: | Tiago Santos; Adriano Santos; Carlos Guedes Soares |
| Abstract: | Ports located in the Portuguese west coast have been collectively defined as the ?Portuguese Range?, constituting a multi-port gateway system integrated within the broader context of an already well-established traditional maritime region. The aim of this paper is to identify how the Portuguese ports have been developing and how they can establish themselves as a gateway to the Iberian Peninsula and Western Europe. In fact, Portuguese range ports, located at the extreme of rail freight corridor nº4, could greatly benefit from ?port regionalization? into bordering regions of Spain, the Madrid Community and Northern Europe, forming in this way a competitive gateway to foreland regions along the Atlantic Ocean, such as Latin America, North America, West Africa and Southern Africa. The paper first describes the current situation of Portuguese ports regarding infrastructure, superstructure and throughput, aiming at establishing its capabilities, level of activity and potential problems. Regional transport infrastructures current status, such as rail lines, inland terminals and dry ports are also reviewed, including projects currently foreseen by authorities. Main problems and bottlenecks in regional connections are identified. Main shipping lines calling in Portuguese ports, terminal operators, railway operators and 3P logistics service providers operating in Portugal are also identified. The strategies for promoting ?port regionalization? adopted by these different players in the supply chain are reviewed and analyzed, with focus on shipping lines, terminal operators, freight forwarders, port administrations and Governments. Conclusions are drawn and policy suggestions are made for further improvements in the regionalization of Portuguese ports, taken as an enhancer of economic growth. |
| Keywords: | Ports; Regionalization; Intermodalism; Logistics; Transport networks; Competitio |
| Date: | 2015–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wiw:wiwrsa:ersa15p253&r=tre |
| By: | Ilias-Nikiforos Pasidis; Miquel-Àngel Garcia-López; Elisabet Viladecans-Marsal |
| Abstract: | The main goal of this paper is to provide evidence for the causal effect of the highway and railway infrastructure on the suburbanization of population in European cities. This is considered a major issue in Europe, which has never been studied before at this scale. We constructed a unique population and transport infrastructure dataset covering 579 cities from 29 European countries during the period 1961- 2011. We have included different measures of highways and railways on suburbanization and we have estimated their joint effect using a panel IV approach. Our main specification, where we jointly estimate the effect of highways and railways, suggest that an additional high- way ray displaced approximately 6% of the central city population in European cities during the period 1961-2011 on average, whereas the same estimate for radial railways was roughly 2%. We will also employ the heterogeneity of the European regions and cities in order to detect different patterns of the same effect based on regional and city characteristics. The findings of this paper are novel and yield valuable insights for the European transport and regional policies. 2nd choice theme: G_C. Urban sprawl and shrinkage. |
| Keywords: | suburbanization;cities;Europe;highways;railways;transportinfrastructure;history; |
| JEL: | R4 O4 |
| Date: | 2015–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wiw:wiwrsa:ersa15p1239&r=tre |
| By: | Sabina Buczkowska; Nicolas Coulombel; Matthieu de Lapparent |
| Abstract: | While the question of the specification of spatial weight matrix is now largely discussed in the spatial econometrics literature, the definition of distance has attracted less attention. The choice of the distance measure is often glossed over, with the ultimate use of the Euclidean distance. This paper investigates this issue in the case of establishments locating in the Paris region. Indeed, numerous works highlight the importance of transport infrastructure in the location model, which challenges the choice of the Euclidean distance in representing spatial effects. To compare the various distance measures, we develop a probabilistic mixture of hurdle-Poisson models for several activity sectors. Each model class uses a different definition of distance to capture spatial spillovers. The following distance measures are considered: Euclidean distance, two road distances (with and without congestion), public transit distance, and the corresponding travel times. Data were drawn primarily from the Census survey of establishments carried by the French National Institute of Statistics and Economic Studies. Data on the stock of establishments are given for the 1st of January 2007. In our sample, 763 131 pre-existing establishments were registered on the market. The number of newly created establishments in 2007 equals to 87 974. Based on the performed analyses we drew four main conclusions. 1) Overall, the obtained results are in line with the literature regarding the main determinants of establishment location. 2) Based on the Bayesian Information Criteria, we found that the proposed mixture of hurdle-Poisson models that uses two latent classes performs significantly better than the ?pure? hurdle-Poisson models based on a single distance measure, emphasizing the usefulness of our approach. By using the mixture hurdle-Poisson model we considerably decreased the level of BIC up to 42%. 3) From the overall level of estimated probabilities, we observed that for some transport-oriented sectors, such as construction, the peak road travel time is the most likely to correctly capture spatial spillovers. For other sectors, which do not rely so heavily on the transport infrastructure and which search the proximity to the potential client or user, such as real estate, the Euclidean distance tends to perform well to account for the linkage between neighboring areas. This tends to show that spatial spillovers are channeled by different means depending on the activity sector. 4) In addition, by allowing different distance measures to coexist within a hurdle-Poisson mixture model, the hurdle part of the model that uses the appropriate distance matrix significantly improves. |
| Keywords: | location choice; mixture hurdle-Poisson model; spatial spillovers; distance |
| JEL: | C31 C35 L22 R41 |
| Date: | 2015–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wiw:wiwrsa:ersa15p1060&r=tre |
| By: | Lissy La Paix; Karst Geurs |
| Abstract: | The measures of local and regional accessibility have been developed separately, resulting on a scarcely studied connection between these two. Accessibility evaluation of land-use and transport strategies can be much improved by linkages with more understandable, and local, accessibility measures for research and policy makers. This paper develops a multimodal model to analyse a set of scenarios of chain mobility , i.e. bicycle route quality, BTM frequency and bicycle parking cost . The results reflect the effects on accessibility levels in a national transport model. A detailed bicycle network is implemented and linked to the public transport network. The effect of access and egress penalties is verified by introducing station specific penalties by mode and station type (mode-station constant). The penalties are derived from time valuations (VOT) and willingness to pay (WTP) for transport improvements. The study area covers 54 stations of the Stedenbaan corridor, within the Randstad south wing. A set of transport scenarios are simulated for both 2012 and 2030. A potential job accessibility measure was calculated with the matrices of travel times generated from each scenario. On average the largest travel time reduction is by 15% between 2012 and 2030, when a scenario of better network and connectivity takes place. The results also show the increase in train passengers due to improved bicycle access. We identified that transport measures should be station based. The strongest effects occur in medium and small station types, i.e. 3, 4 and 5. Particularly, station types 3 and 4 are more sensitive to changes in bicycle network than the rest of stations. At the same time, labour force has a strong impact on reaching high job accessibility levels per region and station areas. The job accessibility increased up to 20%. As future research, the behavioural elements of the national transport models can be enriched to produce more user-oriented results. |
| Keywords: | national transport model; train stations; job accessibility |
| Date: | 2015–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wiw:wiwrsa:ersa15p1310&r=tre |
| By: | Jouko Kinnunen; Heikki Metsäranta; Hannu Törmä; Seppo Laakso; Urszula Zimoch |
| Abstract: | Transport sector has a long tradition of using the principles of practical cost benefit analysis (CBA) in project appraisal that analyses the primary impacts of transport investments. The standard transport project assessment is necessary but not sufficient for the estimation of the wider economic impacts, which are in increasing demand among decision makers. Computable General Equilibrium models (CGE) have been proven to be powerful tools in the assessment of economic impacts of infrastructure investments. In this project, GEMPACK-based dynamic regional CGE-models (RegFinDyn and RegSweDyn) have been used in the assessment of rail investments in Finland and in Sweden. The models are fairly standard versions of the Australian TERM model, with some exceptions regarding labor market, migration, demography and agglomeration economies. The use of these models is, however, rather expensive and requires specific skills, software and knowledge. This project tackled these contradicting needs for a complex CGE-modelling and the desired easiness and flexibility of the analysis: A freely available spreadsheet tool was developed with a streamlined interface that uses a large number of previously made CGE-model simulations as basis for the assessment. The developed twin tools were named WebRailSwe and WebRailFin. The tools are made for a quantitative, first approximation of the wider economic impacts of large rail investments in the national areas of Sweden or Finland. The wider economic impacts calculated by this tool are supplementary to the results of a standard project assessment (CBA). The tools use generalised results of RegSweDyn and RegFinDyn CGE-modelling, which could be termed as ?model of a model? approach. CGE model results are used as observations to estimate regression equations where investment shock variables are used to explain the observed deviations from the base run. The four economic indicators calculated by the tools are real GDP, real household consumption, employment and population. It has been proven that it is possible to have an accessible tool that is relatively simple to use but gives results that are based on comprehensive CGE-modelling. This can be considered a promising start for a wider consideration of advanced modelling of economic impacts in the transport sector. However, the results of this project, WebRailSwe and WebRailFin, are only applicable to railway investments, and the results are calculated and presented on a spatial resolution that is rather coarse. Further work could be done to develop similar tools for road investments and other forms of transport improvements, and to increase the spatial resolution of the tools. |
| Keywords: | CGE Analysis of Regional Economies; Transport Planning; Regional Growth Analysis |
| JEL: | R13 R42 C68 R11 |
| Date: | 2015–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wiw:wiwrsa:ersa15p16&r=tre |
| By: | Jos Van Ommeren; Martin Adler |
| Abstract: | The provision of public transit is thought to reduce travel time losses that are due to car congestion. For this reason, it is economically justified to subsidise public transit from a welfare perspective as it creates a congestion-relief benefit. The main goal of this paper is to quantify the congestion-relief benefit of public transit for Rotterdam by analysing car speed during public transit strikes. Arguably, strikes can be interpreted as exogenous transit supply shocks and therefore as a quasi-natural experiment. We are aware of two other papers that use the same methodology. Lo and Hall (2006) and, more recently, Anderson (2014) both analyse the effect of (the same) single transit strike lasting 35 days on highway speed for Los Angeles. Anderson (2014) finds a substantial congestion relief benefit with a decrease in time delays experienced by car drivers of 0.12 minutes per kilometer traveled. It is unknown to what extent this result can be generalised to cities where the share of public transit use is much higher or to cities where bicycle use might be a viable alternative. Our analysis differs from Anderson (2014) and Lo and Hall (2006) in a number of ways. First, we focus on a city, Rotterdam in the Netherlands, which, as we will document, is only mildly congested. Second, we analyse the effect of multiple strikes of various public transit modes (e.g. bus, light rail) that are citywide. Third, we examine the strike effect on car speed (and flow) both for the highway ring road as well as within the inner-city of Rotterdam. Finally, by examining heterogeneity in the effects of strikes, we are able to improve our understanding when the public transit relief benefit is particularly pronounced. For example, as one may expect, we find a particularly strong effect of strikes on car speed during weekday rush hours (but no clear effect during weekends and outside rush hours). In addition, our results suggest that the speed effects of strikes that last a few hours are similar to full-day strikes indicating that a continuous supply of public transit during the day is essential for travelers. We show that the congestion relief impact in Rotterdam is by a factor ten larger for inner city roads than for highway ring roads. For the latter we found a several times smaller effect than Anderson (2014). It turns out that the congestion relief benefit of public transit for Rotterdam is substantial, and about 50% of the current subsidy level. This result is particularly noteworthy as we focus on what can be considered an uncongested city. This suggests that subsidies to public transit are welfare improving, even for cities that exhibit low congestion levels. |
| Keywords: | transit subsidies; public transit; traffic congestion; congestion relief benefit |
| JEL: | H76 J52 L92 R41 |
| Date: | 2015–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wiw:wiwrsa:ersa15p136&r=tre |
| By: | Cenk Hamamcioglu; Senay Oguztimur |
| Abstract: | In general manner; Turkey and Germany are quite unlike countries in terms of transportation infrastructure and logitics facilities. Many reasons, most of them ground historical reasons, could be regarded such as; geographical location, industrial history, economic. For whatever reason might be; in today?s context the world witness the highest logistics performans index score in Germany and an aggressively developing country in Turkey. As Europe's largest economy and second most populous nation, Germany leads in developing logistics strategies and services as a key member of the continent's economic and political structure. On the other hand, Turkey has got a real strategic location between the continents but traditionally has problems with transportation mode distribution and interconnectivity of systems that prevent Turkey to undertake the 'hub' role for its region and achieve economic benefit. The efficient mobility of people and freight is a prerequisite for modern economic success. Due to increasing globalization, transportation of freight and logistics play an ever important role in a country's ability to compete in the global market. Global supply chains require a large number of high-performing physical interfaces, such as container terminals, seaports and/or freight villages, to establish a perfect material flow along the entire world. From this point of view; Germany is chosen as the best perfomed country all over the world. Likewise, Turkey needs a kind of a 'benchmarking' in order to overcome transportation and logistics infrastructural and strategic problems. The aim of this paper is to focus on the successful strategic location desicion of freight villages and transportation mode distribution of Germany. In accordance with this purpose, first section of this paper is substantially based on secondary data gathered from a wide variety of sources including Turkish/German Statistical Institutes, Ministries of Transportation, Maritime Affairs and Communication and NGO's of the sector besides European Commision Statistical Office (eurostat) and academic studies. Data gathered is used to point the current transport indicators of Turkey with respect to Germany. Afterwards analyzing the primary transportation and logistics index, the mind behind transportation organisation is presented. Finally; the lessons to be taken for Turkey is presented and future policy in transportation and logistics are guided. The results regarding with the transportation modes indicate that, the finest detail is hidden behind the railway investments and its connections within other transportation modes for Turkey. In a similar manner, Germany's logistics workforce and infrastructure is geographically concentrated along the Rhineland, through the industrial heartland of the Ruhr. But in Turkey, unbalanced regional development force country to polarised development around Marmara Region. |
| Keywords: | transportation; freight village; Germany; Turkey |
| Date: | 2015–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wiw:wiwrsa:ersa15p498&r=tre |
| By: | Mattia Cattaneo; Paolo Malighetti; Stefano Paleari; Renato Redondi |
| Abstract: | Introduction There is a large consensus that the amount of human capital in areas plays a crucial role for regional economic development. Previous evidence on regional economics highlight that a higher concentration of human capital is associated with more population, employment growth, income and ability to innovate (e.g., Carlino et al., 2007; Glaeser and Saiz, 2004; Glaeser, 2005). Therefore, it is crucial to identify the factors that drives differences in human capital accumulation in specific areas (e.g., Boschma at al., 2013). Among others, universities have been identified as focal institutions for the attraction of highly skilled human capital toward specific areas, being firstly responsible for the attractiveness to students from different areas. Although some recent contributions have already investigated whether universities are able to affect the distribution of human capital at a regional level (Ciriaci, 2013; Abel and Deitz, 2012), less attention has been paid to the effects that the evolution of transport infrastructures play in this respect. Due to the growth of interest in the concept and the few attempts to deal with this topic, this paper aims to investigate how the Italian higher education system and transport infrastructures co-evolve over time, mainly focusing on the impact of transports infrastructures? changes on the long distance mobility of students. In the last decade, students aiming to increase their opportunities in the labour market and enhance their social status have become more prone to move, relocating in wealthier areas, whereas, at the same time, long distance students? mobility has been facilitated by the decrease of travel costs (e.g. Ryanair, Freccia Rossa). Data and Methodology Relying on the population of 75 private and public universities in Italy over the period 2002-2012 and the changes that affected both the air transportation and the high-speed rail system we investigate the long distance mobility of first-time first-year university students (more than 300 km from their households) departing from each Italian province. Consistently with the literature on spatial interaction analyses, we investigate the effects of transport infrastructures rely on a competition destinations model (e.g., Sà et al. 2004, Cattaneo et al. 2014). Results Preliminary results suggest that long distance students? mobility has been affected by the evolution of transport infrastructures with an important impact of low cost airlines from Southern to Northern Italian regions. The change in the distribution of Italian students that has been occurred in the last years (Cattaneo et al. 2014; Long 2013) is found to be facilitated by the presence of more developed transport infrastructures, which have decreased the costs associated to long distance mobility. |
| Keywords: | University students; transport infrastructures; attractiveness to students |
| JEL: | L9 O1 I2 |
| Date: | 2015–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wiw:wiwrsa:ersa15p1231&r=tre |
| By: | Johan Joubert; Dominik Ziemke; Kai Nagel |
| Abstract: | Accessibility indicators take land use, the transport system, and their interdependencies into account in a holistic fashion. In many areas, however, spatial data to perform accessibility calculations are hard to obtain or not available at all. Freely available volunteered geographic information (VGI) like from OpenStreetMap (OSM), which is increasingly becoming a world-wide standard for geo-spatial data, may be a solution to this problem. In fact, some accessibility studies use data from OSM to create representations of the transport network and to perform network-based computations. In this paper, two approaches for accessibility assessment for Nelson Mandela Bay Municipality in South Africa are presented. The approaches possess different levels of utilization of OSM data which both exceed the use of OSM data for network creation. In the first approach, the transport network as well as locations and types of activity facilities are taken from OSM. Additionally, a synthetic population is created based on a census. The corresponding travel demand is generated based on a travel survey. Local expert knowledge is applied to design a household-specific accessibility indicator that takes into account various characteristics of travel and land use, such as travel time to work and/or education, travel time to the nearest health/shopping facility, availability of different transport options, and availability of various facilities within walking distance. Weights are used to combine the respective values of aforementioned characteristics into a composite, household-based accessibility score. This approach appears particularly suitable in the South African context where housing locations and travel characteristics are highly diverse among the population. The second approach relies exclusively on OSM data, which is -- as before -- used to create the network and activity facilities in the model. The approach applies an econometric accessibility indicator, which calculates the accessibility of a given measuring point as the weighted sum over the utilities of all opportunities including the costs of reaching them. In contrast to the first approach, no synthetic population, but only household locations -- collected from OSM in the same way as (other) activity facilities -- are used for the calculation. The approach is highly portable since no input data other than those from OSM are used. It is found that the second approach, though being much more lightweight in terms of data requirements, yields the same quality of insights concerning accessibilities of different areas of the region. Both approaches detect areas where levels of accessibility deprivation are high and where interventions in the transport-land-use system are advisable. Consequently, the paper is a contribution to accessibility analyses based on easily obtainable and ubiquitously available OSM data to obtain similar results as with respective approaches based on traditional spatial data. |
| Keywords: | Accessibility; Accessibility Computation; South Africa; Africa; OpenStreetMap |
| Date: | 2015–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wiw:wiwrsa:ersa15p1614&r=tre |
| By: | Nicholas Sheard |
| Abstract: | This paper estimates the effects of airports on economic growth in US metropolitan areas. The estimation uses a novel technique to identify the effects of changes in local airport sizes from overall changes in the air travel network. Airport size is found to have a positive effect on local employment with an elasticity of 0.03. This means that for every job created at the airport by an exogenous increase in traffic, around four and a half jobs are created outside of the airport. The effect appears to be driven primarily by a positive effect on services employment. Airport size is also found to have positive effects on local GDP, the number of firms, population size, and the employment rate. The magnitudes of the effects on population and the employment rate suggest that the jobs created by airport expansion are spread between existing residents and workers who migrate to the area. In addition, the effect on local employment is concentrated in parts of the metropolitan area that are nearer the airport. |
| Keywords: | Transportation infrastructure; Air travel; Urban growth |
| JEL: | H54 L93 R11 R41 |
| Date: | 2015–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wiw:wiwrsa:ersa15p28&r=tre |
| By: | Guineng Chen; Marcos Correia; João de Abreu e Silva |
| Abstract: | The inauguration of a HSR line increases the accessibility to people, resources, goods, and markets, which brings locational advantages, thus attracting new households, economic activities, allowing greater agglomerations. Intuitively, the locations where the accessibility increases higher than average may gain more economic opportunities and more growth. Accessibility indicators measure the relative location importance, affecting the attractiveness and economic development potentials of regions. They are also able to measure the disparities among regions to define how transport and development impacts are distributed across geographical areas or population. In order to evaluate the impacts of accessibility on the regional economic growth, choosing the most suitable accessibility indicator is rather crucial. To analyze how well different types of accessibility indicators are able to capture the spatial distributions of the regional economic variables, this paper is set to study the ex-post impacts of accessibility due to the HSR network expansion in the 2000s at provincial level in Spain and its relation to the evolution of several economic performance indicators (GDP, population, employment and number of firms) during the same time period. Four accessibility indicators corresponding to different conceptualizations are introduced: one location indicator, two economic potential indicators and one daily accessibility indicator. The study area and the zoning level for the analysis is comprised of 47 provinces in continental Spain. The visualization procedure for accessibility indicators and the economic variables is supported by ArcGIS® software. To calculate the accessibility values, travel times between all the municipalities by railway are computed for the year 2000 and 2010 using a GIS-based network with network analysis tool box in ArcGIS®. The relative changes of accessibility and economic variables for all the provinces of Spain are presented and analyzed. The distribution patterns of the accessibility indicators and economic variables are compared. The obtained results are expected to help better understanding the concept of accessibility and its explanatory power in the economic impact analysis |
| Keywords: | High-speed rail; Accessibility indicators; Regional development. |
| JEL: | R Z |
| Date: | 2015–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wiw:wiwrsa:ersa15p393&r=tre |
| By: | António Almeida; Luiz Machado |
| Abstract: | Introduction/objectives: This study analysis the behaviour of shoppers at Madeira?s International Airport by taking into consideration a wide range of travel and socio-demographic related variables as well as the moderating effects of time pressure and overall spending while on holiday. Shopping at the airport, remains one of the most important tourist activity, and its contribution to the local economy is highly significant, as many passengers cannot admit to end the journey without liking around the shops or buying something. In fact, understanding domestic and international visitors shopping preferences and delivering high service quality that meets or exceeds expectations provides valuable showcase to sell iconic local products. Quite surprisingly, there is a dearth of research on the subject on peripheral airports, which is at odds with the key importance of such infrastructures at the regional level. Methods: Based on a sample of over 1000 passengers, we investigate which factors contribute decisively to higher levels of shopping and spending. Twenty different variables were checked to analyse the factors that condition passenger decisions to make either purchase in one of the airport stores or consume food/ beverage in a catering establishment. A bivariate probit model were applied because it is well suited to answer two questions (dependent variable) with closely linked answers by being influenced by the same factors. In order to check whether national and international visitors differed in their shopping preferences multivariate statistics and parametric and non-parametric tests where applied to identify significant differences between visitors?. Results/conclusions: Contrary to what was anticipated, socio-economic status only impacts marginally the level of spending, while travelling for business/vfr reasons results in passengers spending more. The bivariate model leads to the conclusion that travel motivations are a predominant impacting upon spending. It is also observed that low-cost airlines passengers spend less than those opting for traditional airlines, while high levels of satisfaction with the current holiday lead to higher levels of spending. The results also reveal that visitor?s motivations have positive impacts on commercial activities at the airport. And the results also shown that domestic visitors share more negative views in their service evaluations than their international counterparts. Moreover, the results provide strong support for the propositions of the study that domestic and international visitors differed in their evaluation of services and shopping item preferences. The results are of relevance to airport managers and local tourism policy managers, because it identifies which passengers are more interested in shopping. Although the airport managers cannot alter the essential characteristics of the respondents, a wide range of initiatives can be implemented in order to increase the respondents´ average expenditure levels by promoting regional products. |
| Keywords: | Regional development; Airports; Shopping preferences; Low cost carriers; Tourism |
| JEL: | R11 L83 L81 L93 |
| Date: | 2015–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wiw:wiwrsa:ersa15p943&r=tre |
| By: | Yuzuru Miyata; Hiroyuki Shibusawa; Tomoaki Fujii |
| Abstract: | In this paper, we explore the economic impact of promotion and realization of an electric vehicle society (EVS) in Toyohashi City in Japan. More concretely, this paper emphasizes a computable general equilibrium (CGE) modeling approach to evaluate the following issues: economic impacts of subsidies for promotion of an EVS, economic impacts of carbon tax for reducing CO2, industrial structure change towards an EVS, and modal shift occurring towards an EVS. Our simulation results demonstrate that after applying 5 ~ 25% up subsidies to five industries including electric vehicle (EV) manufacturing, EV transport, solar power, cogeneration and other transport, the total industrial output and city GDP increase. A large growth rate is found in industries where subsidies are introduced, but non-ferrous metal industry also grows without subsidies due a repercussion effect. Moreover, it is interesting that decreasing proportions are found in oil and coal product, mining, heat supply and gasoline vehicle (GV) transport industries. However the total CO2 emission in Toyohashi City is increased being interpreted as a rebound effect. All the commodity prices decrease since subsidies are given to some industries. Hence Toyohashi CityÂfs economy shows a direction where the demand for conventional vehicles and energy use are decreased, conversely, the demand for EVs and renewable energy are increased illustrating a different life style from the current one. Regarding CO2 emissions, we introduced a carbon tax of 1,000 yen/t-CO2 for industries except the five industries mentioned above. As a result the total CO2 emission is decreased and the equivalent variation shows a positive value as compared with the base case. Thus introducing 5 ~ 25% subsidies and the carbon tax can really represent a realistic alternative society to EVS in Toyohashi City. |
| Keywords: | CGE model; electric vehicle; carbon tax; solar power; Toyohashi City |
| JEL: | Q00 Q01 Q50 Q51 Q53 Q55 |
| Date: | 2015–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wiw:wiwrsa:ersa15p319&r=tre |
| By: | Daniel Albalate del sol |
| Abstract: | This paper evaluates how changes in the provision of HSR services do affect Tourism outcomes in Spain, a touristic country that has the longest and newest HSR network in Europe. The empirical strategy is based on Differences in Differences panel data methods with double fixed effects. Main data is drawn from the Spanish National Statistical Institute (INE) and covers 50 provinces within a time span of 15 years (1998-2013). For municipalities we consider a sample of touristic cities (identified by the Spanish National Statistical Institute) and we follow their touristic outcomes with monthly data between 2005 comparing the before and after situation. Our preliminary results indicate that High speed rail accessibility does not promote tourist activity, but offers a negative statistically significant impact on tourism outcomes when evaluated at Province level. Timing effects analysis shows that HSR only provides higher numbers of tourists during the first year, but this is reversed soon in the second and third year of operation. This result could be explained by the rigid network design not attached to ridership needs that exerts a substitution effect on air transportation, the main mode for long distance tourist mobility. Finally, the analysis of HSR impacts on touristic cities receiving this mode of transportation does not show any distinguishable change after the inauguration of HSR services. |
| Keywords: | High-speed Rail; Tourism; Transportation. |
| JEL: | H54 L83 O18 R41 |
| Date: | 2015–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wiw:wiwrsa:ersa15p288&r=tre |
| By: | Philipp Breidenbach |
| Abstract: | This paper exploits the deregulation of the European aviation market as a quasi-natural experiment to examine if the expansion of regional airports in Germany caused positive spillover effects on the surrounding economy. Such spillovers might justify the heavy subsidies which are transferred to airports annually. Standard evaluations of infrastructure investments have to face reverse causality problems since the investment decisions are based on the regional conditions of the regional economy. The deregulation act forms a exogenous incentive to invest in the expansion of existing regional airports. Furthermore, most of these airports act as military base and their location is not economically driven. Under these circumstances a Difference in Differences approach allows to estimate causal effects of the expansion on the regional growth. Following this identification strategy, the results are sobering since airport expansions are not found to have any positive spillover effect on regional growth. |
| Keywords: | Infrastructure investment; Regional growth; Airport effects |
| JEL: | R51 R42 H54 |
| Date: | 2015–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wiw:wiwrsa:ersa15p1196&r=tre |
| By: | Mehmet Akif Çini (Selçuk University); Mehmet Emin Demir (SELÇUK UNIVERSITY) |
| Abstract: | The gradual increase of competition and the effects of globalization make yeting the customer satisfaction increasingly more diffecult in the field of transportation as well as in other sectors. Meeting the customer satisfaction is one of the biggest obstackles to ensure the customer loyalty. As a result, to differenciate from their competitors and to ensure customer loyalty, the enterprices have had to increase their quality of service as well as their product. In this study a research has been made to find out what kind of effects the service quality has on customer satisfaction and loyalty in the enterprises operating in the transport sector in the province of Konya. This study has been carried out with the participation of the studets of Konya Selçuk University. |
| Keywords: | The Dimentions of Service Quality, Customer Satisfaction, Loyalty. |
| JEL: | M31 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:sek:iacpro:3105160&r=tre |
| By: | Euijune Kim; Geoffrey J.D. Hewings; Hidayat Amir |
| Abstract: | We develop a Financial Computable General Equilibrium Model (FCGE) model that can analyse the economic impacts of the infrastructure investment projects and their financing options on growth and distribution in Indonesia economy. It is possible to estimate growth and distributional effects of each project based on the financing method (government financing with tax revenues, government bond, and private financing) over the construction and operation periods if the information on the investment expenditures, the construction location and the accessibility of the project are injected into the FCGE model. The government financing with tax revenues could generate higher effects on GDP than two other financing methods regardless of projects. However, the presented values of benefits over costs are less than one for two sample highway projects, so they cannot be sustainable with regard to economic assessment. |
| Keywords: | Transportation Investment; Infrastructure Policy; Financial CGE Model |
| JEL: | C68 D58 H54 O18 |
| Date: | 2015–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wiw:wiwrsa:ersa15p453&r=tre |
| By: | Jota Ishikawa (Faculty of Economics, Hitotsubashi University and Research Institute of Economy, Trade, and Industry (RIETI)); Nori Tarui (Department of Economics, University of Hawaii at Manoa and University of Hawaii Economic Research Organization (UHERO)) |
| Abstract: | Trade barriers due to transport costs are as large as those due to tariffs. This paper explicitly incorporates the transport sector into the framework of international oligopoly and studies the effects of trade and industrial policies. Transport firms need to commit to a shipping capacity sufficient for a round trip, with a possible imbalance of shipping volumes in two directions. Because of this “backhaul problem,” trade restrictions may backfire: domestic import restrictions may also decrease domestic exports, possibly harming domestic firms and benefiting foreign firms. In addition, trade policy in one sector may affect other independent sectors. |
| Keywords: | Transport firm; transport cost; tariffs; subsidies; international oligopoly |
| JEL: | F12 F13 R40 |
| Date: | 2015–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hai:wpaper:201514&r=tre |
| By: | Tatiana Mikhailova |
| Abstract: | This paper studies the geography of competition on Moscow commercial real estate market. We estimate the elasticity of office rental price to the prices of competing objects as a function of the geographical distance. We found that office real estate market in Moscow, although saturated, is surprisingly local. The evidence of price competition exists primarily at a walking distance, and dies down quickly at a distances beyond one kilometer. However, if competing objects are connected by a subway line, the geographical radius of competition extends to up to three kilometers. Thus, in the case of Moscow real estate transportation infrastructure works to integrate local markets and promote competition, although the magnitude of these effects are modest. |
| Keywords: | spatial competition; real estate; transport |
| JEL: | R32 R33 L85 |
| Date: | 2015–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wiw:wiwrsa:ersa15p1011&r=tre |
| By: | Ana Isabel Moreno-Monroy; Frederico Ramos |
| Abstract: | The São Paulo Metropolitan Region (SPMR) displays a strong core-periphery divide. Central areas concentrate the bulk of formal jobs while peripheral areas display high incidence of informal employment. This pattern is reinforced by a large deficit in urban transport provision. Against this background, we estimate the impact of expansions of the public transport system on local informality rates for the SPMR between 2000 and 2010. We compare the average changes in informality in areas which received new public transport infrastructure with the average changes in areas which were supposed to receive infrastructure according to official plans, but did not because of delays. After controlling for endogenous selection, we find that informality decreased on average 15 percent faster in areas receiving new public transport infrastructure compared to areas that faced project delays. |
| Keywords: | Urban transport; informality; Brazil; impact evaluation |
| JEL: | F12 O14 O17 R12 |
| Date: | 2015–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wiw:wiwrsa:ersa15p1551&r=tre |
| By: | A. Engin Özçelik (Selcuk University, Technology Faculty, Mechanical Engineering); Hasan Aydo (Selcuk University, Technology Faculty, Mechanical Engineering); Mustafa Acaro (Selcuk University, Technology Faculty, Mechanical Engineering) |
| Abstract: | In the present study, the effects of biodiesel obtained from safflower oil through transesterification and Eurodiesel blends on engine performance were examined in a four-stroke, common-rail fuel system, water-cooled, four-cylinder diesel engine.Biodiesel blends of 10% biodiesel-90% Eurodiesel (B10) and 20% biodiesel-80% Eurodiesel (B20) were prepared by using the fuels obtained. Afterwards, the diesel engine was operated using B10, B20, 100% biodiesel (B100) and 100% Eurodiesel (B0) fuels. The findings were comparatively presented. In the experiments, engine power values obtained with Eurodiesel fuel, biodiesel and its blends were observed to be close to one another at all engine speeds. It was observed that fuel consumption showed a certain amount of increase with the use of Biodiesel and its blends compared to Eurodiesel fuel. |
| Keywords: | Biodiesel, Eurodiesel, safflower oil, common-rail |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:sek:iacpro:3104826&r=tre |
| By: | Dirk Männel (Faculty of Economics and Management, Otto-von-Guericke University Magdeburg); Andreas Bortfeldt (Faculty of Economics and Management, Otto-von-Guericke University Magdeburg) |
| Abstract: | In this paper, we extend the classical Pickup and Delivery Problem (PDP) to an integrated routing and three-dimensional loading problem, called PDP with 3D loading constraints (3L-PDP). A set of routes of minimum total length has to be determined such that each request is transported from a loading site to the corresponding unloading site. In the 3L-PDP, each request is given as a set of 3D rectangular items (boxes) and the vehicle capacity is replaced by a 3D loading space. This paper is the second one in a series of articles on 3L-PDP. In both articles we investigate which constraints will ensure that no reloading effort will occur, i.e. that no box is moved after loading and before unloading. In this paper, the focus is laid on the so-called reloading ban, a packing constraint that ensures identical placements of same boxes in different packing plans. We propose a hybrid algorithm for solving the 3L-PDP with reloading ban consisting of a routing and a packing procedure. The routing procedure modifies a well-known large neighborhood search for the 1D-PDP. A tree search heuristic is responsible for packing boxes. Computational experiments were carried out using 54 3L-PDP benchmark instances. |
| Keywords: | Transportation, vehicle routing, pickup and delivery, 3D loading constraints |
| Date: | 2015–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:mag:wpaper:150016&r=tre |
| By: | Jamie Chen |
| Abstract: | The purpose of this study is to develop and estimate an integrated structural path model of the determinants of cruise demand, based on the nexus of motivation, preference, and intention of cruise tourists. The paper aims to identify the drivers of this demand in a growing competitive world market. Our model results show that different cruise motives have significant positive or negative effect on specific customer preferences and intentions, while some significant relationships between specific cruise preferences and intentions are also found. Based on our structural path model, a T-test is applied to compare the differences of cruise motivations and cruise preferences between the growing Asian market and the global cruise market, in order to trace the instrumental determinants of cruise passengers, leading to a new understanding of cruise competitiveness in different regional markets. |
| Keywords: | cruise; competitiveness; motivation; preference; intention |
| Date: | 2015–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wiw:wiwrsa:ersa15p1190&r=tre |