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on Transport Economics |
| By: | Hener, Timo; Rainer, Helmut; Bauernschuster, Stefan |
| Abstract: | There is widespread concern that major cities and their inhabitants are highly vulnerable to transit strikes. Governments in many countries have addressed this concern by limiting the right of transit workers to strike. Whether or not this can be justified depends, in turn, on whether strikes by transit workers implicate the safety or health of urban populations and impose disproportionate costs on non-involved third parties. We use time series and cross-sectional variation in powerful registry data in order to quantify the effects of public transit strikes in five population-relevant domains: traffic volumes, travel times, accident risk, pollution emissions, and health. The context of our study are the five largest cities in Germany, allowing us to exploit 71 public transit strikes over the period from 2002 to 2011. Generalized difference-in-differences models suggest that strikes lead to a significant increase in car traffic, congestion, accident risk and air pollution. There is also evidence for a substantial increase in accident-related injuries and pollution-related health problems. The third party congestion costs of public transit strikes exceed the private costs of struck employers by at least a factor of four. |
| JEL: | J00 J58 K31 |
| Date: | 2015 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:vfsc15:112957&r=tre |
| By: | Vance, Colin; Frondel, Manuel |
| Abstract: | Using household travel diary data collected in Germany between 1997 and 2012, we employ an instrumental variable (IV) approach that enables us to consistently estimate both fuel price and efficiency elasticities at once. The aim is to gauge the relative impacts of fuel economy standards and fuel taxes on distance traveled. We find that the magnitude of the elasticity estimates are statistically indistinguishable: higher fuel prices reduce driving by the same degree as higher fuel efficiency increases driving. This finding indicates an offsetting effect of fuel efficiency standards on the effectiveness of fuel taxation, calling into question the efficacy of the European Commission's current efforts to legislate CO2 emissions limits for new cars given prevailing high fuel taxes. The ecological implications of this legislation for emissions reductions is explored through a simple numerical simulation using the econometric estimates. |
| JEL: | D12 C36 Q41 |
| Date: | 2015 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:vfsc15:113171&r=tre |
| By: | Siekmann, Manuel; Haucap, Justus; Heimeshoff, Ulrich |
| Abstract: | Price levels and movements on gasoline and diesel markets are heavily debated among consumers, policy-makers, and competition authorities alike. In this paper, we empirically investigate how and why price levels differ across gasoline stations in Germany, using eight months of data from a novel panel data set including price quotes from virtually all German stations. Our analysis specifically explores the role of station heterogeneity in explaining price differences across gasoline stations. Key determinants of price levels across fuel types are found to be ex-refinery prices as key input costs, a station's location on roads or highway service areas, and brand recognition. A lower number of station-specific services implies lower fuel price levels, so does a more heterogeneous local competitive environment. |
| JEL: | L11 L71 L13 |
| Date: | 2015 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:vfsc15:113040&r=tre |
| By: | ISHIKAWA Jota; TARUI Nori |
| 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 an 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. |
| Date: | 2016–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:eti:dpaper:16006&r=tre |
| By: | Meyer, Birgit; Donaubauer, Julian; Nunnenkamp, Peter |
| Abstract: | We raise the hypothesis that aid specifically targeted at economic infrastructure helps developing countries attract higher FDI inflows through improving their endowment with infrastructure in transportation, communication, energy and finance. By performing 3SLS estimations we explicitly account for dependencies between three structural equations on the allocation of sector-specific aid, the determinants of infrastructure, and the determinants of FDI. We find fairly strong and robust evidence that targeted aid promotes FDI indirectly through the infrastructure channel. In addition, aid in infrastructure appears to have surprisingly strong direct effects on FDI. |
| JEL: | F21 F35 O18 |
| Date: | 2015 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:vfsc15:112946&r=tre |
| By: | Klößner, Stefan; Pfeifer, Gregor |
| Abstract: | We examine the impact of European car scrappage programs on new vehicle registrations and respective CO2 emissions. To construct proper counterfactuals, we develop MSCM-T, the multivariate synthetic control method using time series of economic predictors. Applying MSCM-T to a rich data set covering two outcomes of interest, ten economic predictors, and 23 countries, we first analyze Germany which implemented the largest program. We find that the German subsidy had an immensely positive effect of 1.3 million program-induced new car registrations. Disentangling this effect reveals that almost one million purchases were not pulled forward from future periods, worth more than three times the program's 5 billion budget. However, stabilizing the car market came at the cost of 2.4 million tons of additional CO2 emissions. For other European countries with comparable car retirement schemes, we show further positive results regarding vehicle registrations. Finally, we demonstrate that all non-scrapping countries could have considerably backed their vehicle markets by adopting scrappage subsidies. |
| JEL: | D04 D12 H23 |
| Date: | 2015 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:vfsc15:113207&r=tre |
| By: | Sander Hoogendoorn; Joost van Gemeren; Paul Verstraten; Kees Folmer |
| Abstract: | This paper studies the impact of accessibility on house prices, based on a natural experiment in the Netherlands: the Westerscheldetunnel. We exploit the fact that the opening of the tunnel caused a substantial shift in accessibility for people and firms in the connected regions. Our results indicate that the elasticity between house prices and accessibility is equal to 0.8. We also find support for the idea of anticipation: about half of the accessibility effect already materializes more than one year before the opening of the tunnel. Moreover, our analyses suggest that the impact of accessibility differs across regions. |
| JEL: | R2 R4 |
| Date: | 2016–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cpb:discus:322&r=tre |
| By: | Lorenz, Olga; Goerke, Laszlo |
| Abstract: | Commuting is an important and growing component of workers daily life and demands a lot of time. Given the importance of commuting, it is crucial to understand its consequences for different aspects of individual labour supply. In this paper, we focus on the causal effect of commuting on sickness absence from work using German panel data. According to theory, the effect of commuting on the number of workers absence days may be positive or negative. Empirical tests of this effect are not standard, due to reverse causation and lack of good control variables. To address reverse causation, estimates of commuting on absenteeism are derived using changes in commuting distance for workers who stay at the same workplace and who have the same residence during the period of observation. Keeping the workers employer and residence constant allows us to address endogeneity of commuting distance. Our results show that employees, who commute long distances (more than 50 kilometres), are absent more often than comparable employees with shorter commutes. |
| JEL: | I10 J22 R40 |
| Date: | 2015 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:vfsc15:113173&r=tre |
| By: | Arslan, A.M.; Agatz, N.A.H.; Kroon, L.G.; Zuidwijk, R.A. |
| Abstract: | The trend towards shorter delivery lead-times reduces operational efficiency and increases transportation costs for internet retailers. Mobile technology, however, creates new opportunities to organize the last-mile. In this paper, we study the concept of crowdsourced delivery that aims to use excess capacity on journeys that already take place to make deliveries. We consider a peer-to-peer platform that automatically creates matches between parcel delivery tasks and ad-hoc drivers. The matching of tasks and drivers gives rise to a new variant of the dynamic pick-up and delivery problem. We propose a rolling horizon framework and develop an exact solution approach to solve the various subproblems. In order to investigate the potential benefit of crowdsourced delivery, we conduct a wide range of computational experiments. The experiments provide insights into the viability of crowdsourced delivery under various assumptions about the environment and the behavior of the ad-hoc drivers. The results suggest that the use of ad-hoc drivers has the potential to make the last-mile more cost-efficient and environmentally friendly. |
| Keywords: | crowdsourced delivery, pickup and delivery problem, ad-hoc drivers |
| Date: | 2016–02–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ems:eureri:79743&r=tre |
| By: | Klarl, Torben Alexander |
| Abstract: | Many cities in developing countries suffer from bad health and environmental conditions due to urbanization. The paper shows that increasing urban manufacturing congestion costs do not necessarily imply a reduction of a city's health as well as of environmental quality as one could expect ex-ante. The model distills a range of the urban manufacturing sector size which generates a triple dividend: a situation in which the government can simultaneously improve health, reduce pollution, and increase the productivity of labour by investing in either green capital or urban infrastructure that reduces congestion costs. |
| JEL: | R13 R23 Q52 |
| Date: | 2015 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:vfsc15:112829&r=tre |