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on Transport Economics |
| By: | Matthew Calver; Fanny McKellips |
| Abstract: | In recent decades, the overall growth in productivity of many subsectors of the Canadian transportation and warehousing sector has been above average. In particular, while labour productivity (real GDP per worker) grew an average of 0.64 per cent per year between 2000 and 2014 in the transportation and warehousing sector, labour productivity grew an average of 1.83 per cent per year in the truck transportation subsector, 3.25 per cent per year in the air transportation subsector and 2.09 per cent in the train transportation subsector for the same period. Conversely, in the urban transit subsector, labour productivity decreased an average of 0.76 per cent per year between 2000 and 2014. This report provides a detailed analysis of output, input and productivity trends in four subsectors of the Canadian transportation and warehousing sector. It also examines drivers of the productivity growth for each subsector as well as policies that could enable faster growth. Given the impact that the transportation sector has on many Canadian industries as well as the Canadian economy, maintaining productivity growth is important. |
| Keywords: | Transportation, Canada, Productivity, Rail Transportation, Air Transportation, Trucking Transportation, Urban Transit, Public Policy, Technological Change |
| JEL: | O33 R41 L90 L91 L92 L93 L98 |
| Date: | 2016–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:sls:resrep:1604&r=tre |
| By: | Dewenter, Ralf; Heimeshoff, Ulrich; Thomas, Tobias |
| Abstract: | A wide range of media provide information on many products based on reviews or expert opinions. The effects of such information on product sales is analyzed in a small but growing literature in economics and marketing science. However, there is much more coverage on companies and products in the media than product reviews and expert opinions. Based on a unique dataset, we test whether coverage of car manufacturers in opinion leading media have significant impact on registrations of new cars in Germany. We find that positive (or at least neutral) media coverage has statistically significant effect on the number of new cars sold by several leading manufacturers on the German car market. |
| Date: | 2016 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:dicedp:215&r=tre |
| By: | Thureson, Disa (VTI); Eliasson, Jonas (KTH) |
| Abstract: | Cost-benefit analysis (CBA) is widely used in public decision making on infrastructure investments. However, the demand forecasts, cost estimates, benefit valuations and effect assessments that are conducted as part of CBAs are all subject to various degrees of uncertainty. The question is to what extent CBAs, given such uncertainties, are still useful as a way to prioritize between infrastructure investments, or put differently, how robust the policy conclusions of CBA are with respect to uncertainties. Using simulations based on real data on national infrastructure plans in Sweden and Norway, we study how investment selection and total realized benefits change when decisions are based on CBA assessments subject to several different types of uncertainty. Our results indicate that realized benefits and investment selection are surprisingly insensitive to all studied types of uncertainty, even for high levels of uncertainty. The two types of uncertainty that affect results the most are uncertainties about investment cost and transport demand. Reducing uncertainty can still be worthwhile, however, because of the huge amounts of money at stake: a 10% reduction in general uncertainty can increase the realized benefits of a national infrastructure investment plan by nearly 100 million euro (assuming that decisions are based on the CBAs). We conclude that, despite the many types of uncertainties, CBA is able to fairly consistently separate the wheat from the chaff and hence contribute to substantially improved infrastructure decisions. |
| Keywords: | Cost-benefit analysis; Infrastructure investments; Uncertainty; Robustness |
| JEL: | R42 R48 |
| Date: | 2016–03–15 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:ctswps:2016_008&r=tre |
| By: | Rappaport, Jordan (Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City) |
| Abstract: | The monocentric city model is generalized to a fully structural form with leisure in utility, congested commuting, and the equalizing of utility and perimeter land price across metros. Exogenous and agglomerative differences in total factor productivity (TFP) drive differences in metro population, radius, land use, commute time, and home prices. Quantitative results approximate observed correspondences among these outcomes across U.S. metros. Traffic congestion proves the critical force constraining population. Self-driving cars significantly increase the sensitivity of metro population to productivity. Population becomes less responsive to increases in productivity as metros become larger. Correspondingly, the productivity “cost” of metro population—the TFP required to support a given population—increases convexly with size. Benchmark estimates suggest that agglomerative productivity suffices to support increases in population from low levels, allowing chance to play a significant role in determining which locations with sufficient exogenous TFP develop into small metros. But agglomerative productivity falls considerably short of supporting increases in population from high levels, suggesting that large metros arise from strong “fundamentals” such as high exogenous TFP. |
| Keywords: | City size; Commuting; Congestion; Land use; Metropolitan size; Self-driving cards; Time use |
| JEL: | J22 R12 R41 |
| Date: | 2016–01–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fip:fedkrw:rwp16-03&r=tre |
| By: | Eleonora Morganti (IFSTTAR/AME/SPLOTT - Systèmes Productifs, Logistique, Organisation des Transports et Travail - IFSTTAR - Institut Français des Sciences et Technologies des Transports, de l'Aménagement et des Réseaux - PRES Université Paris-Est); Virginie Boutueil (LVMT - Laboratoire Ville, Mobilité, Transport - IFSTTAR - Institut Français des Sciences et Technologies des Transports, de l'Aménagement et des Réseaux - École des Ponts ParisTech (ENPC) - UPEM - Université Paris-Est Marne-la-Vallée - PRES Université Paris-Est); Fabien Leurent (LVMT - Laboratoire Ville, Mobilité, Transport - IFSTTAR - Institut Français des Sciences et Technologies des Transports, de l'Aménagement et des Réseaux - École des Ponts ParisTech (ENPC) - UPEM - Université Paris-Est Marne-la-Vallée - PRES Université Paris-Est) |
| Abstract: | This interim report for Task 4.1 looks into the current sales and market trends for electric vehicles worldwide, as well as in several European countries, and brings out a set of factors that are likely to influence the French market for PEVs in the short term (2020). We identify three main factors as key drivers of the uptake of PEVs in Europe and in France in the near-term future : - Technology improvements and purchase subsidies to reduce the retail price of PEVs ; - Standardisation throughout Europe, as defined by the 2014 EU Directive on the deployment of alternative fuels infrastructure, to lay the ground for wider consumer acceptance ; and - Deployment of fast-charging infrastructure (together with conventional and semi-fast chargers), to reduce “range anxiety” and to promote the use of PEVs for long-distance trips. |
| Keywords: | fast-charging,electric vehicles, charging infrastructure |
| Date: | 2015–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:wpaper:hal-01294644&r=tre |
| By: | Taylor Jaworski; Carl T. Kitchens |
| Abstract: | How effective are policies aimed at integrating isolated regions? We answer this question using the construction of a highway system in one of the poorest regions in the United States. With construction starting in 1965, the Appalachian Development Highway System (ADHS) ultimately consisted of over 2,500 high-grade road miles. Motivated by a model of inter-regional trade we estimate the elasticity of total income with respect to market access, which we then use to evaluate the overall impact of the ADHS. We find that removing the ADHS would have reduced the total income by $45.9 billion or, roughly, 1 percent. Ultimately, the population response to improvements in transportation infrastructure reduced the gains in income per capita, which were equal to $515 (1.4 percent) in the poorest counties. Today, the region's performance relative to the national average is similar to its position in the 1960s. Thus, despite substantial investment in transportation and some gains in income per capita the region continues to lag behind the rest of the country. |
| JEL: | N12 O18 O2 R13 |
| Date: | 2016–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:22073&r=tre |
| By: | Zhong, Sheng (UNU-MERIT) |
| Abstract: | Using a rich quarterly panel dataset containing about 3.9 million vehicles in Massachusetts over the period 2008q1 - 2011q4, this paper is attempts to improve the micro level empirical basis of the study of population-level vehicle energy efficiency, and to provide some evidence that supports policy making related to sustainable development with regard to road vehicles. It (1) presents an aggregate vehicle energy efficiency indicator (state and municipality level) by taking into account vehicle heterogeneity, (2) investigates the contribution of changes in the structure of the vehicle population that affect aggregate vehicle energy efficiency and its growth, paying particular attention to vehicles’ entry and exit, (3) explores the convergence and the Ergodic distribution of aggregate vehicle energy efficiency between municipalities, and (4) checks the socio-economic factors affecting the distribution of vehicles over locations, and vehicle exit event. The results confirm the importance of structural chance in the vehicle population, convergence of aggregate vehicle energy efficiency between municipalities and the crucial role of socio-economic factors in shaping vehicles distribution. |
| Keywords: | vehicle level micro data, vehicle energy efficiency dynamics, decomposition, reallocation, convergence, socio-economic factors |
| JEL: | O13 |
| Date: | 2016–03–29 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:unm:unumer:2016014&r=tre |
| By: | Markus Gehrsitz (Ph.D. Program in Economics, Graduate Center, CUNY) |
| Abstract: | This paper estimates the effects of temporary driver's license suspensions on driving behavior. A little known rule in the German traffic penalty catalogue maintains that drivers who commit a series of speeding transgressions within 365 days should have their license suspended for one month. My fuzzy regression discontinuity design exploits the quasi-random assignment of license suspensions caused by the 365-day cutoff and shows that 1-month license suspensions lower the probability of recidivating within a year by 20 percent. This effect is not driven by incapacitation and indicates that temporary license suspensions are an effective tool in preventing traffic transgressions. |
| Keywords: | Speeding, Recidivism, Punishment, Economics of Crime, Risky Behavior, Regression Discontinuity |
| JEL: | K42 I12 I18 |
| Date: | 2016–03–22 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cgc:wpaper:011&r=tre |
| By: | Haibing Jiang; David Levinson (Nexus (Networks, Economics, and Urban Systems) Research Group, Department of Civil Engineering, University of Minnesota) |
| Abstract: | This study measures the job and population accessibility via transit for Beijing using the cumulative opportunity metric. It is shown that transit accessibility varies widely across Beijing, but is highly focused on subway stations. Early lines added far more accessibility than more recently planned lines. |
| Keywords: | Transportation Ð Economics, Transportation - Evaluation, Public Transport |
| JEL: | R14 R41 R42 |
| Date: | 2016 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nex:wpaper:accessibilitybeijing&r=tre |
| By: | Efraim Benmelech; Ralf R. Meisenzahl; Rodney Ramcharan |
| Abstract: | Illiquidity in short-term credit markets during the financial crisis might have severely curtailed the supply of non-bank consumer credit. Using a new data set linking every car sold in the United States to the credit supplier involved in each transaction, we find that the collapse of the asset-backed commercial paper market reduced the financing capacity of such non-bank lenders as captive leasing companies in the automobile industry. As a result, car sales in counties that traditionally depended on non-bank lenders declined sharply. Although other lenders increased their supply of credit, the net aggregate effect of illiquidity on car sales is large and negative. We conclude that the decline in auto sales during the financial crisis was caused in part by a credit supply shock driven by the illiquidity of the most important providers of consumer finance in the auto loan market. These results also imply that interventions aimed at arresting illiquidity in short-term credit markets might have helped to contain the real effects of the crisis. |
| JEL: | G01 G23 L62 |
| Date: | 2016–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:22148&r=tre |
| By: | Oksana Zaporozhets (National Research University Higher School of Economics) |
| Abstract: | The paper introduces a metaphor "digital porosity" aiming to grasp the non-uniformity, limitations and gaps of digital connectivity (technological, material, spatial, social, etc.) in urban spaces. Being used as a research guidance, the metaphor raises the questions what digital porosity is? how is it produced? how is it changing? Based on the research of internet connectedness and practices of Internet use in the subways of Moscow and Saint-Petersburg, the paper states that the extension of the Internet zone and the inclusion of new urban spaces do not automatically increase the connectivity of the city, since the latter depends not only on the availability or the quality of internet communication, but also on the intentions and skills of the internet users and their ideas about the comfort and the possibility of internet connection, the role of the subway ride in the broader planning horizons. |
| Keywords: | City, porosity, digital porosity, subway, subway user, digitalization, digital connectivity, Wi-Fi, Saint-Petersburg, Moscow |
| JEL: | Z |
| Date: | 2016 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hig:wpaper:128hum2016&r=tre |