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on Transport Economics |
| By: | Lorenzo Varela , Juan Manuel (KTH); Börjesson, Maria (KTH); Daly, Andrew (ITS, Leeds / RAND Europe) |
| Abstract: | This paper develops a methodology for testing and implementing differences in preferences for a set of public transport modes, relating to observed and unobserved attributes, in state-of-practice large-scale travel demand models. Results of a case study for commuters in the Stockholm public transport system suggest that there are preference differences among public transport modes, and that they are captured by unobserved attributes. Surprisingly, we found no evidence for differences proportional to the in-vehicle time, suggesting that characteristics of in-vehicle time in different public transport modes, such as comfort, are valued equally by the travellers. We also found that the value of time is higher for auxiliary modes than for the main mode, and that the unobserved preference for metro is highest and the preference for light rail lowest. |
| Keywords: | Choice behaviour; Generalised travel cost; Unobserved preferences; Rail factor; Demand forecast |
| JEL: | R40 |
| Date: | 2017–03–23 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:ctswps:2017_006&r=tre |
| By: | Molitor, Ramona |
| Abstract: | This paper studies a unique traffic law enforcement campaign in Germany and its impact on road safety. Key features of the campaign are (1) repeated one-day lasting massive speed limit monitoring (so called Blitzmarathons) and (2) a media campaign that informs the public in advance about the timing, extent, and purpose of the speed limit monitoring. Using administrative records on all police reported vehicle crashes in Germany from 2011 to 2014 and generalized difference-indifferences estimations, we find an eight percent reduction in the number of traffic accidents and a nine percent reduction in the number of slightly injured during Blitzmarathon-day compared to regular days. The effect begins to emerge with the onset of the media campaign, one to three days before a Blitzmarathon. However, while the initiators of the Blitzmarathons intended a permanent change in road safety, we do not find that the reduction in traffic accidents persists beyond a Blitzmarathon-day. In terms of mechanisms, we show that a substitution of traffic from motorized vehicles to other modes of transport not targeted by the Blitzmarathons does not drive our results, and we demonstrate that overall driving speed is lower during a Blitzmarathon-day compared to other days. Given the general relevance of traffic law enforcement strategies, our result have important implications for policy makers beyond the German context. |
| Keywords: | traffic,law enforcement,safety,accidents |
| JEL: | H76 K42 R41 |
| Date: | 2017 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:upadvr:v7517&r=tre |
| By: | Ben Jann; Elisabeth Coutts |
| Abstract: | In a seminal experiment, Doob and Gross (1968) examined the influence of social status on peer-punishment of norm violations in traffic. They observed an inverse relationship between the economic status indicated by a car that was blocking an intersection and the punishment meted out to the driver of that car, with "punishment" taking the form of a honk of the car horn. In a more recent experiment, Diekmann et al. (1996) noted the status and reactions of the cars blocked by a single mid-status car. Blocked drivers at the wheel of a higher-status car were found to punish more aggressively than drivers of a lower-status car. Our study employs a combined design to separate the effects of driver and blocker status. In two field experiments, we varied the status of the norm-violating car and recorded the status of the blocked driver's (i.e. the experimental subject's) car. Our results provide evidence that social distance facilitates peer-punishment. Punishment was expressed less readily when the blocked and blocking cars indicated a similar social status. |
| Keywords: | social status, peer-punishment, horn honking, field experiment, road traffic |
| JEL: | C93 |
| Date: | 2017–03–24 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:bss:wpaper:27&r=tre |
| By: | Holmes, Thomas J. (Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis); Singer, Ethan (CompassLexecon) |
| Abstract: | This paper develops and estimates a model of indivisibilities in shipping and economies of scale in consolidation. It uses highly detailed data on imports where it is possible to observe the contents of individual containers. In the model, firms are able to adapt to indivisibility constraints by using consolidation strategies and by making adjustments to shipment size. The firm determines the optimal number of domestic ports to use, taking into account that adding more ports lowers inland freight cost, at the expense of a higher indivisibility cost. The estimated model is able to roughly account for Walmart’s port choice behavior. The model estimates are used to evaluate how mergers or dissolutions of firms or countries, and changes in variety, affect indivisibility costs and inland freight costs. |
| Keywords: | Indivisibilities; Scale economies; Technological change; Walmart |
| JEL: | F14 L10 R40 |
| Date: | 2017–03–13 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fip:fedmwp:739&r=tre |
| By: | Moisés Obaco A (AQR-IREA, University of Barcelona); Vicente Royuela (AQR-IREA, University of Barcelona); Xavier Vítores (Independent Statistical Researcher) |
| Abstract: | Identifying integrated urban areas is an important issue for urban analysis and policy evaluation. In this paper, we extend the OECD’s methodology to identify Functional Urban Areas to countries where there is not commuting data. We do so substituting such socioeconomic flows by available information on road structure, which allow us to work with accessibility based on travel time. The main advantage of our procedure is its applicability to most countries in the world, as it only uses GIS data. In this paper we apply the procedure two border countries: Colombia, which has a recent census with commuting data, to calibrate our approach, and Ecuador, where there is not commuting census. We perform several sensitivity analysis and robustness checks to Ecuador with alternative sources of socioeconomic flows. |
| Keywords: | Functional Urban Areas. GIS data. Ecuador. Colombia. Travel time. JEL classification: R12, R14, R52. |
| Date: | 2017–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:aqr:wpaper:201703&r=tre |
| By: | Y. Li; C.J.M. Kool; P.J. Engelen |
| Abstract: | In this paper, we explicitly incorporate the impact that realized investment in new infrastructure has on adoption speed in a real options framework for investment decisions and analyze the consequences of this dependence for optimal investment. For the adoption diffusion process, we use a modified Generalized Bass Model. As an illustration, we apply the combined model to the case of the introduction of hydrogen- cars in the Netherlands. We perform a scenario analysis for six different infrastructure investment strategies combined with four different parameterizations. The results show that ignoring the potential interaction between the speed with which the required infrastructure will become available and the adoption process may lead to sub-optimal decisions with respect to the optimal timing of investment spending as well as with respect to the assessment of the feasibility of the project in general. |
| Date: | 2016–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:use:tkiwps:1612&r=tre |
| By: | Yanyan Yang (CGS i3 - Centre de Gestion Scientifique i3 - MINES ParisTech - École nationale supérieure des mines de Paris - PSL - PSL Research University - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique); Shenle Pan (CGS i3 - Centre de Gestion Scientifique i3 - MINES ParisTech - École nationale supérieure des mines de Paris - PSL - PSL Research University - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique); Eric Ballot (CGS i3 - Centre de Gestion Scientifique i3 - MINES ParisTech - École nationale supérieure des mines de Paris - PSL - PSL Research University - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique) |
| Abstract: | This paper investigates performance of interconnected logistics networks confronted to disruptions at hub level. With traditional supply chain network design, companies define and optimize their own logistics networks, resulting in current logistics systems being a set of independent heterogeneous logistics networks. The concept of PI aims to integrate independent logistics networks into a global, open, interconnected system. Prior research has shown that the new organization can reduce the actual transportation cost through the optimization of full truckload and integration of different transportation means. Continuing along these lines, this paper examines how the interconnected logistics networks applying PI deal with disruption problems at hubs. To attain this, a multi-agent based simulation model with dynamic transportation protocols is proposed. Random disruptions at hubs are considered. Case studies of FMCG cases in France have been taken out. Results suggest that though exposed with disruption risks the PI is a robust logistic system. This paper indicates a novel approach to build a resilient supply network. |
| Keywords: | Disruption,Physical Internet,Simulation,Routing |
| Date: | 2016–06–29 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:journl:hal-01320641&r=tre |
| By: | Mueller, Hannes; Rohner, Dominic; Schönholzer, David |
| Abstract: | More distant targets are harder to attack, and hence increased distance between potential attackers and potential targets may drive down the death toll of conflict. To investigate this, the current paper studies violence as interaction across space, i.e. it separates the origin from the target of attacks. We show that a game-theoretic model based on the idea that distance matters can deliver new insights into understanding the causes, the extent and the distribution of violence. Key factors are the transport costs of violence and the distribution of the groups across locations. To estimate the structural parameters of the model, we use very fine-grained data from Northern Ireland on religious composition at each location, and on the identity of attackers and victims in violent events from 1969 to 2001. Using these estimates we show that more than half of the attacks in Northern Ireland were conducted across administrative ward boundaries and that changes in the settlement patterns of the population from the 1970s to the 1980s could be responsible for a large reduction in violence. We find that both the origin and path of attacks can be predicted with our model and that the construction of barriers by the UK government follows these predictions. |
| Keywords: | conflict; Distance Costs; Ethnic Violence; Insurgency; Northern Ireland; Polarization; Religious Violence; Segregation; Spatial Data |
| JEL: | D74 K42 N44 Z10 |
| Date: | 2017–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:11897&r=tre |
| By: | Charles Kunaka; Gaël Raballand; Mike Fitzmaurice |
| Abstract: | In East Africa, there have been numerous concerns over logistics efficiency. Among them, the regional integration of the trucking industry is perceived as a major problem. This paper utilizes a combination of unpublished data surveys and published data (mainly port data) to assess the extent of regional integration. Based on various types of data, several main messages can be drawn from the trucking industry: there has been a noticeable reduction in the price of long-distance trucking services along the Northern Corridor (the corridor from Mombasa, Kenya, to Uganda/Rwanda/Burundi/eastern DRC); the integration of trucking services is moving fast in East Africa (along the Northern Corridor), Rwanda having a three-quarters market share of foreign-owned trucks; trucking fleet characteristics and management have improved tremendously and are now comparable to those in South Africa; the facilitation of border clearance processes has played a major role in improving fleet productivity. Despite all these improvements, the performance of the Tanzanian fleet still lags behind, while benefiting from protection against foreign-owned fleets. |
| Keywords: | trucking industry, trade facilitation, East Africa, Tanzania, Kenya |
| Date: | 2016 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:unu:wpaper:wp2016-152&r=tre |
| By: | Breinbjerg, Jesper (Department of Business and Economics); Østerdal, Lars Peter (Department of Economics) |
| Abstract: | We consider a non-cooperative queueing environment where a finite number of customers independently choose when to arrive at a queueing system that opens at a given point in time and serves customers on a last-come first-serve preemptive-resume (LCFS-PR) basis. Each customer has a service time requirement which is identically and independently distributed according to some general probability distribution, and they want to complete service as early as possible while minimizing the time spent in the queue. In this setting, we establish the existence of an arrival time strategy that constitutes a symmetric (mixed) Nash equilibrium, and show that there is at most one symmetric equilibrium. We provide a numerical method to compute this equilibrium and demonstrate by a numerical example that the social efficiency can be lower than the efficiency induced by a similar queueing system that serves customers on a first-come first-serve (FCFS) basis. |
| Keywords: | Queueing; strategic arrival times to a queue; non-cooperative games |
| JEL: | C72 D62 R41 |
| Date: | 2017–03–17 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:sdueko:2017_003&r=tre |