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on Transport Economics |
| By: | Nilsson , Jan-Eric Nilsson (CTS - Centre for Transport Studies Stockholm (KTH and VTI)); Isacsson , Gunnar (CTS - Centre for Transport Studies Stockholm (KTH and VTI)); Haraldsson, Mattias (CTS - Centre for Transport Studies Stockholm (KTH and VTI)); Nerhagen, Lena (CTS - Centre for Transport Studies Stockholm (KTH and VTI)); Odolinski, Kristofer (CTS - Centre for Transport Studies Stockholm (KTH and VTI)); Swärdh, Jan-Erik (CTS - Centre for Transport Studies Stockholm (KTH and VTI)); Vierth, Inge (CTS - Centre for Transport Studies Stockholm (KTH and VTI)); Yarmukhamedov, Sherzod (CTS - Centre for Transport Studies Stockholm (KTH and VTI)); Österström, Johannes (CTS - Centre for Transport Studies Stockholm (KTH and VTI)) |
| Abstract: | This review summarizes recent information about the marginal costs for using Sweden’s infrastructure and the relationship between the sum of marginal costs and charges for each mode. It is demonstrated that the tax on petrol used by private cars is higher than the marginal costs for emissions, accident risk and road wear and tear. The diesel tax is, on the other hand, not sufficient for internalization of heavy vehicles’ externalities. Neither trains nor aircraft or ships pay for their marginal costs. For railways, this confirms previous observations that Swedish track user charges are low in an international context. Except for a low level of charges, several examples are given of the strong motives for differentiation of charges in time and geography. The rapid technical development makes the cost motive for not differentiating the charges increasingly irrelevant. |
| Keywords: | Marginal cost pricing; roads; railways; waterway infrastructure; air infrastructure |
| JEL: | R10 R40 R41 R48 |
| Date: | 2018–02–19 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:ctswps:2018_002&r=tre |
| By: | Bosker, Maarten; Buringh, Eltjo |
| Abstract: | Iceberg transport costs are one of the main ingredients of modern trade and economic geography models: transport costs are modelled by assuming that a fraction of the goods shipped "melts in transit''. In this paper, we investigate whether the iceberg assumption applies to the costs of transporting the only good that literally melts in transit: ice. Using detailed information on Boston's nineteenth-century global ice trade, we show that ice(berg) transport costs in practice were a combination of a true ad-valorem iceberg cost: melt in transit, and freight, (off)loading and insurance costs. The physics of the melt process and the practice of insulating the ice in transit imply an immediate violation of the iceberg assumption: shipping ice is subject to economies scale. |
| Keywords: | Boston; ice trade; iceberg transport costs |
| JEL: | F1 N51 N7 |
| Date: | 2018–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:12660&r=tre |
| By: | Gioele Figus (Centre for Energy Policy, University of Strathclyde); Kim Swales (Department of Economics, University of Strathclyde) |
| Abstract: | This paper demonstrates the importance of considering both energy and non-energy efficiency improvements in the provision of energy intensive household services. Using the example of private transport, we analyse whether vehicle efficiency can beat fuel efficiency in cutting fuel use. We find that this ultimately depend on the elasticity of demand for transport, the substitutability between vehicles and fuels and the initial share of fuel use in private transport. The framework also allows to identify ‘multiple benefits’ of technical progress in private transport by considering both the ability of such policy to reduce fuel demand and to increase the consumer’s surplus. We extend the partial equilibrium framework by using computable general equilibrium (CGE) simulations to identify the system-wide impacts on total fuel use of the two alternative efficiency changes. Simulation results suggest that the substitution effects identified in the partial equilibrium analysis are an important element in determining the change in total fuel use resulting from these consumption efficiency changes. However, the identification of associated changes in intermediate fuel demand, plus the potential expansionary effects of the improvements in household efficiency transmitted through the labour market can generate general equilibrium effects that vary substantially from those derived using partial equilibrium analysis. |
| Keywords: | energy services, technical progres,, energy efficiency, partial equilbrium, general equilibrium |
| JEL: | C68 D58 Q43 Q48 |
| Date: | 2018–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:str:wpaper:1802&r=tre |
| By: | Nicola Francesco Dotti |
| Abstract: | The construction of a large metropolitan infrastructure, like other megaprojects, requires advanced technical expertise, capacity to manage complex procedures and planning processes as well as capacity to deal with conflicting interests. For the case of megaprojects, overestimation of benefits and underestimation of costs and risks is a common problem all over the world, leading to the 'survival of the unfittest’ (Flyvbjerg, 2009). The main causes were identified in the optimism bias, strategic misrepresentation, path dependency leading to lock-in and poor oversight; however, the 'survival’ of these causes is still unclear. For this purpose, the survival of the unfittest megaprojects is re-conceptualised into a proper cognitive-evolutionary framework. By introducing an innovative taxonomy of policy knowledge, this paper aims to argue that a specific policy community can 'survive’ by strategically using a ‘cognitive monopoly’ of some of the relevant policy knowledge for megaprojects. Based on the case of the new ‘Watermael – Schuman – Josaphat’ rail junction in Brussels, findings show the critical role played by the Federal Ministry for Communications thanks to a long-standing and context-specific know-how on underground works. While missing knowledge was outsourced and instrumentally used to overcome potential lock-in, the Ministry was able to build the only new large metropolitan infrastructure of Belgium during a period of high uncertainty due to decentralisation. The paper concludes discussing the effects of preserving this policy knowledge as well as negative issues related to this ‘cognitive monopoly’. |
| Keywords: | Brussels; Cognitive monopoly; Decentralisation; Megaproject; Policy knowledge |
| Date: | 2018–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ulb:ulbeco:2013/266990&r=tre |
| By: | Aris Christodoulou (European Commission - JRC); Hande Demirel (Istanbul Technical University (Istanbul, Turkey)) |
| Abstract: | The report assesses the impacts of climate change on transport for Europe using projections of climate data, coastal inundation, river flooding and river discharge data. Impacts considered include those of sea level rise, storm surges, extreme weather events and floods on airports and seaports, as well as floods and droughts on inland waterways. Main outputs include the identification of transport infrastructure at risk in future time periods and the estimation of economic impacts. |
| Keywords: | climate change, transport, sea level rise, inundation, droughts, floods, airports, seaports, inland waterways |
| Date: | 2017–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ipt:iptwpa:jrc108865&r=tre |
| By: | Francesco David (Bank of Italy); Giuseppe Saporito (Bank of Italy) |
| Abstract: | Airports play a crucial role in connecting places and boosting local economic development; notwithstanding this, empirical evidence on the subject is relatively limited. This paper estimates the impact of a new airport in Ragusa, in southeastern Sicily, on international tourism flows in the area, using a synthetic control approach. Connecting by air a relatively peripheral and isolated area of Sicily with a high tourism potential has made it possible to increase by about one fifth the number of nights spent by foreign tourists (for over 5,100 additional nights), generating €434 thousand more in tourist expenditure per month. |
| Keywords: | air transport,international tourism,synthetic control approach |
| JEL: | R40 L83 |
| Date: | 2017–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:bdi:opques:qef_412_17&r=tre |