Economics: Research Guide

This work addresses the challenges of implementing shared e-scooter services (SSS) in urban areas. Despite their potential for sustainable mobility, issues like road safety and street cluttering persist. Policy regulation is crucial, and recent efforts have focused on free-floating e-scooter parking legislation. To assist decision-making, this paper proposes an agent-based framework to design SSS parking supply and evaluate its impact. The methodology is applied in Lyon, France, where the SSS is gaining more and more territory. The main outcomes show parking regulation can introduce conflicting objectives, with a reduction of SSS use due to an increase in the access and egress walking distan..

E-bikes are recognized as a sustainable mode of transportation with an unmet potential for widespread adoption. However, despite a decade of global implementation, research gaps persist regarding the design and characteristics of incentive programs for e-bikes. This review examines different design elements of implemented financial incentive programs for e-bike uptake in OECD countries. The findings reveal three main components common to these schemes: (1) target cohort, with the majority of programs focusing on the local population; (2) eligible e-bike types, with regular e-bikes being the most frequently chosen; and (3) financial incentive structures aimed at maximizing uptake among the ta..

The meatpacking industry is a crucial intermediary between ranchers and the downstream supply chain, and concentration within the industry has significant implications for stakeholders in terms of competition and transmission of efficiencies. Due to constraints on the efficient transportation of live animals over long distances, ranchers primarily operate within regional markets. In this paper we provide new knowledge about the degree of regional concentration in the beef packing industry and propose a model to examine its impact on the wholesale farm-price spread. Findings indicate a significant increase in concentration across all regions, with some regions experiencing up to a 300 percent..

본 연구에서는 중국 전기차 배터리 시장의 현황과 중국산 배터리의 글로벌 경쟁력에 대해 살펴보고, 중국기업의 유형별 해외 진출 사례와 특징을 분석했다. 또한 중국의 대표 전기차 배터리 기업을 선정하여 해당 기업의 해외 사업 전략과 경쟁력을 파악하고, 우리 정부와 기업이 활용할 수 있는 종합적인 대응방안을 고찰했다. Chinese EV battery companies, which dominate the Chinese domestic market, are recently entering global market in earnest. The demand for Chinese batteries is also rising as the demand for batteries increases due to the rapid pace of EV conversion in major automobile..

Rising uncertainties and geo-political tensions, together with increasingly complex trade relations have increased the demand for monitoring global trade in a timely manner. Although it was primarily designed to ensure vessel safety, information from the Automatic Information System, which allows for the tracking of vessels across the globe, is particularly well suited for providing insights on port activity and maritime trade developments, which accounts for a large share of global trade. Data are available in quasi real time but need to be pre-processed and validated. This paper contributes to existing research in this field in two major ways. First, it proposes a new methodology to identi..

Street networks allow people and goods to move through cities, but they are vulnerable to disasters like floods, earthquakes, and terrorist attacks. Well-planned network design can make a city more resilient and robust to such disruptions, but we still know little about worldwide patterns of vulnerability, or worldwide empirical relationships between specific design characteristics and resilience. This study quantifies and measures the vulnerability of the street networks of every urban area in the world then models the relationships between vulnerability and street network design characteristics. To do so, we simulate over 2.4 billion trips across more than 8, 000 urban areas in 178 countri..

With the introduction of automated driving, drivers can delegate responsibility of the driving task to an automated system. In some situations, however, human intervention may still be necessary. Driver fatigue exacerbated by prolonged automated driving can imperil the safety of transitions of control between automated system and human driver. Driver monitoring systems (DMS) are therefore necessary to assess the driver's mental state in real-time and oversee the safety of automated driving by ensuring that the driver is cognitively ready to take over when necessary. While automated driving and DMS will afford several distinct advantages that can improve the safety and experience of driving, ..

The twin challenge of increasing capacity to accommodate growing travel demand while simultaneously decarbonizing the transport sector places enormous pressure on public transport (PT) systems globally. Arguably the most fundamental policy choice and trade-off in designing and operating PT systems in the coming years will be service levels versus cost implications. On the presumption that public (citizen and consumer) opinion is crucial to making such choices, we study this question with a focus on Switzerland by using a factorial experiment (n = 1'634) that considers the frequency and geographic coverage of PT services as well as the cost implications for PT users and taxpayers. We find tha..

Enhancing quality of life in contemporary cities hinges on convenient access to parks and forests, offering avenues for physical activity and social engagement, as well as benefits for mental health and opportunities for educational pursuits. This comprehensive study delves into the accessibility to parks and forests across 33 major European cities, employing an interdisciplinary framework drawing from transportation and urban planning methodologies. By analyzing accessibility to urban green spaces (UGS) through sustainable modes of transportation, the research aims at unveiling patterns shaped by population density, terrain elevation, city area and transportation infrastructure. Notably, di..

This article exploits both the crude oil price surge consecutive to the invasion of Ukraine and 2022 fuel excise tax rebates in France as quasi-natural experiments to infer the price sensitivity of fuel demand. Based on granular individual bank account data at the transaction level, we properly disentangle anticipation effects from price effects, and estimate an average price elasticity of -0.31. It varies little with respect to income and location but substantially decreases, in absolute, with respect to fuel spending and is higher for retirees. We evaluate financial and distributional effects of the actual tax policy as well as its impact on CO2 emissions based on counterfactual simulation..

This paper exploits the introduction of the German carbon tax in 2021 as well as excise tax rebates on fuel in both France and Germany, consecutive to the 2022 oil crisis, to infer how fuel tourism responds to changes in relative prices. Based on French high-frequency transaction-level data issued from individual banking accounts, we find substantial displacement between foreign and domestic consumption. When relative prices increase by 1%, the relative cross-border demand decreases by 7.7%. In border areas, the elasticity of tax revenue with respect to foreign prices is as high as 0.5. Moreover, there is no substantial difference in demand response to either carbon or excise tax. Such empir..

This brief explores how shared micromobility (bikesharing and scooter sharing) has evolved since the pandemic. Primary data for this report were collected through four surveys: An Operator Survey (n=25) and an Agency Survey (n=52) distributed between January 2022 and May 2022 to all known shared micromobility operators and agencies and included questions about the attributes of shared micromobility systems1 operating within those agency jurisdictions and operator markets; and a similar Operator Survey (n=29) and an Agency Survey (n=52) distributed between January 2023 and June 2023 to all known shared micromobility operators and agencies.

In the United States, mileage fees, or road user charges, are being explored as an alternative to motor fuel taxes, often called “gas taxes.” The search for alternatives is motivated by rising fuel efficiency standards and the increasing number of electric vehicles on the road. These factors have diminished the revenue-generating capacity of gas taxes. While mileage fees are a more stable and fuel-agnostic transportation funding source, they face criticism and low levels of public support due to concerns about costs, protection of drivers’ location and privacy, and perceptions that they would raise taxes on low-income and rural households. Researchers from the University of Vermont Tra..

We explore how rail transit’s first- and last-mile issue might be addressed by partnering with transportation network companies (TNCs) like Uber and Lyft. The goal is to lure high-income commuters to shift from cars to TNCs and rail. We also explore how rail and TNC partnerships can improve travel for low-income commuters who currently rely on low-frequency bus service. We parametrically test subsidizing TNC fares for feeder services in the San Francisco Bay Area in an idealized fashion. Inputs such as the residents’ value of time and vehicle ownership were taken from various local data sources. The communities that were selected for our study are served to different degrees by the BART ..

Commuter rail is known to have a “first- and last-mile” problem (i.e., a lack of options for getting commuters to and from a rail station). The first- and last-mile dilemma creates inequalities in access. For example, high-income commuters drive to work (forgoing transit altogether), middle-income commuters drive to a rail station and pay to park, and low-income commuters rely on feeder buses or walking to reach a rail station. Transportation network companies (TNCs), like Uber and Lyft, are a viable option for connecting travelers to rail stations, especially for those who don’t own a car, however, their high fares make them attractive only to higher-income travelers. To close this eq..

A lack of reliable and affordable transportation exacerbates socioeconomic inequities for low-income individuals, especially people of color. Universal Basic Mobility (UBM) pilots or programs are a relatively new approach to addressing financial barriers to travel among the transport-disadvantaged. UBMs provide individuals with funds for various mobilityoptions, including transit and shared modes. This study reviews the UBM programs and pilots implemented in the United States. It also reviews international applications of Mobility as a Service (MaaS) platforms. These platforms may reduce the administrative cost of implementing UBMs and help users identify and compare available travel options..

As governing bodies continue to explore mileage fees as an alternative to the gas tax, the uncertainty surrounding public support remains a critical barrier to policy uptake. This study examines the extent to which public perceptions of mileage fees are guided by misinformation or lack of information using a national, internet-based survey. Hypothetical voting opportunities were used to gather respondent support for mileage fees, coupled with educational treatments that address mileage fee fairness, privacy, and costs. The findings indicate that respondents are largely misinformed or lack information about mileage fees and the gas tax. Pre-education, only 32% of respondents supported the pol..

We characterize optimal urban transportation policies in the presence of congestion and environmental externalities and evaluate their welfare and distributional effects. We present a framework of a municipal government that implements different transportation equilibria through its choice of public transit policies—prices and frequencies—as well as road pricing. The government faces a budget constraint that introduces monopoly-like distortions. We apply this framework to Chicago, for which we construct a new dataset that comprehensively captures transportation choices. We find that road pricing alone leads to large welfare gains by reducing externalities, but at the expense of consumers..

Although electric vehicles are less polluting than gasoline powered vehicles, adoption is challenged by higher procurement prices. Existing discourse emphasizes EV battery costs as being principally responsible for this price differential and widespread adoption is routinely conditioned upon battery costs declining. We scrutinize such reasoning by sourcing data on EV attributes and market conditions between 2011 and 2023. Our findings are fourfold. First, EV prices are influenced principally by the number of amenities, additional features, and dealer-installed accessories sold as standard on an EV, and to a lesser extent, by EV horsepower. Second, EV range is negatively correlated with EV pr..

The durability of the transportation capital stock slows down the pace of decarbonization since newer vintages feature cutting-edge technology. If older vintages were to be retired sooner, the social cost of travel would decline. This paper analyzes and explores the viability of a potential cash-for-clunkers program for the airline industry, which would help to hasten decarbonization of US aviation. Our estimation and calculations show that airlines can be induced to scrap rather than sell older planes upon retirement with a payment that is less than the forgone carbon damage, yielding net social benefits.

Free-Floating Car-Sharing (FFCS) services allow users to rent electric vehicles by the minute without restrictions on pick-up or drop-off locations within the service area of the rental company. Beyond enlarging the choice set of mobility options, FFCS may reduce congestion and emissions in cities, depending on the service’s usage and substitution patterns. In this paper, we shed light on this by analyzing the universe of FFCS trips conducted through a leading company in Madrid during 2019. We correlate FFCS usage patterns with data on traffic conditions, demographics, and public transit availability across the city. We find complementarities between FFCS and public transport in middle-inc..

Traffic fatalities are the leading cause of mortality in the United States despite being preventable. While several policies have been introduced to improve traffic safety and their effects have been well documented, the role of transitory health shocks or situational factors at explaining variations in fatal traffic accidents has been understudied. Exploring daily variation in city-specific pollen counts, this study finds novel evidence that traffic fatalities increase on days in which the local pollen count are particularly high. We find that the effects are present in accidents involving private vehicles and occur most frequently on the weekends, suggesting potentially the missed opportun..

This paper exploits the timing of the implementation of the Roll-on/Roll-off policy to assess the impact of improved inter-island transport connectivity on local employment and job quality. While not a direct goal of the policy, this paper seeks to demonstrate the mechanism by which improvement in the transport system affects local economies in the Philippines. Using the difference-in-differences strategy, we compared the employment outcomes in municipalities hosting the ports included in the RORO network against those municipalities with ports that are excluded from the network. Our results show that female workers with middle and high skill level largely benefitted from access to the RORO ..

We unveil that a previously-unreported vicious cycle can be created when bus queues form at curbside stops along a corridor. Buses caught in this cycle exhibit growing variation in headways as they travel from stop to stop. Bus (and patron) delays accumulate in like fashion and can grow large on long, busy corridors. We show that this damaging cycle can be abated in simple ways. Present solutions entail holding buses at a corridor entrance and releasing them as per various strategies proposed in the literature. We introduce a modest variant to the simplest of these strategies. It releases buses at headways that are slightly less than, or equal to, the scheduled values. It turns out that peri..

This paper examines how the shift towards working from home during and after the Covid-19 pandemic shapes the way how labor market and locality choices interact. For our analysis, we combine large administrative data on employment biographies in Germany and a new working from home potential indicator based on comprehensive data on working conditions across occupations. We find that in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic, the distance between workplace and residence has increased more strongly for workers in occupations that can be done from home: The association of working from home potential and work-home distance increased significantly since 2021 as compared to a stable pattern before. The ..

Decarbonizing the global energy system requires significant expansions of renewable energy technologies. Given that cost-effective renewable sources are not necessarily situated in proximity to the largest energy demand centers globally, the maritime transportation of low-carbon energy carriers, such as renewable-based hydrogen or ammonia, will be needed. However, whether existent shipyards possess the required capacity to provide the necessary global fleet has not yet been answered. Therefore, this study estimates global tanker demand based on projections for global hydrogen demand, while comparing these projections with historic shipyard production. Our findings reveal a potential bottlene..

Attribute-based subsidies (ABS) are commonly used to promote the diffusion of energy-efficient products, whose manufacturers often wield significant market power. We develop a theoretical framework for the optimal design of ABS to account for endogenous product attributes, environmental externalities, and market power. We then estimate an equilibrium model of China's vehicle market under ABS and conduct counterfactual simulations to evaluate the welfare impacts of various subsidy designs. Compared to the uniform subsidies, ABS lead to higher product quality and are more effective in mitigating quantity distortions, albeit with a modest environmental cost. Between 42% to 62% of welfare gains ..

Street networks allow people and goods to move through cities, but they are vulnerable to disasters like floods, earthquakes, and terrorist attacks. Well-planned network design can make a city more resilient and robust to such disruptions, but we still know little about worldwide patterns of vulnerability, or worldwide empirical relationships between specific design characteristics and resilience. This study quantifies and measures the vulnerability of the street networks of every urban area in the world then models the relationships between vulnerability and street network design characteristics. To do so, we simulate over 2.4 billion trips across more than 8, 000 urban areas in 178 countri..

We present design methods and insights for CO2 capture, transport, and storage systems for clusters of industrial facilities, with a case-study focus on the state of Louisiana. Our analytical framework includes: (1) evaluating the scale and concentration of capturable CO2 emissions at individual facilities for the purpose of estimating the cost of CO2 capture retrofits, (2) a screening method to identify potential CO2 storage sites and estimate their storage capacities, injectivities, and costs; and (3) an approach for cost-minimized design of pipeline infrastructure connecting CO2 capture plants with storage sites that considers land use patterns, existing rights-of-way, demographics, and a..

In this paper, we examine the effects of the changing global automotive landscape from several perspectives. In particular, we consider changes in vehicle production and sales to assess the supply and demand sides of the industry. We also take into account changes in exports to examine the state of global trade. All of these changes are considered through the lens of countries rather than firms. In addition, we examine the South Korean automotive industry as a case study to elaborate on the details of recent changes and the response of automakers. We conclude the paper with a review of policy instruments recently implemented to stimulate the EV market. Thank you for reading this abstract of ..