Abstract

The 21st Conference of Party (COP21) held in Paris at the end of 2015 has opened a new era for the joint response dealing with climate change globally, and built up a new mode of global climate governance, that is, “all Parties submit INDC – global stocktake – enhance effort of actions – all Parties resubmit INDC – finally achieve the ultimate objective of the Convention.” With 160 INDC reports (covering 188 Parties) that the UNFCCC Secretariat has currently received as research objects, this study classifies the mitigation targets of all Parties, and focuses on the systematic analysis of the financial demand, mitigation cost and priority investment areas for developing countries. The results are as follows: among 160 INDC reports, 122 reports clearly include the finance content, 64 reports propose specific amount of financial demand for the implementation of INDC, 31 reports pre-estimate domestic amount and financial demand for greenhouse gas mitigation in 2030, based on which they have calculated that the average mitigation cost for developing countries in 2030 would have reached up to US$22.3 per ton CO2, 28 Parties reclassify the financial demand for mitigation and adaptation areas, and reach the conclusion that the overall financial demand ratio for mitigation and adaptation is 1.4. Should the current mitigation commitments of the Parties from developed countries be used as benchmark, then in 2030 the total amount of financial demand for developing countries in response to climate change would have reached up to US$474 billion.

Abstract

The financing of transport infrastructure has been discussed in this chapter as an issue between efficient pricing and political distribution. Historically, toll pricing and private investment in transport infrastructure has been frequent and important (e.g., in the railway era), and market orientation relevant. More recently, e.g., in the economic growth after the Second World War and the construction of large motorway networks as well as urban transit systems, public funding and operation has largely dominated. Economists, models for the return to some economic principles promoting an efficient allocation of funds, environmental resources, and users’ time are of limited relevance as long as distributional issues prevail. Therefore, the conclusion is that the increasing emphasis in the literature on analyzing and understanding the economics of transport policy and the mechanisms of collective choices in the sector will improve the feasibility of financing infrastructure via pricing. Document type: Part of book or chapter of book

Abstract

A ban restricting each car from driving on a specified weekday is found to have increased total driving in Mexico City. Because of the ban, cars effectively represent "driving permits," and some households have bought an additional car and increased their driving. Greater use of old cars, congestion effects, and increased weekend driving may also have contributed to the disappointing results. The ban has high welfare costs and does not deliver the intended benefits of reduced driving—quite the contrary. The experience provides an interesting lesson in applied welfare economics. Theory indicates that this is a costly way of reducing traffic and pollution. But the finding that the strategy is counterproductive could be made only with applied quantitative analysis. In November 1989 the Mexico City administration imposed a regulation banning each car from driving a specific day of the week. Called Hoy no circula (this one does not circulate today), the "Day without a Car" regulation specifies that cars with license plate numbers ending with digits 0 or 1 do not drive on Monday, 2 or 3 do not drive on Tuesday, and so on. Restrictions do not apply on weekends. The regulation applies to all cars (except those of the fire department) and thus to firms as well as households. We use the term household for simplicity. Compliance is generally believed to be high: the police are visible and fines are heavy. The regulation has been both popular and controversial. Some people argue that it places a reasonable burden on car owners in order to alleviate congestion and pollution problems. Others argue that it is inefficient and unfair: inefficient in the way most rationing devices are inefficient; unfair because it is more easily avoided or accommodated by some than by others. Finally, some people are arguing that the regulation is counterproductive, actually increasing the levels of congestion and pollution because many households have purchased additional cars to circumvent the ban. This article analyzes the policy pragmatically. Section I shows how the results of rationing can be compared with those that would be obtained using marke Document type: Book

Abstract

International audience; This work provides a review of simulation techniques applied to urban logistics with a focus on practical applications. Several techniques and tools have been proposed to simulate different systems in urban logistics. In most cases, simulation choices depend on the objective of the simulation, the role of the decision maker and the type of problem. The paper offers a state of the art in which we analyse the existing simulation solutions for a given problem and/or a given stakeholder. As a result, it offers a practical reference for urban logistics researchers and practitioners who wish to use simulation in order to study the behaviour and performance of their systems. We propose an analytical framework allowing an easy overview of advantages and drawbacks of each technique, output criteria and examples. Document type: Part of book or chapter of book

Abstract

The main focus of this report is on the initial period of the World Bank’s engagement with transport in cities (1972-82). This study looks at the project practice in light of the strategy document, Urban Transport Sector paper which was published in 1975 to guide the Bank’s lending program. The strategy focused on the relation between poverty and transport, recommending a spatially-extensive, low-cost, and price-based response to access and traffic problems; improvements in provision of public transport services; and coordination between land use and transport planning. The report presents a thorough analysis of the Bank’s strategy and practice in the urban transport sector as well as overview of lessons learned, including from projects that did not achieve their planned objectives. Overall, these pioneering efforts in both strategy and practice were well conceived and executed and played a catalytic role in most client cities. Document type: Book

Abstract

Despite the drop in transport and commuting costs since the mid-19th century, sizable and lasting differences across locations at very different spatial scales remain the most striking feature of the space-economy. The main challenges of the economics of agglomeration are therefore (a) to explain why people and economic activities are agglomerated in a few places and (b) to understand why some places fare better than others."/p" "p"To meet these challenges, the usual route is to appeal to the fundamental trade-off between (internal and external) increasing returns and various mobility costs. This trade-off has a major implication for the organization of the space-economy: High transport and commuting costs foster the dispersion of economic activities, while strong increasing returns act as a strong agglomeration force."/p" "p"The first issue is to explain the existence of large and persistent regional disparities within nations or continents. At that spatial scale, the mobility of commodities and production factors is critical. By combining new trade theories with the mobility of firms and workers, economic geography shows that a core periphery structure can emerge as a stable market outcome."/p" "p"Second, at the urban scale, cities stem from the interplay between agglomeration and dispersion forces: The former explain why firms and consumers want to be close to each other whereas the latter put an upper limit on city sizes. Housing and commuting costs, which increase with population size, are the most natural candidates for the dispersion force. What generates agglomeration forces is less obvious. The literature on urban economics has highlighted the fact that urban size is the source of various benefits, which increase firm productivity and consumer welfare."/p" "p"Within cities, agglomeration also occurs in the form of shopping districts where firms selling differentiated products congregate. Strategic location considerations and product differentiation play a central role in the emergence of commercial districts because firms compete with a small number of close retailers. Document type: Book

Abstract

This is a comprehensive study of measurement and substantive issues that arise in determining the rate of multi factor productivity (MFP) growth in the transportation industry over the postwar period, 1948-87. Official data on output and employment are provided by two government agencies and conflict markedly for railroads, airlines, and trucking. This paper identifies the source of the conflicts and selects the best of the government indexes for further study, It concludes that improved data reduce the magnitude of the post-1973 productivity slowdown in transportation MFP growth from a previously reported 2.5 percent per annum to just 0.5 percent. The effect of deregulation has been mixed; MFP growth accelerated markedly for railroads when 1978-87 is compared to the pre-1978 period, but slowed sharply for airlines and trucking. New results on output quality are provided for airlines, particularly for the period of deregulation. Contrary to the standard view, deregulation has not substituted circuitous routings through hubs for nonstop flights available previously; instead the establishment of new hubs has greatly increased the number of nonstop routings available, and remarkably few nonstop routes have been discontinued. An estimate is provided of the value of time saved by the improved routings, and of the offsetting time cost of extended scheduled flight times resulting from increased congestion. Such estimates of the value of time are swamped by the huge contribution to welfare provided by the manufacturers of aircraft and engines; the time saving from the "invention of air travel" for 1989 is valued at 400 percent of domestic airline revenue and 3.5 percent of GNP. Alternative measures of capital input, based on new quality-adjusted equipment deflators, are provided for airlines, railroads, and trucking. These uniformly increase faster in the earlier postwar years than in the last decade and consequently imply a smaller decline in MFP growth than in official data sources. However, new estimates of the input of government expenditures on airports, air traffic control, and highways, do not change appreciably the pattern of postwar MFP growth in transportation. Document type: Book

Abstract

Surprisingly little is known about policies that affect international trade in services. Previous analyses have focused on policy commitments made by countries in international agreements but these commitments do not in many cases reflect actual policy. This paper describes a new initiative to collect comparable information on services trade policies for 103 countries, across a range of service sectors and the relevant modes of service delivery. The resultant database reveals interesting patterns in policy. Across regions, some of the fastest growing countries in Asia and the oil-rich Gulf states have the most restrictive policies in services, whereas some of the poorest countries are remarkably open. Across sectors, professional and transportation services are among the most protected in both industrial and developing countries, while retail, telecommunications and even finance tend to be more open. An illustrative set of results suggests that trade policies matter for investment flows and access to services. In particular, restrictions on foreign acquisitions, discrimination in licensing, restrictions on the repatriation of earnings and lack of legal recourse all have a significant and sizable negative effect, reducing the expected value of sectoral foreign investment by $2.2 billion over a 7-year period, compared with"open"policy regimes. In terms of access to services, credit as a share of gross domestic product is on average 3.3 percentage points lower in countries with major restrictions on the establishment of foreign banks as compared with those that only impose operational restrictions. Document type: Book

Abstract

Forecasting has long been a challenge, and will remain so for the foreseeable future. But the analytical instruments and data processing capabilities available through the latest technology, and software, should allow much better forecasting than transport ministries, or regulatory agencies typically observe. Privatization brings new needs for demand forecasting. More attention is paid to risk under privatization, than when investments are publicly financed. And regulators must be able to judge traffic studies done by operators, and to learn what strategic behavior influenced these studies. Many governments, and regulators avoid good demand, modeling out of lack of conviction that theory, and models can do better than the"old hands"of the sector. This is dangerous when privatization changes the nature of business. For projects amounting to investments of $ 100-200 million, a cost of $ 100,000-200,000 is not a reason to reject a reasonable modeling effort. And some private forecasting firms are willing to sell guarantees, or insurance with their forecasts, to cover significant gaps between forecasts, and reality. Document type: Book