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The Case for Subsidisation of Urban Public Transport and the Mohring Effect

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  • Leonardo J. Basso
  • Sergio R. Jara-Díaz

Abstract

In this journal, van Reeven (2008) develops a model aimed at showing that scale economies on users' time costs would not provide a justification for public transport subsidies. He claims that a profit-maximising operator allowed to take the demand effects of its pricing into account would offer a frequency f π at least as high as a welfare-maximising one f*, and with no welfare losses. We show that his result depends crucially on a strong assumption of demand. Introducing a slight modification to make it more realistic, we show: (i) f* > f π , (ii) welfare losses emerge under profit-maximisation, (iii) subsidies are required for first-best operation. Thus, the Mohring effect is a valid argument for subsidisation. © 2010 LSE and the University of Bath

Suggested Citation

  • Leonardo J. Basso & Sergio R. Jara-Díaz, 2010. "The Case for Subsidisation of Urban Public Transport and the Mohring Effect," Journal of Transport Economics and Policy, University of Bath, vol. 44(3), pages 365-372, September.
    • Handle: RePEc:tpe:jtecpo:v:44:y:2010:i:3:p:365-372
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    Cited by:

    1. Fielbaum, Andrés & Jara-Diaz, Sergio & Gschwender, Antonio, 2020. "Beyond the Mohring effect: Scale economies induced by transit lines structures design," Economics of Transportation, Elsevier, vol. 22(C).
    2. Noto, Claudio, 2020. "Airport slots, secondary trading, and congestion pricing at an airport with a dominant network airline," Research in Transportation Economics, Elsevier, vol. 79(C).
    3. Liu, Hao & Devunuri, Saipraneeth & Lehe, Lewis & Gayah, Vikash V., 2023. "Scale effects in ridesplitting: A case study of the City of Chicago," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 173(C).
    4. Anders Bondemark & Henrik Andersson & Anders Wretstrand & Karin Brundell-Freij, 2021. "Is it expensive to be poor? Public transport in Sweden," Transportation, Springer, vol. 48(5), pages 2709-2734, October.
    5. Gordan Stojić & Dušan Mladenović & Olegas Prentkovskis & Slavko Vesković, 2018. "A Novel Model for Determining Public Service Compensation in Integrated Public Transport Systems," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(9), pages 1-20, August.
    6. Maria Börjesson & Chau Man Fung & Stef Proost & Zifei Yan, 2019. "Do Small Cities Need More Public Transport Subsidies Than Big Cities?," Journal of Transport Economics and Policy, University of Bath, vol. 53(4), pages 275-27-298.
    7. Ljungberg, Anders, 2016. "Marginal cost-pricing in the Swedish transport sector – An efficient and sustainable way of funding local and regional public transport in the future?," Research in Transportation Economics, Elsevier, vol. 59(C), pages 159-166.
    8. Andrés Gómez-Lobo, 2011. "Monopoly, subsidies and the Mohring effect: A synthesis and an extension," Working Papers wp336, University of Chile, Department of Economics.
    9. Chen Yan & Qiong Tong, 2021. "Analysis of the Evolutionary Game between the Government and Urban Rail Transit Enterprises under the Loss-Subsidy Mode: A Case Study of Beijing," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(14), pages 1-21, July.
    10. Moccia, Luigi & Giallombardo, Giovanni & Laporte, Gilbert, 2017. "Models for technology choice in a transit corridor with elastic demand," Transportation Research Part B: Methodological, Elsevier, vol. 104(C), pages 733-756.
    11. Nicolas Coulombel & Guillaume Monchambert, 2019. "Congestion, diseconomies of scale and subsidies in urban public transportation," Working Papers hal-02373768, HAL.
    12. Vigren, Andreas & Pyddoke, Roger, 2020. "The impact on bus ridership of passenger incentive contracts in public transport," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 135(C), pages 144-159.
    13. Coulombel, Nicolas & Monchambert, Guillaume, 2023. "Diseconomies of scale and subsidies in urban public transportation," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 223(C).
    14. Chaparro, Alejandra & Galilea, Patricia & Muñoz, Juan Carlos & Poblete, Joaquín, 2020. "Application of an incentive for bus drivers to achieve an improvement in the quality of service," Research in Transportation Economics, Elsevier, vol. 83(C).
    15. Zhang, Fangni & Yang, Hai & Liu, Wei, 2014. "The Downs–Thomson Paradox with responsive transit service," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 70(C), pages 244-263.
    16. Bar-Yosef, Asaf & Martens, Karel & Benenson, Itzhak, 2013. "A model of the vicious cycle of a bus line," Transportation Research Part B: Methodological, Elsevier, vol. 54(C), pages 37-50.
    17. Zhang, Junlin & Lindsey, Robin & Yang, Hai, 2018. "Public transit service frequency and fares with heterogeneous users under monopoly and alternative regulatory policies," Transportation Research Part B: Methodological, Elsevier, vol. 117(PA), pages 190-208.
    18. Rojo, Marta & dell’Olio, Luigi & Gonzalo-Orden, Hernán & Ibeas, Ángel, 2015. "Inclusion of quality criteria in public bus service contracts in metropolitan areas," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 42(C), pages 52-63.
    19. Ibañez Veizaga, Fabricio Fernando & Espinoza Vásquez, Lourdes, 2016. "Estimación del “Efecto Mohring” en el sistema de transporte masivo Puma Katari de la ciudad de La Paz," Revista Latinoamericana de Desarrollo Economico, Carrera de Economía de la Universidad Católica Boliviana (UCB) "San Pablo", issue 26, pages 9-44, November.
    20. Jean-Philippe Meloche & Vincent Trotignon & François Vaillancourt, 2021. "Densification ou prolongement des réseaux de transport structurants ? Une recension des écrits sur les coûts et les bénéfices attendus," CIRANO Project Reports 2020rp-28, CIRANO.
    21. Sun, Yanshuo & Guo, Qianwen & Schonfeld, Paul & Li, Zhongfei, 2016. "Implications of the cost of public funds in public transit subsidization and regulation," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 91(C), pages 236-250.
    22. Sepúlveda, Juan Pablo & Galilea, Patricia, 2020. "How do different payment schemes to operators affect public transport concessions? A microeconomic model," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 93(C), pages 27-35.

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