IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/hhs/ctswps/2012_013.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Estimating welfare effects of congestion charges in real world settings

Author

Listed:
  • Börjesson, Maria

    (KTH)

  • Kristoffersson, Ida

    (KTH)

Abstract

According to the standard textbook analysis, drivers as a group will be worse off with congestion charging if not compensated by revenues. This result is confirmed by an analysis of the Stockholm congestion charging scheme using a static model with homogeneous users. However, both this static model and the standard textbook analysis omit three important factors: taste heterogeneity, effects of charges on the larger network arising from less blocking back of upstream links and the possibility for drivers to reschedule. Taking account of these factors, using a dynamic scheduling model with heterogeneous users estimated and calibrated for Stockholm, we find that drivers as a group benefit from the charging scheme in Stockholm without recycling of revenues. This paper further investigates the importance of the three mentioned factors. We find that all three factors add significantly to the benefit of the charges and that the most important is heterogeneity in the value of travel time savings. This paper also provides an update on the consumer benefits of the Stockholm charges.

Suggested Citation

  • Börjesson, Maria & Kristoffersson, Ida, 2012. "Estimating welfare effects of congestion charges in real world settings," Working papers in Transport Economics 2012:13, CTS - Centre for Transport Studies Stockholm (KTH and VTI).
    • Handle: RePEc:hhs:ctswps:2012_013
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.transportportal.se/SWoPEc/CTS2012-13.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Eliasson, Jonas, 2009. "A cost-benefit analysis of the Stockholm congestion charging system," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 43(4), pages 468-480, May.
    2. Börjesson, Maria & Eliasson, Jonas & Hugosson, Muriel & Brundell-Freij, Karin, 2012. "The Stockholm congestion charges – five years on. Effects, acceptability and lessons learnt," Working papers in Transport Economics 2012:3, CTS - Centre for Transport Studies Stockholm (KTH and VTI).
    3. Glazer, Amihai & Niskanen, Esko, 2000. "Which consumers benefit from congestion tolls?," University of California Transportation Center, Working Papers qt33d88115, University of California Transportation Center.
    4. Ida Kristoffersson & Leonid Engelson, 2009. "A Dynamic Transportation Model for the Stockholm Area: Implementation Issues Regarding Departure Time Choice and OD-pair Reduction," Networks and Spatial Economics, Springer, vol. 9(4), pages 551-573, December.
    5. Ninette Pilegaard & Mogens Fosgerau, 2008. "Cost Benefit Analysis of a Transport Improvement in the Case of Search Unemployment," Journal of Transport Economics and Policy, University of Bath, vol. 42(1), pages 23-42, January.
    6. Anderstig, Christer & Berglund, Svante & Eliasson, Jonas & Andersson, Matts & Pyddoke, Roger, 2012. "Congestion charges and labour market imperfections: “Wider economic benefits” or “losses”?," Working papers in Transport Economics 2012:4, CTS - Centre for Transport Studies Stockholm (KTH and VTI).
    7. Maruyama, Takuya & Sumalee, Agachai, 2007. "Efficiency and equity comparison of cordon- and area-based road pricing schemes using a trip-chain equilibrium model," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 41(7), pages 655-671, August.
    8. Fosgerau, Mogens & Engelson, Leonid, 2011. "The value of travel time variance," Transportation Research Part B: Methodological, Elsevier, vol. 45(1), pages 1-8, January.
    9. Prud'homme, Rémy & Bocarejo, Juan Pablo, 2005. "The London congestion charge: a tentative economic appraisal," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 12(3), pages 279-287, May.
    10. Eliasson, Jonas, 2008. "Lessons from the Stockholm congestion charging trial," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 15(6), pages 395-404, November.
    11. Eliasson, Jonas & Hultkrantz, Lars & Nerhagen, Lena & Rosqvist, Lena Smidfelt, 2009. "The Stockholm congestion - charging trial 2006: Overview of effects," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 43(3), pages 240-250, March.
    12. Ian W. H. Parry & Antonio Bento, 2001. "Revenue Recycling and the Welfare Effects of Road Pricing," Scandinavian Journal of Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 103(4), pages 645-671, December.
    13. Fosgerau, Mogens & de Palma, André, 2012. "Congestion in a city with a central bottleneck," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 71(3), pages 269-277.
    14. De Borger, Bruno, 2009. "Commuting, congestion tolls and the structure of the labour market: Optimal congestion pricing in a wage bargaining model," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 39(4), pages 434-448, July.
    15. Armelius, Hanna & Hultkrantz, Lars, 2006. "The politico-economic link between public transport and road pricing: An ex-ante study of the Stockholm road-pricing trial," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 13(2), pages 162-172, March.
    16. Train,Kenneth E., 2009. "Discrete Choice Methods with Simulation," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9780521747387, January.
    17. Robin Lindsey, 2004. "Existence, Uniqueness, and Trip Cost Function Properties of User Equilibrium in the Bottleneck Model with Multiple User Classes," Transportation Science, INFORMS, vol. 38(3), pages 293-314, August.
    18. van den Berg, Vincent & Verhoef, Erik T., 2011. "Winning or losing from dynamic bottleneck congestion pricing?: The distributional effects of road pricing with heterogeneity in values of time and schedule delay," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 95(7-8), pages 983-992, August.
    19. Fosgerau, Mogens & Karlström, Anders, 2010. "The value of reliability," Transportation Research Part B: Methodological, Elsevier, vol. 44(1), pages 38-49, January.
    20. van den Berg, Vincent & Verhoef, Erik T., 2011. "Winning or losing from dynamic bottleneck congestion pricing?," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 95(7), pages 983-992.
    21. Rich, Jeppe & Nielsen, Otto Anker, 2007. "A socio-economic assessment of proposed road user charging schemes in Copenhagen," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 14(4), pages 330-345, July.
    22. Vickrey, William S, 1969. "Congestion Theory and Transport Investment," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 59(2), pages 251-260, May.
    23. Small, Kenneth A, 1982. "The Scheduling of Consumer Activities: Work Trips," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 72(3), pages 467-479, June.
    24. Georgina Santos, 2008. "The London Congestion Charging Scheme, 2003–2006," Chapters, in: Harry W. Richardson & Chang-Hee Christine Bae (ed.), Road Congestion Pricing in Europe, chapter 8, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    25. Kurt Van Dender, 2003. "Transport Taxes with Multiple Trip Purposes," Scandinavian Journal of Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 105(2), pages 295-310, June.
    26. Raux, Charles, 2005. "Comments on 'The London congestion charge: a tentative economic appraisal' ()," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 12(4), pages 368-371, July.
    27. Erik T. Verhoef & Kenneth A. Small, 2004. "Product Differentiation on Roads," Journal of Transport Economics and Policy, University of Bath, vol. 38(1), pages 127-156, January.
    28. repec:bla:scandj:v:103:y:2001:i:4:p:645-71 is not listed on IDEAS
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. van den Berg, Vincent A.C., 2012. "Step-tolling with price-sensitive demand: Why more steps in the toll make the consumer better off," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 46(10), pages 1608-1622.
    2. Eliasson, Jonas & Börjesson, Maria & van Amelsfort, Dirk & Brundell-Freij, Karin & Engelson, Leonid, 2013. "Accuracy of congestion pricing forecasts," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 52(C), pages 34-46.
    3. Vincent van den Berg, "undated". "Self-financing roads under coarse tolling and heterogeneous preferences," Tinbergen Institute Discussion Papers 22-045/VIII, Tinbergen Institute.
    4. van den Berg, Vincent A.C., 2014. "Coarse tolling with heterogeneous preferences," Transportation Research Part B: Methodological, Elsevier, vol. 64(C), pages 1-23.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Börjesson, Maria & Kristoffersson, Ida, 2014. "Assessing the welfare effects of congestion charges in a real world setting," Transportation Research Part E: Logistics and Transportation Review, Elsevier, vol. 70(C), pages 339-355.
    2. Anderstig, Christer & Berglund, Svante & Eliasson, Jonas & Andersson, Matts & Pyddoke, Roger, 2012. "Congestion charges and labour market imperfections: “Wider economic benefits” or “losses”?," Working papers in Transport Economics 2012:4, CTS - Centre for Transport Studies Stockholm (KTH and VTI).
    3. Mogens Fosgerau & Kurt Van Dender, 2013. "Road pricing with complications," Transportation, Springer, vol. 40(3), pages 479-503, May.
    4. Kenneth Small, 2015. "The Bottleneck Model: An Assessment and Interpretation," Working Papers 141506, University of California-Irvine, Department of Economics.
    5. Raux, Charles & Souche, Stéphanie & Pons, Damien, 2012. "The efficiency of congestion charging: Some lessons from cost–benefit analyses," Research in Transportation Economics, Elsevier, vol. 36(1), pages 85-92.
    6. Kristoffersson, Ida & Engelson, Leonid & Börjesson, Maria, 2017. "Efficiency vs equity: Conflicting objectives of congestion charges," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 60(C), pages 99-107.
    7. Small, Kenneth A., 2015. "The bottleneck model: An assessment and interpretation," Economics of Transportation, Elsevier, vol. 4(1), pages 110-117.
    8. Li, Zhi-Chun & Huang, Hai-Jun & Yang, Hai, 2020. "Fifty years of the bottleneck model: A bibliometric review and future research directions," Transportation Research Part B: Methodological, Elsevier, vol. 139(C), pages 311-342.
    9. Li, Zhi-Chun & Lam, William H.K. & Wong, S.C., 2017. "Step tolling in an activity-based bottleneck model," Transportation Research Part B: Methodological, Elsevier, vol. 101(C), pages 306-334.
    10. Takayama, Yuki & Kuwahara, Masao, 2017. "Bottleneck congestion and residential location of heterogeneous commuters," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 100(C), pages 65-79.
    11. Kristoffersson, Ida & Engelson, Leonid, 2016. "Efficiency and equity of congestion charges," Working papers in Transport Economics 2016:7, CTS - Centre for Transport Studies Stockholm (KTH and VTI).
    12. Zhu, Tingting & Li, Yao & Long, Jiancheng, 2022. "Departure time choice equilibrium and tolling strategies for a bottleneck with continuous scheduling preference," Transportation Research Part E: Logistics and Transportation Review, Elsevier, vol. 159(C).
    13. Takayama, Yuki, 2020. "Who gains and who loses from congestion pricing in a monocentric city with a bottleneck?," Economics of Transportation, Elsevier, vol. 24(C).
    14. André de Palma & Robin Lindsey, 2009. "Traffic Congestion Pricing Methods and Technologies," Working Papers hal-00414526, HAL.
    15. Paul Koster & Hans Koster, 2013. "Analysing Heterogeneity in the Value of Travel Time and Reliability: A Semiparametric Estimation Approach," ERSA conference papers ersa13p1032, European Regional Science Association.
    16. Jens West & Maria Börjesson, 2020. "The Gothenburg congestion charges: cost–benefit analysis and distribution effects," Transportation, Springer, vol. 47(1), pages 145-174, February.
    17. Kristoffersson, Ida, 2013. "Impacts of time-varying cordon pricing: Validation and application of mesoscopic model for Stockholm," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 28(C), pages 51-60.
    18. Yu, Xiaojuan & van den Berg, Vincent A.C. & Verhoef, Erik T., 2019. "Carpooling with heterogeneous users in the bottleneck model," Transportation Research Part B: Methodological, Elsevier, vol. 127(C), pages 178-200.
    19. Sergejs Gubins & Erik T. Verhoef, 2012. "Dynamic Congestion and Urban Equilibrium," Tinbergen Institute Discussion Papers 12-137/VIII, Tinbergen Institute.
    20. Liu, Yang & Li, Yuanyuan & Hu, Lu, 2018. "Departure time and route choices in bottleneck equilibrium under risk and ambiguity," Transportation Research Part B: Methodological, Elsevier, vol. 117(PB), pages 774-793.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Congestion charges; Road pricing; Acceptability; Evaluation; Urban transport policy; Transport externalities;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • C25 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Single Equation Models; Single Variables - - - Discrete Regression and Qualitative Choice Models; Discrete Regressors; Proportions; Probabilities
    • D61 - Microeconomics - - Welfare Economics - - - Allocative Efficiency; Cost-Benefit Analysis
    • J22 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Time Allocation and Labor Supply
    • R41 - Urban, Rural, Regional, Real Estate, and Transportation Economics - - Transportation Economics - - - Transportation: Demand, Supply, and Congestion; Travel Time; Safety and Accidents; Transportation Noise
    • R42 - Urban, Rural, Regional, Real Estate, and Transportation Economics - - Transportation Economics - - - Government and Private Investment Analysis; Road Maintenance; Transportation Planning

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:hhs:ctswps:2012_013. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: CTS (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.cts.kth.se/ .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.