IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/isu/genstf/198701010800009541.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Private provision of local rural roads

Author

Listed:
  • Hamlett, Cathy A.

Abstract

The rural road and bridge problem is the lack of funds to upgrade and maintain the rapidly deteriorating rural transportation infrastructure. The research analyzed the concept of privately provided public roads through a utility maximization model, with a joint product aspect. The jointness coming from the private, public benefits of a road. Equilibrium conditions of road provision, under Nash-Cournot behavior, were derived. A comparative static analysis was conducted on the Nash-Cournot model. Pareto-optimizing behavior was also investigated and the results compared to Nash-Cournot provision levels. The Pareto-optimal model indicated conditions where a set of roads could be abandoned;A benefit-cost analysis was conducted to identify the set of abandonable roads. Low-traffic roads were abandoned or converted to private drives through the use of a computerized road network. The results indicate that potential exists for closing some roads to public access;An investigation was made into the political implications of such policies. The decision of public provision of roads is made by a body of elected officials who are susceptible to pressure. An example presents an illustration of economic incentive rural residents have to fight the road conversion policies.

Suggested Citation

  • Hamlett, Cathy A., 1987. "Private provision of local rural roads," ISU General Staff Papers 198701010800009541, Iowa State University, Department of Economics.
    • Handle: RePEc:isu:genstf:198701010800009541
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://dr.lib.iastate.edu/server/api/core/bitstreams/0db295f9-e624-4cab-bf6f-7c76ce1e57dd/content
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Todd Sandler & A. J. Culyer, 1982. "Joint Products and Multijurisdictional Spillovers," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 97(4), pages 707-716.
    2. Mishan, E J, 1969. "The Relationship between Joint Products, Collective Goods, and External Effects," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 77(3), pages 329-348, May/June.
    3. John Posnett & Todd Sandler, 1986. "Joint Supply and the Finance of Charitable Activity," Public Finance Review, , vol. 14(2), pages 209-222, April.
    4. Murdoch, James C. & Sandler, Todd, 1984. "Complementarity, free riding, and the military expenditures of NATO allies," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 25(1-2), pages 83-101, November.
    5. Baumel, C. Phillip & Hamlett, Cathy A. & Pautsch, Gregory R., 1986. "The Economics of Reducing the County Road System: Three Case Studies in Iowa, Executive Summary," Staff General Research Papers Archive 11710, Iowa State University, Department of Economics.
    6. Boyd, J Hayden, 1971. "Joint Products, Collective Goods, and External Effects: Comment," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 79(5), pages 1138-1140, Sept.-Oct.
    7. Stone, Clarence N., 1980. "Systemic Power in Community Decision Making: A Restatement of Stratification Theory," American Political Science Review, Cambridge University Press, vol. 74(4), pages 978-990, December.
    8. Pautsch, Gregory R. & Hamlett, Cathy A. & Baumel, C. Phillip, 1985. "An Examination of a Local Road and Bridge System: A Network Model Approach," Staff General Research Papers Archive 11725, Iowa State University, Department of Economics.
    9. Wallace E. Huffman & Mark McNulty, 1985. "Endogenous Local Public Extension Policy," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 67(4), pages 761-768.
    10. George J. Stigler, 1971. "The Theory of Economic Regulation," Bell Journal of Economics, The RAND Corporation, vol. 2(1), pages 3-21, Spring.
    11. Baumel, C. Phillip & Shornhorst, Eldo, 1983. "Local Rural Roads and Bridges: Current and Future Problems and Alternatives," Staff General Research Papers Archive 11669, Iowa State University, Department of Economics.
    12. repec:bla:econom:v:38:y:1971:i:152:p:347-61 is not listed on IDEAS
    13. Cukierman, Alex & Meltzer, Allan H, 1986. "A Positive Theory of Discretionary Policy, the Cost of Democratic Government and the Benefits of a Constitution," Economic Inquiry, Western Economic Association International, vol. 24(3), pages 367-388, July.
    14. Gary S. Becker, 1983. "A Theory of Competition Among Pressure Groups for Political Influence," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 98(3), pages 371-400.
    15. D. Kenyon, 1984. "Preference revelation and supply response in the arena of local government," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 42(2), pages 147-160, January.
    16. Bergstrom, Theodore & Blume, Lawrence & Varian, Hal, 1986. "On the private provision of public goods," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 29(1), pages 25-49, February.
    17. Anthony Downs, 1957. "An Economic Theory of Political Action in a Democracy," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 65(2), pages 135-135.
    18. Berglas, Eitan & Pines, David, 1981. "Clubs, local public goods and transportation models : A synthesis," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 15(2), pages 141-162, April.
    19. Cornes, Richard & Sandler, Todd, 1984. "Easy Riders, Joint Production, and Public Goods," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 94(375), pages 580-598, September.
    20. Baumel, C. Phillip & Hamlett, Cathy A. & Pautsch, Gregory R., 1986. "The Economics of Reducing the County Road System: Three Case Studies in Iowa," Staff General Research Papers Archive 11712, Iowa State University, Department of Economics.
    21. Hanson, Steven D. & Hamlett, Cathy A. & Pautsch, Gregory R. & Baumel, C. Phillip, 1985. "Vehicle Travel Costs on Paved, Granular, and Earth-Surfaced County Roads," Staff General Research Papers Archive 11677, Iowa State University, Department of Economics.
    22. Richard Steinberg, 1986. "Charitable Giving as a Mixed Public/Private Good: Implications for Tax Policy," Public Finance Review, , vol. 14(4), pages 415-431, October.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    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. Stavins, Robert, 2004. "Introduction to the Political Economy of Environmental Regulations," RFF Working Paper Series dp-04-12, Resources for the Future.
    2. Benoît Le Maux, 2009. "Governmental behavior in representative democracy: a synthesis of the theoretical literature," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 141(3), pages 447-465, December.
    3. Hummel Jeffrey Rogers & Lavoie Don, 1994. "National Defense And The Public-Goods Problem," Journal des Economistes et des Etudes Humaines, De Gruyter, vol. 5(2-3), pages 353-378, June.
    4. Romano, Richard & Yildirim, Huseyin, 2001. "Why charities announce donations: a positive perspective," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 81(3), pages 423-447, September.
    5. Wallace E. Oates & Paul R. Portney & Wallace E. Oates & Paul R. Portney, 2004. "The Political Economy of Environmental Policy," Chapters, in: Environmental Policy and Fiscal Federalism, chapter 1, pages 3-30, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    6. Rauscher, Michael, 1995. "Protectionists, environmentalists, and the formation of environmental policy in an open economy," Discussion Papers, Series II 256, University of Konstanz, Collaborative Research Centre (SFB) 178 "Internationalization of the Economy".
    7. Martimort, David, 2019. ""When Olson Meets Dahl": From Inefficient Groups Formation to Inefficient Policy-Making," CEPR Discussion Papers 13843, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    8. Edwyna Harris, 2008. "Colonialism And Long‐Run Growth In Australia: An Examination Of Institutional Change In Victoria'S Water Sector During The Nineteenth Century," Australian Economic History Review, Economic History Society of Australia and New Zealand, vol. 48(3), pages 266-279, November.
    9. Matsusaka, John G, 2000. "Fiscal Effects of the Voter Initiative in the First Half of the Twentieth Century," Journal of Law and Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 43(2), pages 619-650, October.
    10. Joseph Michael Newhard, 2016. "An Interest Group Theory of Public Goods Provision: Reassessing the Relative Efficiency of the Market and the State," Journal of Private Enterprise, The Association of Private Enterprise Education, vol. 31(Winter 20), pages 21-41.
    11. Joseph A. Clougherty, 2005. "Antitrust holdup source, cross‐national institutional variation, and corporate political strategy implications for domestic mergers in a global context," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 26(8), pages 769-790, August.
    12. Tanger, Shaun M. & Laband, David N., 2009. "An empirical analysis of bill co-sponsorship in the U.S. Senate: The Tree Act of 2007," Forest Policy and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 11(4), pages 260-265, July.
    13. James C. Murdoch & Morteza Rahmatian & Mark A. Thayer, 1993. "A Spatially Autoregressive Median Voter Model of Recreation Expenditures," Public Finance Review, , vol. 21(3), pages 334-350, July.
    14. Vicary, Simon, 1997. "Joint production and the private provision of public goods," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 63(3), pages 429-445, February.
    15. Felgendreher, Simon & Lehmann, Paul, 2012. "The political economy of the peruvian urban water sector," UFZ Discussion Papers 18/2012, Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research (UFZ), Division of Social Sciences (ÖKUS).
    16. Jacobson, Elaine Mullaly & Emerson, Robert D., 1989. "The Influences Of Id Ogy And Economic Interests On Dairy Legislation," 1989 Annual Meeting, July 30-August 2, Baton Rouge, Louisiana 270466, American Agricultural Economics Association (New Name 2008: Agricultural and Applied Economics Association).
    17. Harry de Gorter & Jo Swinnen, 1995. "The Economic Polity Of Farm Policy: Reply," Journal of Agricultural Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 46(3), pages 403-414, September.
    18. Jonathan Brooks, 1995. "The Economic Polity Of Farm Policy: Comment," Journal of Agricultural Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 46(3), pages 398-402, September.
    19. repec:hal:spmain:info:hdl:2441/6sio9gcc4m9nr96pqt3c5at95b is not listed on IDEAS
    20. Tammy Leonard, 2016. "Housing Upkeep and Public Good Provision in Residential Neighborhoods," Housing Policy Debate, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 26(6), pages 888-908, November.
    21. Jean-Paul Faguet, 2004. "Why So Much Centralization? A Model of Primitive Centripetal Accumulation," STICERD - Development Economics Papers - From 2008 this series has been superseded by Economic Organisation and Public Policy Discussion Papers 43, Suntory and Toyota International Centres for Economics and Related Disciplines, LSE.

    More about this item

    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:isu:genstf:198701010800009541. 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: Curtis Balmer (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/deiasus.html .

    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.