IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/wiw/wiwrsa/ersa99pa358.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Product Differentiation on Roads: Second-Best Congestion Pricing with Heterogeneity under Public and Private Ownership

Author

Listed:
  • Verhoef, Erik Teodoor
  • Small, Kenneth A.

Abstract

We explore the properties of various types of public and private pricing on acongested road network with heterogeneous users and allowing for elasticdemand. Heterogeneity is represented by a continuum of values of time. Thenetwork consists of both serial and parallel links, which allows us to modelsecond-best pricing restrictions on either complementary or substitute links,while still accounting for interaction between different groups on sharedlinks (e.g. in city centres). We find that private (revenue-maximizing)pricing is much less efficient than public pricing, whether on the partial orthe full network; but this difference is mitigated by the productdifferentiation made possible by heterogeneous users. Ignoring heterogeneitycauses the welfare benefits of second-best pricing of one parallel link, apolicy currently receiving favourable consideration, to be dramaticallyunderestimated. Product differentiation produces some unexpecteddistributional effects, including the possibility that first-best pricing canresult in one of the parallel routes being both more congested than withoutpricing.
(This abstract was borrowed from another version of this item.)

Suggested Citation

  • Verhoef, Erik Teodoor & Small, Kenneth A., 1999. "Product Differentiation on Roads: Second-Best Congestion Pricing with Heterogeneity under Public and Private Ownership," ERSA conference papers ersa99pa358, European Regional Science Association.
    • Handle: RePEc:wiw:wiwrsa:ersa99pa358
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www-sre.wu.ac.at/ersa/ersaconfs/ersa99/Papers/a358.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. AndrÊ de Palma & Robin Lindsey, 2000. "Private toll roads: Competition under various ownership regimes," The Annals of Regional Science, Springer;Western Regional Science Association, vol. 34(1), pages 13-35.
    2. Braid, Ralph M., 1996. "Peak-Load Pricing of a Transportation Route with an Unpriced Substitute," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 40(2), pages 179-197, September.
    3. MARCHAND, Maurice, 1968. "A note on optimal tolls in an imperfect environment," LIDAM Reprints CORE 22, Université catholique de Louvain, Center for Operations Research and Econometrics (CORE).
    4. Small, Kenneth A. & Yan, Jia, 2001. "The Value of "Value Pricing" of Roads: Second-Best Pricing and Product Differentiation," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 49(2), pages 310-336, March.
    5. Edelson, Noel M, 1971. "Congestion Tolls Under Monopoly," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 61(5), pages 873-882, December.
    6. Train, Kenneth E & McFadden, Daniel L & Goett, Andrew A, 1987. "Consumer Attitudes and Voluntary Rate Schedules for Public Utilities," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 69(3), pages 383-391, August.
    7. Liu, Louie Nan & McDonald, John F., 1998. "Efficient Congestion Tolls in the Presence of Unpriced Congestion: A Peak and Off-Peak Simulation Model," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 44(3), pages 352-366, November.
    8. Yang, Hai & Huang, Hai-Jun, 1999. "Carpooling and congestion pricing in a multilane highway with high-occupancy-vehicle lanes," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 33(2), pages 139-155, February.
    9. Verhoef, Erik & Nijkamp, Peter & Rietveld, Piet, 1996. "Second-Best Congestion Pricing: The Case of an Untolled Alternative," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 40(3), pages 279-302, November.
    10. Arnott, Richard & de Palma, Andre & Lindsey, Robin, 1992. "Route choice with heterogeneous drivers and group-specific congestion costs," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 22(1), pages 71-102, March.
    11. Kenneth Button & Erik Verhoef (ed.), 1998. "Road Pricing, Traffic Congestion and the Environment," Books, Edward Elgar Publishing, number 940.
    12. Vickrey, William S, 1969. "Congestion Theory and Transport Investment," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 59(2), pages 251-260, May.
    13. F. H. Knight, 1924. "Some Fallacies in the Interpretation of Social Cost," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 38(4), pages 582-606.
    14. Train, Kenneth E & Ben-Akiva, Moshe & Atherton, Terry, 1989. "Consumption Patterns and Self-selecting Tariffs," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 71(1), pages 62-73, February.
    15. Small, Kenneth A. & Gomez-Ilbanez, Jose A., 1998. "Road Pricing for Congestion Management: The Transition from Theory to Policy," University of California Transportation Center, Working Papers qt8kk909p1, University of California Transportation Center.
    16. Hahn, Robert W, 1989. "Economic Prescriptions for Environmental Problems: How the Patient Followed the Doctor's Orders," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 3(2), pages 95-114, Spring.
    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. Paul Calcott & Shuntian Yao, 2005. "Competition between highway operators: Can we expect toll differentiation?," Papers in Regional Science, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 84(4), pages 615-626, November.
    2. Safirova, Elena & Gillingham, Kenneth & Houde, Sébastien, 2007. "Measuring marginal congestion costs of urban transportation: Do networks matter?," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 41(8), pages 734-749, October.
    3. Kraus, Marvin, 2003. "A new look at the two-mode problem," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 54(3), pages 511-530, November.
    4. Erik T. Verhoef, 2000. "Second-Best Congestion Pricing in General Networks - Algorithms for Finding Second-Best Optimal Toll Levels and Toll Points," Tinbergen Institute Discussion Papers 00-084/3, Tinbergen Institute.
    5. Small, Kenneth A. & Yan, Jia, 2001. "The Value of "Value Pricing" of Roads: Second-Best Pricing and Product Differentiation," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 49(2), pages 310-336, March.
    6. Verhoef, Erik T., 2002. "Second-best congestion pricing in general static transportation networks with elastic demands," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 32(3), pages 281-310, May.
    7. Parry, I. W. H., 2002. "Comparing the efficiency of alternative policies for reducing traffic congestion," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 85(3), pages 333-362, September.
    8. Bruno de Borger & Stef Proost, 2004. "Vertical and horizontal tax competition in the transport sector," Reflets et perspectives de la vie économique, De Boeck Université, vol. 0(4), pages 45-64.
    9. Parry, Ian W. H. & Bento, Antonio, 2002. "Estimating the Welfare Effect of Congestion Taxes: The Critical Importance of Other Distortions within the Transport System," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 51(2), pages 339-365, March.
    10. De Borger, B. & Proost, S. & Van Dender, K., 2005. "Congestion and tax competition in a parallel network," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 49(8), pages 2013-2040, November.
    11. Verhoef, Erik Teodoor, 2000. "The Generalized Second-Best Network Congestion Pricing Problem," ERSA conference papers ersa00p336, European Regional Science Association.
    12. Van Dender, Kurt, 2004. "Pricing transport networks with fixed residential location," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 34(3), pages 289-307, May.
    13. Verhoef, Erik T., 2002. "Second-best congestion pricing in general networks. Heuristic algorithms for finding second-best optimal toll levels and toll points," Transportation Research Part B: Methodological, Elsevier, vol. 36(8), pages 707-729, September.
    14. Hideo Konishi, 2004. "Uniqueness of User Equilibrium in Transportation Networks with Heterogeneous Commuters," Transportation Science, INFORMS, vol. 38(3), pages 315-330, August.
    15. C. Robin Lindsey & Erik T. Verhoef, 2000. "Traffic Congestion and Congestion Pricing," Tinbergen Institute Discussion Papers 00-101/3, Tinbergen Institute.
    16. Lam, Terence, 2004. "Evaluating value-pricing projects with both scheduling and route choices," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 34(2), pages 225-240, March.

    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. C. Robin Lindsey & Erik T. Verhoef, 2000. "Traffic Congestion and Congestion Pricing," Tinbergen Institute Discussion Papers 00-101/3, Tinbergen Institute.
    2. Button, Kenneth, 2004. "1. The Rationale For Road Pricing: Standard Theory And Latest Advances," Research in Transportation Economics, Elsevier, vol. 9(1), pages 3-25, January.
    3. Small, Kenneth A. & Yan, Jia, 2001. "The Value of "Value Pricing" of Roads: Second-Best Pricing and Product Differentiation," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 49(2), pages 310-336, March.
    4. Erik T. Verhoef, 2000. "Second-Best Congestion Pricing in General Networks - Algorithms for Finding Second-Best Optimal Toll Levels and Toll Points," Tinbergen Institute Discussion Papers 00-084/3, Tinbergen Institute.
    5. Button, Kenneth, 2020. "The Transition From Pigou’S Ideas On Road Pricing To Their Application," Journal of the History of Economic Thought, Cambridge University Press, vol. 42(3), pages 417-438, September.
    6. Rouwendal, Jan & Verhoef, Erik T., 2004. "2. Second-Best Pricing For Imperfect Substitutes In Urban Networks," Research in Transportation Economics, Elsevier, vol. 9(1), pages 27-60, January.
    7. Fu, Xinying & van den Berg, Vincent A.C. & Verhoef, Erik T., 2018. "Private road supply in networks with heterogeneous users," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 118(C), pages 430-443.
    8. Fu, Xinying & van den Berg, Vincent A.C. & Verhoef, Erik T., 2018. "Private road networks with uncertain demand," Research in Transportation Economics, Elsevier, vol. 70(C), pages 57-68.
    9. Verhoef, Erik Teodoor, 2000. "The Generalized Second-Best Network Congestion Pricing Problem," ERSA conference papers ersa00p336, European Regional Science Association.
    10. Georgina Santos & Erik Verhoef, 2011. "Road Congestion Pricing," Chapters, in: André de Palma & Robin Lindsey & Emile Quinet & Roger Vickerman (ed.), A Handbook of Transport Economics, chapter 23, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    11. Light, Thomas, 2009. "Optimal highway design and user welfare under value pricing," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 66(2), pages 116-124, September.
    12. Verhoef, Erik T., 2002. "Second-best congestion pricing in general networks. Heuristic algorithms for finding second-best optimal toll levels and toll points," Transportation Research Part B: Methodological, Elsevier, vol. 36(8), pages 707-729, September.
    13. Kraus, Marvin, 2003. "A new look at the two-mode problem," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 54(3), pages 511-530, November.
    14. Ian W.H. Parry, 2009. "Pricing Urban Congestion," Annual Review of Resource Economics, Annual Reviews, vol. 1(1), pages 461-484, September.
    15. Verhoef, Erik T., 1999. "Time, speeds, flows and densities in static models of road traffic congestion and congestion pricing," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 29(3), pages 341-369, May.
    16. Verhoef, Erik T., 2002. "Second-best congestion pricing in general static transportation networks with elastic demands," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 32(3), pages 281-310, May.
    17. Verhoef, Erik T. & Koh, Andrew & Shepherd, Simon, 2010. "Pricing, capacity and long-run cost functions for first-best and second-best network problems," Transportation Research Part B: Methodological, Elsevier, vol. 44(7), pages 870-885, August.
    18. Ubbels, Barry & Verhoef, Erik T., 2008. "Governmental competition in road charging and capacity choice," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 38(2), pages 174-190, March.
    19. De Borger, Bruno & Proost, Stef, 2012. "Transport policy competition between governments: A selective survey of the literature," Economics of Transportation, Elsevier, vol. 1(1), pages 35-48.
    20. Cantos-Sánchez, Pedro & Moner-Colonques, Rafael & Sempere-Monerris, José J. & Álvarez-SanJaime, Óscar, 2011. "Viability of new road infrastructure with heterogeneous users," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 45(5), pages 435-450, June.

    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • R41 - Urban, Rural, Regional, Real Estate, and Transportation Economics - - Transportation Economics - - - Transportation: Demand, Supply, and Congestion; Travel Time; Safety and Accidents; Transportation Noise
    • R48 - Urban, Rural, Regional, Real Estate, and Transportation Economics - - Transportation Economics - - - Government Pricing and Policy
    • D62 - Microeconomics - - Welfare Economics - - - Externalities

    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:wiw:wiwrsa:ersa99pa358. 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: Gunther Maier (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.ersa.org .

    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.