This paper has two main purposes. The first is to present, to analyze and to suggest road infrastructure investment and financing policies in Brazil. The second objective is to analyze toll road concessions, with emphasis on toll tariffs. For the last eight years federal road investment (at...

One of the main unanswered questions in the field of urban economics is to which extent subsidies to public transit are justified. We examine one of the main benefits of public transit, a reduction in car congestion externalities, the so-called congestion relief benefit, using quasi-natural...

We study whether subways alleviate road congestion by examining 45 subway line launches in China and using detailed data on road speed. Our difference-in-differences estimation finds that in the first year after a subway line is launched, rush-hour speed on nearby roads increases by about 4%....

This paper explores the interrelations between pricing, capacity choice and financingin transportation networks. It builds on the famous Mohring-Harwitz result on self-financing ofoptimally designed roads under optimal congestion pricing, and specifically investigates itsins and outs in a...

A dynamic 'car-following' extension of the conventional economic model of traffic congestion is presented, which predicts the average cost function for trips in stationary states to be significantly different from the conventional average cost function derived from the speed-flow function. When...

Mohring and Harwitz (1962) showed that, under certain conditions, an optimally designed and priced road would generate user toll revenues just sufficient to cover its capital costs. Several scholars subsequently explored the robustness of that finding. This paper briefly summarizes further...

This paper considers the use of ‘long-run cost functions’ for congested networks in solving second-best network problems, in which capacity and tolls are instruments. We derive analytical results both for general cost and demand functions and for specific functional forms, namely Bureau of...

The traditional bottleneck model for road congestion promotes the implementation of a triangular, fully time varying, charge as the optimal solution for the road congestion externality. However, cognitive and technological barriers put a practical limit to the degree of differentiation real...

This paper analyzes the possibilities to relieve congestion using rewards instead of taxes, as well as combinations of rewards and taxes. The model considers a Vickrey-ADL model of bottleneck congestion with endogenous scheduling. With inelastic demand, a fine (time-varying) reward is equivalent...

The theoretical evolution of academic beliefs and practical policymakers' perceptions of road pricing (from now on rp) as an instrument of efficient and equitable allocation of resources are described and analysed. The aim of the paper is to reconstruct the logical evolution of the theory behind...