The effects of removing the Trondheim toll cordon

This article presents the effects of removing the Trondheim toll cordon, which was closed after nearly 15 years of operation on December 31, 2005. The traffic levels, measured as vehicles per hour, in 2006 are compared to traffic levels in 2005. The evaluation also covers the effect on the retail market and possible environmental effects. We also seek to investigate what the traffic levels would have been today if the cordon had still been in operation. We find that the closing of the Trondheim toll cordon has lead to increased traffic levels in the peak hours, with an average increase of 11.3% in the former charging hours of 06:00–18:00. On an average, the hours between 14:00 and 18:00 experienced an increase in traffic of 15.5%, whilst traffic in the evenings and nights decreased. Model results suggest that the removal of the toll cordon has caused the private car to increase its modal share at the expense of passengers per car, public transport and cycling/walking. The increase in the total number of trips would have been more uniformly distributed among the alternatives if the toll cordon had still been in operation.     

Value creation by company‐consumer interaction

Company‐customer interaction is becoming increasingly widespread in industrial markets, bringing benefits that are both productive and strategic. This paper looks at the prerequisites for applying the same logic in consumer markets.

The conclusion is that due to new technology and the emergence of more qualified and demanding consumers, the logic is already appearing in a wider range of industries, with interaction in one or more activities in the value‐creating process; in design, production and marketing as well as in the consumption and later destruction of products. But, up to now, the benefits are mainly on the consumer side. There seems to be some potential for considerable strategic advantages for companies, however, provided that their organizational structure is modified, new communication channels are built, the competence of the front‐line staff is developed, and the company culture becomes more consumer‐oriented.     

Structural adjustment and soil degradation in Tanzania A CGE model approach with endogenous soil productivity

In this paper, a model of the nitrogen cycle in the soil is incorporated in a Computable General Equilibrium (CGE) model of the Tanzanian economy, thus establishing a two‐way link between the environment and the economy. For a given level of natural soil productivity, profit‐maximising farmers choose input levels – and hence production volumes – which in turn influence soil productivity in the following years through the recycling of nitrogen from the residues of roots and stover and the degree of erosion. The model is used to simulate the effects of typical structural adjustment policies like a reduction in agro‐chemicals’ subsidies, reduced implicit export tax rate etc. After 10 years, the result of a joint implementation is a 9% higher Gross Domestic Product (GDP) level compared to the baseline scenario. The effect of soil degradation is found to represent a reduction in the GDP level of more than 5% for the same time period.