Entry controls in taxi regulation: Implications of US and Canadian experience for taxi regulation and deregulation

This paper assesses the effects of entry regulation and deregulation on taxicab availability and service quality based on the experiences of 43 cities and counties in the United States and Canada. The analysis shows that entry controls have quite different impacts in the two basic markets served by taxicabs: the telephone order (dispatch) market and the cab stand/street hail market. Without entry controls, the cab stand and street hail market experiences an oversupply of cabs, leading to deterioration of vehicle and driver quality. Applied to the dispatch market, however, entry restrictions often lead to deficiencies in taxicab availability. The paper reviews the effectiveness of regulatory approaches for each market and for cities with substantial trip volumes in both markets. Approaches include two-tier systems, flexible forms of entry control, company-level entry qualifications, geographic restrictions and service requirements. These approaches and implications for regulation are discussed.     

铁路运输发展第三方物流的研究与策略

从物流及第三方物流的概念着手，主要分析了物流与铁路运输的本质区别，并就铁路运输开展第三方物流的优势及存在问题进行了详细分析，并重点论述了铁路运输业开展第三方物流可行性及有关对策。     

伦敦的"交通收费"及其福利经济学解释

2003年2月17日起,伦敦市采取对进入市中心的车辆收取5镑进入费的做法来缓解交通堵塞.对这一政策的运行方式、政策效果及反对意见进行了评价,并从福利经济学的角度作出了解释.     

进口方银行按客户要求放货的责任与实务研究

在国际贸易中,进口方银行往往需要按照客户要求放货,如货物先于有关单据前达到目的地,需要进口方银行出具担保,或者是货运单据以银行为收货人或银行指示抬头时需要进口方银行授权或背书放货。本文从实务操作出发,阐述了提货担保的意义和特点,分析了银行办理提货担保业务面临的风险,对提货担保失效时限进行了探讨,并引申分析了货运单据以银行为收货人或银行指示抬头时银行授权或背书放货后的责任,最后依据银行实务提出了防范提货担保业务风险的对策。     

Land use for transport projects: Estimating land value

Transportation projects are typically characterized by increased land use, which is a scarce resource of economic value. However, there is a tendency to ignore land value during feasibility studies of transportation projects. This may lead to a reduction in the economic efficiency of a project and to increased land use. This paper presents an economic model, based on the relationship between the elasticity of land price with respect to density, and estimating the future value of land designated for various uses, including transportation projects. The model was applied to transactional data from Israel, and was used for examining the value of land designated for two transport projects within Israel. The conclusions of the study indicate that taking the land value during a feasibility analysis of transportation projects into account, may lead to the consideration of other alternative plans, which may prevent the excessive use of land.     

A humanitarian logistics model for disaster relief operation considering network failure and standard relief time: A case study on San Francisco district

We propose a multi-depot location-routing model considering network failure, multiple uses of vehicles, and standard relief time. The model determines the locations of local depots and routing for last mile distribution after an earthquake. The model is extended to a two-stage stochastic program with random travel time to ascertain the locations of distribution centers. Small instances have been solved to optimality in GAMS. A variable neighborhood search algorithm is devised to solve the deterministic model. Computational results of our case study show that the unsatisfied demands can be significantly reduced at the cost of higher number of local depots and vehicles.     

城际铁路列车停站方案的遗传算法求解

我国城市群快速发展,城市间人员交流密切频繁,城际铁路成为城际间旅客的重要出行方式。合理的城际铁路列车停站方案可以提高城际铁路的竞争力,提升城际铁路的分担率。分析停站方案相关的运营收益和旅客出行成本,以铁路运营收益最大和旅客出行成本最小为目标函数,以车站服务频率、设备能力、列车停站次数等作为约束条件,建立城际铁路列车停站方案的多目标混合0-1规划模型,运用理想点法和遗传算法求解。算例结果表明,该模型和算法可以优化得到铁路运营收益和旅客出行成本均较优的停站方案。     

Analysing the impact of restructuring transportation,production and distribution on costs and environment – a case from the Thai Rubber industry

Transportation and distribution are key elements to successful supply chains, however there is some disagreement regarding the impact of distribution and transportation restructuring on costs and the environment. This paper explores the use of an optimisation model of Thailand’s rubber industry supply chain, to assess the impact of distribution and transportation on costs and greenhouse gas emissions. It has previously been observed that there is a positive correlation between transportation cost reduction and environmental impact, nevertheless the correlation is not clearly established when the distribution system is restructured. This paper is divided into two parts: the first part examines the impact of transportation service capacity on distribution decisions; the second part of the paper aims to examine the impact of restructuring the distribution network considering multi-modal options on cost and greenhouse gas emissions. For both parts a scenario analysis is utilised in conjunction with an optimisation model to derive the best possible answer in terms of costs and GHG emissions. In this paper, the results obtained indicate that the impact on cost minimisation from the increase in rail freight service capacity is marginal, while the impact on GHG emission minimisation is more significant. In terms of short-sea shipping prices and service capacity, the scenario analysis shows a slight positive impact on cost minimisation but no positive or negative impact on GHG emission minimisation. Results also confirm that in terms of economic advantages, distribution network restructuring provides greater benefit to the industry than does capacity development for the transportation service.     

Moving beyond the iceberg model: The role of trade relations in endogenizing transportation costs in computable general equilibrium models

Modeling trade and transportation costs is an essential part of multiregional or spatial computable general equilibrium models where interregional trade plays an important rolein shaping economic activity. The majority of such models use the iceberg trade cost approach where part of the produced output (representing the material costs of transportation) is assumed to melt away during transportation. There are a few models which employ a more refined approach with an explicit transportation sector providing transportation services which are then used to ship goods between locations. In this paper we show that this approach, although much more convenient than the iceberg approach, still lacks full usability due to the fact that markets, hence prices are defined at the regional level and as a result, transportation costs can not be endogenous at the trade relation level. Moreover, under regional level market clearing the iceberg and the more detailed approach are equivalent. We propose to refine the definition of market equilibrium and move it to the trade relation level. Using this approach we can gain full advantage of the explicit transport sector in the model with respect to trade cost evolution. We show through simulations that refining the way trade costs are modelled indeed gains new insights, and that moving the market definition to the trade relational level leads to qualitative changes in the effect of labor supply shocks on main model variables. The paper also presents a method to estimate a SAM by reallocating data from standard industries to a transportation sector which is then consistent with the model setup. This SAM can be used to calibrate the refined model with a detailed transportation sector.     

我国航空运输业市场结构演变分析

在阐述市场结构分析的主要理论和方法的基础上,测算了我国主要航空公司近年来市场份额的比重和变化,分析了市场结构变化特点。根据产业经济学中市场结构的相关理论,利用行业集中度和赫芬达尔-赫希曼指数两个指标,结合我国航空运输业的实践,计算了我国航空运输业市场2001—2009年的绝对集中度、HHI指数和倒数N指数,一致得出我国航空运输业是一个寡头垄断型产业,其垄断强弱程度呈"增强—减弱—增强"动态变化。