市场拥挤、财政支出和税后资本平均产出关系分析

税后资本平均产出的高低对私人部门投资决策产生重要影响,但是我国自1994年分税制改革以来,税后资本平均产出处于不断下降趋势,与此同时,财政支出规模呈不断扩大趋势。本文在财政支出解决市场拥挤框架下分析了财政支出对税后资本平均产出的影响,在理论分析中,说明财政通过增加支出缓解市场拥挤来影响税后资本平均产出,其影响程度由税率、财政支出的产出弹性、市场拥挤程度决定。在实证分析中,计量检验了世界范围内和中国地方政府财政支出对税后资本平均产出的影响,并结合现实对计量结果给予解释。     

On the public provision of the performing arts

In this paper, we present a model in which the performing arts are modelled as congestible public goods. In accordance with empirical evidence, the production of seat capacity is assumed to be subject to fixed costs. We estimate the parameters of the model's demand and cost functions using German data. Using these estimates in a subsequent social choice analysis, we show that the current situation in the German performing arts sector is best described by a directorship that under the influence of a selfish theater lobby maximizes only the welfare of the spectators. Such an equilibrium, characterized by too low ticket prices and too large capacity, is most likely to establish if citizens have a very positive ex ante notion of the performing arts.     

Strong Nash equilibrium in games with common and complementary local utilities

A rather general class of strategic games is described where the coalitional improvements are acyclic and hence strong Nash equilibria exist: The players derive their utilities from the use of certain facilities; all players using a facility extract the same amount of local utility therefrom, which amount depends both on the set of users and on their actions, and is decreasing in the set of users; the ultimate utility of each player is the minimum of the local utilities at all relevant facilities. Two important subclasses are “games with structured utilities,” basic properties of which were discovered in 1970s and 1980s, and “bottleneck congestion games,” which attracted researchers’ attention quite recently. The former games are representative in the sense that every game from the whole class is isomorphic to one of them. The necessity of the minimum aggregation for the existence of strong Nash equilibria, actually, just Pareto optimal Nash equilibria, in all games of this type is established.     

Expanding airport capacity of cities under uncertainty: Strategies to mitigate congestion

Airport capacity constraints are increasingly challenging the growth of air traffic. At the same time, decision-making about airport capacity investments is extremely complex, involving trade-offs. This paper’s objective is to optimise a privately owned airport system’s capacity investment decision in a city under demand uncertainty. Next to the investment size, our real options model incorporates the timing of the investment, as well as the cost of congestion. The results reveal that the larger a city’s initial airport capacity, the smaller its investment will relatively be and the lower the occupancy rate threshold at which investment will take place. We also show that, in case of a higher demand growth combined with more demand uncertainty, the city will benefit from a significantly larger investment, but made later at a higher occupancy rate. In this case, cities with a small initial capacity will sometimes even more than double current capacity. Higher airport charges and an increase in non-aeronautical revenues both lead to a later investment in more capacity, due to the increased project attractiveness. An increase in congestion costs results in a larger investment made earlier, in order to eliminate delays. Airport operational cost and capacity holding cost increases both lead to smaller investments.     

Impact of electronic road pricing on real estate prices in Singapore

Since 1998, Singapore has had an Electronic Road Pricing (ERP) system set up with a network of toll gantries to tax vehicles entering designated areas in the city center during peak hours. Using the congestion rate hike with effect from November 1, 2010 as an exogenous shock, we test the effects of the ERP rate hike on retail, office and residential real estate prices. The results show that the November 2010 congestion toll rate increases cause a 19% drop in retail real estate prices within the cordon ERP areas relative to retail real estate prices outside the cordon ERP areas. The results are statistically and economically significant. However, the toll rate hike has no significant impact private office and residential real estate within cordoned ERP areas. The robustness and falsification tests could not reject the negative effects associated with the toll rate hike on retail real estate prices.     

Assessing the welfare effects of congestion charges in a real world setting

The standard textbook analysis shows that drivers as a group lose from congestion charges. However, it omits taste heterogeneity, shorter travel times far out in the larger network arising from less blocking back of upstream links and the possibility for drivers to reschedule. Taking account of these factors, using a dynamic scheduling model with heterogeneous users we find that all three add significantly to the benefit of the Stockholm congestion charges and that drivers as a group benefit from these charges even without recycling of revenues. This paper also provides an update on the consumer benefits of the Stockholm charges.     

Flat versus spatially variable tolling: A case study in Fresno,California

A number of studies have examined the feasibility of temporal variations in tolls. However, spatial variation in tolls has not received much attention, especially in practice. Spatial variation could effectively reduce congestion and increase profits. To fill this gap, we conduct an empirical application on 3 different road segments using the Fresno, California's transportation planning model. Our modeling results in a number of interesting insights. First, the derived optimal flat toll values are very close to the average variable tolls, but the effects of applying spatially variable tolls on improving total revenues (from 4% to 24%) and total improved travel time (from 18% to 1083%) measures are significant. Second, spatially variable tolls are more effective, but more costly, particularly for arterials, which can be attributed to the higher number of access points for arterials. Third, spatial variations in tolls are more effective for peak hours than for off-peak hours and for social optimization than for profit maximization. Fourth, to improve throughputs for both profit maximization and social optimization, the prevalent tolling pattern along a corridor induces lower final volumes per capacity (V/Cs) (after pricing) at the mainline flow sections and relatively higher final V/Cs at the entrance and exit (boundary) points. Finally, optimal toll patterns are not dependent on vehicle miles traveled (VMTs) or volumes but, rather, are related to targeted V/Cs. Therefore, flow-dependent charges along a corridor should be based on V/Cs rather than on volumes or VMTs.     

The importance of concession revenues in the privatization of airports

We investigate the tradeoff between the airport’s concession and aeronautical revenues—two complementary services. Increasing the frequency of flights may result with congestion which could stimulate demand for concessions, but may also harm the demand for flights. When passengers have a low valuation for the concession good, the opportunity for concession revenue is small and the airport focuses its revenue on the aeronautical (i.e., landing) fees. With a sufficiently large valuation for concession goods, the airport may lower the aeronautical charges to stimulate greater flight frequency in order to lower airfares thereby attracting more passengers ultimately to increase concessions revenues. It is in the latter case where we observe minimal loss of aeronautical welfare when airports are privatized. Thus, our research could help guide decision makers in the airport privatization process. Namely, we find that privatization is not recommended unless the potential for concession revenues is sufficiently large.     

Net Neutrality in Europe: Desperately seeking a market failure

Net Neutrality has become the focus of attention in the regulatory debate on the Internet. This article attempts to strip down the debate to its bare essential. It identifies two main types of Net Neutrality obligations that have been put forward and assesses what type of potential concerns they may be designed to address. It concludes that while some of these concerns may be important it remains doubtful (at least in Europe) that an ex ante per se rule, such as those proposed under the Net Neutrality term, is the best way to address them.