To Sell and to Provide? The Economic and Environmental Implications of the Auto Manufacturer's Involvement in the Car Sharing Business

Motivated by the involvement of Daimler and BMW in the car sharing business we consider an OEM who contemplates introducing a car sharing program. The OEM designs its product line by accounting for the trade-off between driving performance and fuel efficiency. Customers have different valuations of driving performance and decide whether to buy, join car sharing, or rely on their outside option. Car sharing can increase the profit from selling. This happens when the OEM prefers to serve the lower-end customers through car sharing and the higher-end through selling. In this case, car sharing increases the efficiency of the vehicles used for the lower-end, and the price charged to the higher-end customers. This is more pronounced for higher-end OEMs, which may help explain Daimler's and BMW's involvement in car sharing. Despite the higher efficiency, car sharing may lower the OEM's Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) level even when it increases profit and decreases environmental impact. CAFE levels better reflect the environmental benefits of car sharing when they are based on the number of customers served and not the production volume. Finally, if anticipating aggressive CAFE standards, OEMs may include car sharing to better absorb the increase in the production cost

Reducing air pollution from urban passenger transport : a framework for policy analysis

This paper develops a simple framework to analyze various pollution control strategies that have been used or are proposed in the urban passenger transport sector. The context is the declining quality of air in urban areas, which is among the serious problems associated with the rapid motorization of societies the world over. The paper examines the point of impact of different policy levers and provides a categorization of different instruments that should assist policy makers when choosing between them. A distinguishing feature of this framework is its explicit recognition of behavioral incentives, in particular, the fact that offsetting changes in consumer behavior can often undermine the original intent of particular policies. The paper is organized as follows. Section II presents the basic framework we have used to examine transport emissions. Section III reviews pollutant characteristics and their impact. The resulting policy choices are discussed in more detail in section IV. Several urban transport projects supported by the World Bank are then reviewed in section VI, and section V concludes the report.Montreal Protocol,Environmental Economics&Policies,Air Quality&Clean Air,Roads&Highways,Public Health Promotion,Roads&Highways,Urban Transport,Transport and Environment,Environmental Economics&Policies,Airports and Air Services

Reviving Gujarat State Road Transport Corporation: An Agenda for Action

In this article, we examine in detail the reasons related to the declining operating and financial performance of Gujarat State Road Transport Corporation (GSRTC). The contribution of various environmental and governance issues related to the decline of GSRTC are identified. Based on the diagnosis, a detailed revival plan consisting of a set of actions to be undertaken by the management is proposed. The responsibilities of the government, the management, and the employees in implementing the revival plan are briefly discussed. This article concludes with set of strategic priorities that need to be examined by government in reviving GSTRC and other similar state-owned public utilities.

Reducing Undesirable Environmental Impacts in the Marine Environment: A Review of Market-Based Incentive Management Measures

Using the example of commercial fishing, this paper explores the potential of incentive based management measures as a means of reducing the undesirable impacts of industries operating within the marine environment. Despite having been successfully applied for similar purposes in the management of terrestrial environments, and their potential to achieve environmental gains in an economically efficient manner, examples of incentive based management mechanisms are still relatively limited in the marine context. We assess the potential of a number of alternative market based management measures by reviewing and considering the successes and limitations of previous applications and how these would translate in the case of commercial fishing. Several fishing methods and conservation values are considered and the circumstances in which incentive measures may be most applicable are identified. Where appropriate, and by either replacing or (more likely) complimenting existing management arrangements, incentive based measures have the potential to improve upon the performance of existing measures. This has a number of implications. From the environmental perspective they should allow the expected level of undesirable impact to be reduced. They can also reduce the costs imposed upon the industry by letting them develop the solutions. Further, in the increasingly relevant case of MPAs the potential costs to Government may also be significantly reduced if increasing environmental performance makes it possible for certain industry members to continue operating, reducing the necessity of often costly structural adjustment programs.Environmental Economics and Policy,

Design Matters: Making Catch Shares Work

Explains the critical elements in designing effective fishery management programs that allocate fishing privileges as a specific portion of the total annual catch quota, including science-based limits and adequate enforcement. Summarizes case studies

Towards Sustainable Fisheries Management: International Examples of Innovation

Fisheries change often carries its own financial rewards. Many reforms and changes which support conservation also result in higher profits and revenue streams for the involved businesses. This makes fisheries a potentially attractive investment arena for many commercial investors, once reform projects are properly structured and agreed upon between conservationists and the involved businesses. As commercial investors and social investors become more involved in the field of fisheries, the scale of the impacts that can be achieved is expected to expand. Foundations in the field are now looking to support this transition from fisheries conservation as a purely philanthropic investment to a blended conservation and business investment by encouraging non-profits, social change leaders and business entrepreneurs to create innovatively structured projects that can both build value for private investors and improve the speed and scale of fisheries conservation impacts. This report aims to support this transition, by providing information about and high-lighting the work of those at the forefront of innovative fisheries finance

Asset management and governance: an analysis of fleet management process issues in an asset-intensive organization

Efficient asset management is a key performance driver for asset-intensive organizations. Achieving high utilization and return on investment on physical assets are central corporate objectives for public and private organisations alike. Current approaches on asset management include the engineering and governance perspectives. Both perspectives offer valuable but incomplete insights on the management of asset performance: experience demonstrates that an exclusive focus on one or the other may lead to sub-optimal asset and organizational performance. In this paper, we investigate how an integrated approach to asset management can be constructed in the context of vehicle fleets. Beginning with an analysis of how the asset management process is operated through the asset lifecycle, we identify key engineering and organizational factors influencing asset performance. The relationships between factors are analyzed to provide an integrated fleet asset management approach

Can incentive-based spatial management work in the Eastern tuna and billfish fishery?

The Eastern tuna and billfish fishery (ETBF) is currently managed through an input quota system based on individual transferable effort units (the number of hooks) and a total allowable effort level (i.e. total number of hooks) A spatial management policy based on a series of differential hook-penalties has been proposed as a flexible tool to discourage vessels operating in certain areas (e.g. those with high bycatch potential) and encourage operating in other areas (e.g. with less bycatch potential). In this study, the importance of catch rates per hook to location choice is assessed through the estimation of a nested multinomial logit model. Other variables in the model include distance to the location, prices of the main species, fuel prices and vessel characteristics. The effects of increasing hook penalties in key areas on fishing effort in those areas and elsewhere are assessed. Implications for vessel economic performance are also assessed.Resource /Energy Economics and Policy,

Regulatory and Environmental Effects on Public Transit Efficiency. A Mixed DEA-SFA Approach

The aim of this paper is to account for the impact of statistical noise and exogenous regulatory and environmental factors on the efficiency of public transit systems in a DEA-based framework. To this end, we implement a three-stage DEA-SFA mixed approach based on Fried et al. (2002) using a 1993-1999 panel of 42 Italian public transit companies. This allows us to decompose input-specific DEA inefficiency measures into three components: exogenous effects, pure managerial inefficiency, and statistical noise. First, the initial evaluation of producer performance is carried out using conventional variable returns to scale DEA (Banker et al., 1984). Second, a SFA approach (Battese and Coelli, 1992) is used to regress single input slacks on subsidies regulation (cost-plus versus fixed-price contracts) and a set of environmental variables including network speed and user density. Finally, third stage re-runs DEA on inputs purged of both exogenous effects and statistical noise. Results are such that adjusting for the type of regulatory scheme, environmental conditions, and statistical noise increases average efficiency in the industry and reduces dispersion among firms. Furthermore, the implementation of fixed-price subsidies is found to enhance efficiency in the usage of “drivers” and “materials and services” inputs. Such a result sheds some light on the determinants of input-specific efficiency differentials in the industry, improving the existing evidence on mean overall cost efficiency (e.g. Gagnepain e Ivaldi, 2002; Piacenza, 2006). As a policy implication, it is confirmed the relevance of regula tion aimed at replacing cost-plus subsidization mechanisms with high-powered incentive contracts as well as improving operating conditions of public transport networks.Public transit systems, Regulation, Environmental effects, Statistical noise, Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA), Stochastic Frontier Analysis (SFA)