Efectivitat de les polítiques temporals per reduir el consum de gasolina

A finals de febrer de 2011, el govern va anunciar un conjunt de mesures encaminades a reduir el consum de gasolina. Les seves previsions eren que aquest caigués en un 15%. Un estudi a partir d'informació públicament disponible ha detectat que aquestes mesures (reducció dels preus dels trens de rodalies, límits més estrictes de velocitat i inclusió de biofuel en el carburant) van obtenir un efecte inferior al previst pel govern a causa del seu caràcter temporal.A finales de febrero de 2011, el gobierno anunció un conjunto de medidas encaminadas a reducir el consumo de gasolina. Sus previsiones eran que éste cayera en un 15%. Un estudio a partir de información públicamente disponible ha detectado que dichas medidas (reducción de los precios de los trenes de cercanías, límites más estrictos de velocidad e inclusión de biofuel en el carburante) obtuvieron un efecto inferior al previsto por el gobierno debido a su carácter temporal.In late February 2011, the government announced a set of measures to reduce fuel consumption. His forecast was that it fell by 15%. A study based on publicly available information detected that these measures (reduction of prices of train tickets, stricter speed limits and inclusion of biofuel) had a lower effect than those predicted by the government due to their temporary character

The impact of "competition for the market" regulatory designs on intercity bus prices

Altres ajuts: acords transformatius de la UABAltres ajuts: BBVA FoundationSpain regulates its intercity bus market by means of a 'competition for the market' mechanism, whose design has been modified several times in the last years. This implies that current services are operated under contracts whose conditions are heterogeneous. We take advantage of such fact to empirically measure the impact that regulatory designs may have on fares paid by the users. Controlling for the different determinant of bus prices at route level the results show very large differences between routes whose contracts were awarded under relatively open conditions compared to regionally regulated routes or old contracts whose concessions were extended in 1987 and have not been retendered since then. The observed difference between the cheapest and the most expensive services is to a great extent explained by the difference in the regulatory designs used to award each contract

How effective are policies to reduce gasoline consumption? Evaluating a quasi-natural experiment in Spain

Using a panel of 48 provinces for four years we empirically analyze a series of temporary policies aimed at curbing fuel consumption implemented in Spain between March and June 2011. The first policy was a reduction in the speed limit in highways. The second policy was an increase in the biofuel content of fuels used in the transport sector. The third measure was a reduction of 5% in commuting and regional train fares that resulted in two major metropolitan areas reducing their overall fare for public transit. The results indicate that the speed limit reduction in highways reduced gasoline consumption by between 2% and 3%, while an increase in the biofuel content of gasoline increased this consumption. This last result is consistent with experimental evidence that indicates that mileage per liter falls with an increase in the biofuel content in gasolines. As for the reduction in transit fares, we do not find a significant effect for this policy. However, in specifications including the urban transit faré for the major cities in each province the estimated cross-price elasticity of the demand for gasoline -used as a proxy for car use- with respect to the price of transit is within the range reported in the literature. This is important since one of the main efficiency justification for subsidizing public transit rests on the positive value of this parameter and most of the estimates reported in the literature are quite dated

Commuters' valuation of travel time variability in Barcelona

The value given by commuters to the variability of travel times is empirically analysed using stated preference data from Barcelona (Spain). Respondents are asked to choose between alternatives that differ in terms of cost, average travel time, variability of travel times and departure time. Different specifications of a scheduling choice model are used to measure the influence of various socioeconomic characteristics. Our results show that travel time variability

How effective are policies to reduce gasoline consumption? evaluating a quasi-natural experiment in Spain

Using a panel of 48 provinces for four years we empirically analyze a series of temporary policies aimed at curbing fuel consumption implemented in Spain between March and June 2011. The first policy was a reduction in the speed limit in highways. The second policy was an increase in the biofuel content of fuels used in the transport sector. The third measure was a reduction of 5% in commuting and regional train fares that resulted in two major metropolitan areas reducing their overall fare for public transit. The results indicate that the speed limit reduction in highways reduced gasoline consumption by between 2% and 3%, while an increase in the biofuel content of gasoline increased this consumption. This last result is consistent with experimental evidence that indicates that mileage per liter falls with an increase in the biofuel content in gasolines. As for the reduction in transit fares, we do not find a significant effect for this policy. However, in specifications including the urban transit fare for the major cities in each province the estimated cross-price elasticity of the demand for gasoline -used as a proxy for car use- with respect to the price of transit is within the range reported in the literature. This is important since one of the main eficiency justification for subsidizing public transit rests on the positive value of this parameter and most of the estimates reported in the literature are quite dated

Efectos redistributivos de las subvenciones al transporte público en áreas urbanas

El objetivo de este artículo es evaluar los efectos redistributivos derivados de las subvenciones al transporte público tomando como unidad de análisis a las familias. La fuente de datos es la Encuesta de Presupuestos Familiares 1990-91. Dado que la subvención consiste en una cantidad fija por billete comprado, cabe postular que la subvención recibida es proporcional al gasto efectuado en transporte público. Por ello, se estima una relación entre gasto en transporte público y nivel de renta que permite calcular los efectos redistributivos. No obstante, para solventar el problema de falta de representatividad muestral de la EPF para determinados colectivos, el análisis utiliza una aproximación indirecta a través de la estimación de una función de gasto que discurre en dos fases. La primera es la decisión de gastar o no gastar, que se cuantifica a través de un modelo de elección discreta y, la segunda, evalúa la cantidad gastada por medio de una ecuación de regresión continua. Estas modelizaciones parciales se integran en un modelo cuasi recursivo que se simula conjuntamente y permite evaluar distintas situaciones hipotéticas para una familia tipo. La conclusión global es que las subvenciones al transporte -en ausencia de efectos adversos sobre la eficiencia- tienen efectos progresivos, dado que representan una mayor proporción de la renta para las decilas inferiores. Este efecto es más acentuado en las grandes ciudades de Madrid y Barcelona

Petrol consumption and redistributive effects of its taxation in Spain

The objective of this paper is to estimate a petrol consumption function for Spain and to evaluate the redistributive effects of petrol taxation. We use micro data from the Spanish Household Budget Survey of 1990/91 and model petrol consumption taking into account the effect that income changes may have on car ownership levels, as well as the differences that exist between expenditure and consumption. Our results show the importance that household structure, place of residence and income have on petrol consumption. We are able to compute income elasticities of petrol expenditure, both conditional and unconditional on the level of car ownership. Non-conditional elasticities, while always very close to unit values, are lower for higher income households and for those living in rural areas or small cities. When car ownership levels are taken into account, conditional elasticities are obtained that are around one half the value of the non- conditional ones, being fairly stable across income categories and city sizes. As regards the redistributive effects of petrol taxation, we observe that for the lowest income deciles the share of petrol expenditure increases with income, and thus the tax can be regarded as progressive. However, after a certain income level the tax proves to be regressive

The price effects of reducing payment card interchange fees

In this paper we empirically address the issue of whether reductions in card payment interchange fees have a significant impact on prices paid by consumers. The answer to this question is at the core of most competition policy cases and regulations that have been applied to card payment markets. Relying on Rochet and Tirole's (RandJEcon 33:549-570, 2002) model of this sector as a two-sided market, we identify the two channels through which interchange fee reductions may influence retail prices: the impact on cards' demand and on the merchant service charge, which may be passed through to retail prices. We use Spanish sectoral data to estimate the resulting system of equations. Our results imply that a 1% reduction in the level of the interchange fee leads to a long run 0.17% reduction in the retail price index. Such outcome is almost exclusively the result of the interchange fees being passed through as lower prices by merchants, as we find that they have a negligible impact on payment cards' usage

Commuters' valuation of travel time variability

The value given by commuters to the variability of travel times is empirically analysed using stated preference data from Barcelona (Spain). Respondents are asked to choose between alternatives that differ in terms of cost, average travel time, variability of travel times and departure time. Different specifications of a scheduling choice model are used to measure the influence of various socioeconomic characteristics. Our results show that travel time variability is valued on average 2.4 times more than travel time savings. Heterogeneity among commuters in terms of restrictions about the starting work time is shown to have significant effects on the value of travel time variability