Where did the ?new urban economics? go?

The notion of the ?New Urban Economics? emerged in the late 1960s as more rigorous approaches were applied to what had largely hitherto been an essentially descriptive approach to analyzing urban economies. The application of mathematical methods to urban problems offered the prospect of both a more thorough understanding of how urban economic systems function and a basis upon which frameworks could be developed for quantitative testing of alternative ideas. The aim of this paper is to examine the extent to which this new approach has lived up to initial expectations and degree to which modern urban economics has managed to circumvent some of the earlier criticisms raised against it. It also assesses the extent to which the new urban economics has fulfilled its promise of allowing greater quantification of urban parameters as aids to policy making

Book Review

Academic interest in transport economics waxes and wanes. It was initiated (at least in its modern form) in France in the 1840s and 1850s to handle issues of investment and pricing of transport infrastructure. The advent of the railways raised challenges of monopoly power, regulation and, in some countries, appropriate ownership. The internal combustion engine brought with it initially economic questions associated with traffic congestion and more recently concerns with environmental degradation. Regulation issues returned to the forefront from the 1980s as new approaches to economic regulation emerged and as there was increased interest in making fuller use of market instruments. Overlapping this, the globalization of trade and the formation of trade blocks such as the European Union has led to a more detailed look at the role transportation plays in the economic development process

Transportation Economics: Some Developments Over the Past 30 Years

This paper looks at the changes that have occurred since the 1970s in the types of economic tools used, the ways they have been used, and the impacts they have had in shaping the way we now understand transportation. Over the past 30 years, society's views on transport have changed and, with this, the issues to which we attach priority have altered. Additionally, there have been important changes in our more generic understanding of economics and this has added to the toolkit of concepts that can be applied to transport matters. The tradition of transportation economics up until the late 1960s was largely one of defining 'optimal' pricing principles in regulated markets, in understanding market domination for mergers and similar policies, and in providing advice to engineers dealing with investment decisions. There is now, however, an appreciation that providing transport services is more complex than was once thought and, therefore, it is better to leave as much as possible to market forces; but this has also happened at a time when our understanding of markets has changed. There has additionally been the emergence of novel political and governance structures, such as the Single European Market, that have resurrected older interests in such things as links between economic development and transport quality. Despite this shift to the market as a primary means of resource allocation, parallel moves have taken place to embrace more fully the external costs of environmental damage. The advent of computers, more sophisticated econometric and programming techniques, and the availability of new data sources, such as GIS, have facilitated more efficient estimation of parameters and added to the quantitative contribution of economics

The other side of an airport’s two-sided market: issues in planning and pricing airport surface access

The first part of the paper considers the two-sided nature of airport platforms, and argues that on the land-side, analysis and policy has generally over-stated the items that should be included. In this context, the paper’s focus is on airport access and how it should be embraced, along with airside considerations, in a two-sided framework when establishing prices and investment. In the second part, the more theoretical argument is juxta positioned with prior empirical analysis of landside access which has largely been treated in a rather ad hoc way, usually implicitly assuming it involves a one-sided market. The subsequent arguments of what needs to be done, are suggestive rather than specific given the diverse institutional and physical nature of airports and their surroundings

Modelling Urban Freight: What Works, What Doesn't Work?

There are now numerous models that seek to explain urban freight patterns. Many of these models are for short-term policy but others are used for long-term planning. This paper looks at the alternative approaches that are being used for planning based modelling. Some places, such as Portland Oregon, use a relatively pragmatic approach, other cities have adopted more academic approaches. The former have particular advantages in terms of data requirements. Much depends upon the nature of the overall policies being reviewed and these differ considerably between cities. In Europe for example, there is a tendency to focus on 'public' distribution centres at the outskirts of cities