Behaviors and housing inertia are key factors in determining the consequences of a shock in transportation costs

This paper investigates the consequences of a sudden increase in transportation costs when households behaviors and buildings inertia are accounted for. A theoretical framework is proposed, capturing the interactions between behaviors, transportation costs and urban structure. It is found that changes in households consumption and housing choices reduce significantly the long-term adverse effects of a shock in transportation costs. Indeed, the shock translates, over the long-run, into a more concentrated housing that limits households utility losses and maintains landowners' income. But, because of buildings inertia, the shock leads first to a long transition, during which the adjustment is constrained by a suboptimal housing-supply structure. Then, households support larger losses than in the final stage, though lower than with no adjustment at all, and landowners experience a large decrease in their aggregate income and an important redistribution of wealth. Negative transitional effects grow as the shock becomes larger. Thus, behaviors and buildings inertia are key factors in determining the vulnerability to transportation price variability and to the introduction of climate policies. Our policy conclusions are that: (i) if a long-term increase in transportation costs is unavoidable because of climate change or resource scarcity, a smooth change, starting as early as possible, must be favored; and (ii) fast-growing cities of the developing world can reduce their future vulnerability to shocks in transportation costs through the implementation of policies that limit urban sprawl.City, Housing, Transportation

Compact or Spread-Out Cities: Urban Planning, Taxation, and the Vulnerability to Transportation Shocks

This paper shows that cities made more compact by transportation taxation are more robust than spread-out cities to shocks in transportation costs. Such a shock, indeed, entails negative transition effects that are caused by housing infrastructure inertia and are magnified in low-density cities. Distortions due to a transportation tax, however, have in absence of shock detrimental consequences that need to be accounted for. The range of beneficial tax levels can, therefore, be identified as a function of the possible magnitude of future shocks in transportation costs. These taxation levels, which can reach significant values, reduce city vulnerability and prevent lock-ins in under-optimal situations.Urban transportation, Housing, Inertia, Vulnerability, Transportation Taxation

Heterogeneity, climate change and stability of international fiscal harmonization

This paper analyses harmonization on fuel taxes between two coalitions. Harmonization is considered as a tool to mitigate greenhouse gas emissions, and reduce environmental costs. Domestic fuel producers can sell abroad, and their profits influence national governments in the negotiations. If all countries are identical, harmonization is environmental friendly provided environmental marginal damages are high. It is also economically profitable, but may be unstable if one of the coalitions is small enough. In this case, however, financial transfers between coalitions can stabilize harmonization. Nevertheless, countries can be heterogeneous with respect to the existence of a domestic producer. Heterogeneity introduces a new instability: not only the size, but also the composition of coalitions matters. Furthermore, the level of environmental damages also influences the stability of harmonization. In this case, intra- and inter-coalition financial transfers are necessary but not sufficient to stabilize harmonization

Quelques leçons à tirer de la vie et de la mort d'un bel impôt : la vignette

economists often think that environmental taxes are the best available tools to cope with environmental damages. In addition, they may allow policy-makers to raise what economists refer to as a "double-dividende". However, they appear not to be used for efficacity as well as equity and acceptability reasons. This is especially so concerning oil taxation. Still, environmental taxationadvantages can be shown by analysing a recently disappeared French tax: the so-called "vignette automobile". Though very small in magnitude, this tax ma y have been one of the factors explaining thestructure of the French automobile equipments, driving consumer's choices as well as automobile constructors' anticipations in an environment- friendly direction. The way the "vignette" was implemented is a key factor in explaining its efficacity.les économistes recommandent l'utilisation d'écotaxes destinées à internaliser les dommages environnementaux dus à la consommation, la production de certains biens ; ces écotaxes permettraient de récolter un double-dividende. Leurs recommandations sont peu suivies pour des raisons d'efficacité, de redistributivité et d'acceptabilité. Les taxes sur le carburant constituent un excellent exemple de la façon dont ces débats se cristallisent. Certains avantages de la fiscalité environnementale peuvent pourtant être mis en avant par l'analyse de la vignette automobile, récemment supprimée, qui a sans doute contribué à installer un cercle vertueux entre les choix des consommateurs et les anticipations de ceux-ci par les constructeurs automobile. L'aspect symbolique de cet impôt explique son efficacité, sans proportion avec son montant

Introduction: Debates on Experience and Empiricism in Nineteenth Century France

The lasting effects of the debate over canon-formation during the 1980s affected the whole field of Humanities, which became increasingly engaged in interrogating the origin and function of the Western canon (Gorak 1991; Searle 1990). In philosophy, a great deal of criticism was, as a result, directed at the traditional narrative of seventeenth-and eighteenth-century philosophies—a critique informed by postcolonialism (Park 2013) as well as feminist historiography (Shapiro 2016). D. F. Norton (1981), L. Loeb (1981) and many others1 attempted to demonstrate the weaknesses of the tripartite division between rationalism, empiricism and critical philosophy.2 As time went on, symptoms of dissatisfaction with what has been called the “standard narrative” ( Vanzo 2013) and the “epistemological par-adigm” (Haakonssen 2004, 2006) only increased. Indeed, at present, a consensus has been reached that the narrative of the antagonism between “Continental rationalism” and “British empiricism”, and the consequent Aufhebung provided by “German critical philosophy,” has been unable to make sense of the complexity, variety and dynamics of early modern.Fil: Antoine-Mahut, Delphine. Ecole Normale Supérieure; FranciaFil: Manzo, Silvia Alejandra. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - La Plata. Instituto de Investigaciones en Humanidades y Ciencias Sociales. Universidad Nacional de La Plata. Facultad de Humanidades y Ciencias de la Educación. Instituto de Investigaciones en Humanidades y Ciencias Sociales; Argentin

L'inertie des systèmes urbains et le tempo des politiques publiques face aux risques énergétiques et climatiques

The specificities of urban systems have not been taken into account by climate change cost estimates, or by energy outlooks. Cities, however, concentrate most of world population and of world GDP. They are responsible for a large share of greenhouse gas emissions, and will have to change deeply in the coming century. This thesis, based on a set of stylized models, analyses the importance of urban inertia for the design of urban policies. Those inertia are related to the characteristic times of urban infrastructures, the functioning of the housing markets, and the stickiness of agents' and activities' localisations. A change in a city implies a transition period during which the social welfare is significantly smaller than at equilibrium, and important redistributive phenomenons between urban agents. Thus, early action allowing for smooth implementation should start today, and prevent cities from getting locked in developement paths characterized by urban forms that imply great energy consumption, and are vulnerable to changes.Les estimations des coûts du changement climatique et les exercices de prospective énergétique, n'ont laissé que très peu de place aux spécificités des villes. Les systèmes urbains, concernant les richesses et les hommes, sont pourtant responsables d'une bonne part des émissions à gaz à effet de serre, et leur fonctionnement devra être profondément modifié dans le siècle à venir. Cette thèse, à l'aide d'une série de modèles stylisés, analyse l'importance des inerties urbaines pour la mise au point des politiques urbaines. Ces inerties sont liées aux durées de vie des infrastructures, au fonctionnement du marché foncier, et à la rigidité des localisations des activités et des hommes. Toute modification du système ville entraîne une période de transition durant laquelle la situation est significativement dégradée, ainsi que des phénomènes redistributifs forts entre les agents économiques. Dans ce contexte, une action précoce montant en puissance progressivement doit commencer dès aujourd'hui, dans le but d'éviter un enfermement dans des formes urbaines à la fois plus consommatrices d'énergie, et plus vulnérables face aux changements

Compact or Spread-Out Cities : Urban Planning, Taxation, and the Vulnerability to Transportation Shocks

International audienceThis paper shows that cities made more compact by transportation taxation are more robust than spread-out cities to shocks in transportation costs. Such a shock, indeed, entails negative transition effects that are caused by housing infrastructure inertia and are magnified in low-density cities. Distortions due to a transportation tax, however, have in absence of shock detrimental consequences that needs to be accounted for. The range of beneficial tax levels can, therefore, be identified as a function of the possible magnitude of future shocks in transportation costs. These taxation levels, which can reach significant values, reduce city vulnerability and prevent lock-ins in under-optimal situations

Behaviors and housing inertia are key factors in determining the consequences of a shock in transportation costs

International audienceThis paper investigates the consequences of a sudden increase in transportation costs when households behaviors and buildings inertia are accounted for. A theoretical framework is proposed, capturing the interactions between behaviors, transportation costs and urban structure. Numerical simulations show that changes in households and landowners' choices reduce significantly the long-term adverse effects of a shock in transportation costs. Indeed, the shock translates, over the long-run, into a more concentrated housing that limits households utility losses and maintains landowners' income. But, because of buildings inertia, the shock leads first to a long transition, during which the adjustment is constrained by a suboptimal housing-supply structure. Then, households support larger losses than in the final stage, though lower than with no behavior adjustment, and landowners experience a large decrease in their aggregate income and an important redistribution of wealth. Thus, behaviors and buildings inertia are key factors in determining the vulnerability to transportation price variability and to the introduction of climate policies. Our policy conclusions are that : (i) if a long-term increase in transportation costs is unavoidable because of climate change or resource scarcity, a smooth change prevents to some extent the negative transition effects ; and (ii) fast-growing cities of the developing world can reduce their future vulnerability to shocks in transportation costs through the implementation of policies that limit urban sprawl