Direction dependent prices in public transport: A good idea? The back haul pricing problem for a monopolistic public transport firm

Markets for transport are often characterised by unequal demand in both directions: every morning during peak hours the trains are crowded while moving towards the direction of large cities, whereas they may be almost empty in the other direction. In this paper we discuss the implications of these imbalances for price setting of transport firms. From the viewpoint of economic theory, two regimes can be distinguished: one where - owing to price discrimination - the flows are equal, and one where unequal flows are the result. Special attention is paid to the case where the transport firm does not apply price discrimination, as is the case with most railway firms in Europe. We find that in the case of substantial joint costs, the introduction of price discrimination not only leads to an increase of profits, but also to positive effects on consumer surplus. This result differs from the standard result in the literature on industrial economics. The standard result purports that with linear demand functions price discrimination has a negative impact on the welfare of the average consumer and that this negative impact dominates the positive effect on profits of the producer. © 2002 Kluwer Academic Publishers

Systemic Input-Output Computation of Green and Blue Virtual Water 'Flows' with an Illustration for the Mediterranean Region

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A Modeling Framework to Assess the Economic Impact of Climate Change in the Caribbean

ECLAC-CIAM (Climate Impact Assessment Model) is a modeling platform, which has been realized to assess the economic consequences of climate change in the Caribbean. The model can be freely accessed, downloaded and possibly modified. The available version is a full-fledged model, which can be readily used to conduct simulation exercises. This paper provides a general description of the model as well as an illustrative simulation exercise. Our results from this exercise highlight that the Caribbean is a highly vulnerable region, in which climate change is expected to generate sizable and negative economic consequences

PAMS.py: A GAMS-Like Modeling System Based on Python and SAGE

This paper presents an external module for the Python programming language and for the SAGE open source mathematical software, which allows the realization of models based on constrained optimization or non-linear systems. The module, which is freely available for download, allows describing the structure of a model using a syntax similar to that of popular modeling systems like GAMS, AIMMS or GEMPACK; in particular by allowing the automatic replication of equations, variable and parameter definitions on the basis of some specified sets

Two Papers on Internet Connectivity and Quality

I review two papers, addressing the issue of competition and quality determination in the market for Internet access services (Crémer, Rey, and Tirole (2000), Foros and Hansen (2001)). These two works come to seemingly opposite conclusions. After having summarized the two papers, I try to highlight what lies behind the differences in the results

Competition between Multiproduct Firms with Heterogeneous Costs

This paper draws upon Feenstra and Ma (2007, 2008), to develop a model of asymmetric competition between multiproduct firms. The model is used to analyze how cost asymmetry affects the equilibrium, with determination of quantity/price as well as product scope per firm. By treating the number of firms as a continuous variable, the model is extended to account for the endogenous determination of the number of firms in a long-run, monopolistically competitive equilibrium, with free entry by heterogeneous firms

Simulating the Macroeconomic Impact of Future Water Scarcity

In this chapter, the macroeconomic implications of possible future water scarcity are assessed. In order to do so, the sustainability of a number of economic growth scenarios in terms of water resources are considered. The analysis is based on a comparison between potential demand for water and estimated water availability