Criteria for assessment of welfare impacts within regional planning of transport

Regional transport system plans present the wide framework for local transport planning, and are the means of applying the national high-level objectives regionally. Transport system plans are usually created interactively with the regional land use planning. Prediction and appraisal of the potential impacts of the alternatives under discussion form an important part of the planning process. This paper presents Finnish experience in defining criteria for assessing the potential welfare impacts of a transport plan or policy. These criteria are to be used co-operatively by the planners and decision-makers. An important issue is the link between the formation of the objectives and the actual evaluation of impacts, as well as the underlying values and views that influence the selection of planning methods and practises. The criteria were drafted based on a literature review and preliminary discussions with national transport authorities. The preliminary criteria were selected and put into order by using the multi-criteria method MACBETH. The process involved active co-operation with the national transport authorities, as well as with other interest groups. The draft criteria were prioritised based on the opinions of selected representatives of national and regional authorities and transport planners. In this paper we focus on the priorisation process of the criteria, as well as discuss the validity and usability of the criteria created. Furthermore, the suitability of multi-criteria analysis in the context of regional transport planning is discussed, in addition to the consistency requirements between the criteria and the multi-criteria model. The criteria have been created in an ongoing Finnish study that aims at supporting regional transport planning, concerning the impacts that changes in the transport system may have on the welfare of the communities and individuals. Furthermore, the suitability of certain Multi-Criteria Decision Aid (MCDA) methods in creating consensus in the planning process is tested.

Criteria for assessment of welfare impacts within regional planning of transport

Regional transport system plans present the wide framework for local transport planning, and are the means of applying the national high-level objectives regionally. Transport system plans are usually created interactively with the regional land use planning. Prediction and appraisal of the potential impacts of the alternatives under discussion form an important part of the planning process. This paper presents Finnish experience in defining criteria for assessing the potential welfare impacts of a transport plan or policy. These criteria are to be used co-operatively by the planners and decision-makers. An important issue is the link between the formation of the objectives and the actual evaluation of impacts, as well as the underlying values and views that influence the selection of planning methods and practises. The criteria were drafted based on a literature review and preliminary discussions with national transport authorities. The preliminary criteria were selected and put into order by using the multi-criteria method MACBETH. The process involved active co-operation with the national transport authorities, as well as with other interest groups. The draft criteria were prioritised based on the opinions of selected representatives of national and regional authorities and transport planners. In this paper we focus on the priorisation process of the criteria, as well as discuss the validity and usability of the criteria created. Furthermore, the suitability of multi-criteria analysis in the context of regional transport planning is discussed, in addition to the consistency requirements between the criteria and the multi-criteria model. The criteria have been created in an ongoing Finnish study that aims at supporting regional transport planning, concerning the impacts that changes in the transport system may have on the welfare of the communities and individuals. Furthermore, the suitability of certain Multi-Criteria Decision Aid (MCDA) methods in creating consensus in the planning process is tested

Menokartoitus - periaatteet ja käytännön toteutus

Muistiossa käydään läpi julkisen talouden menokartoitusten periaatteellista taustaa sekä Suomessa keväällä 2011 toteutetun hallinnonalakohtaisen kartoituksen laatimismenettelyä ja tulosten pääpiirteitä. Lisäksi esitellään muissa maissa tehtyjä menokartoituksia sekä eräitä julkisten menojen mitoittamiseen ja kohdentamiseen liittyviä taloustieteellisiä näkökulmia. Muistioon sisältyy myös kuvaus julkisten menojen tasosta ja kohdentumisesta Suomessa ja muissa OECD-maissa

Service-dominant logic for managing the logistics-manufacturing interface: A case study

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to investigate the management of the logistics-manufacturing interface between the manufacturer and its logistics service provider from the perspective of the service-dominant (S-D) logic. Design/methodology/approach: The approach adopted is that of abductive reasoning through case study: data is primarily gleaned from semi-structured in-depth interviews. Field visits and secondary documentation are used to ensure data validity. Findings: The results show that the interface can be categorized into three levels: design interface between products and logistic services, process interface between manufacturing processes and service-offering processes, and information interface between manufacturing information systems and logistics information systems. The results also indicate that ten foundational premises of S-D logic, especially service-focused, customer-oriented, and rational views can be applied in defining and managing these interfaces. Research limitations/implications: This research contributes not only to the theory of S-D logic and managing interface, but also provides managers with guidelines of applying S-D logic to build a service-focused, customer-oriented and relational logic to effectively manage the logistics-manufacturing interface. However, the research is limited to the context of automotive and logistics industries. Originality/value: Three levels of logistics-manufacturing interface, including design, process and information are identified, and S-D logic is applied to identify and manage the interface

Economic analysis of travelling:studies on travel behaviour in Finland

Abstract A great deal of research in transportation economics has been motivated by the need to solve traffic congestion problems and to diminish negative environmental effects of road transport. The question, whether the economic measures are efficient, motivates this dissertation on the value of travel time, the rules of optimal pricing and the demands for public transportation and private car use. Three concepts of the marginal value of travel time (MVT) are specified in this thesis. The first concept involves only the direct disutility of the travel time to work in addition to the utility of market goods and leisure. The second concept also includes the disutility from the time spent at work. The third concept furthermore takes into account the effect of the length of working hours, travel time, cost and income. The length of travel time, gender, family structure and flexibility of working hours have different effects on empirical MVTs, but travel costs and income affect them in a similar fashion. The pricing decisions of the firms providing bus services are analysed with and without public subsidies. The consumption externality, i.e. the quantity demanded by other users, affects the individual bus demand. The results indicate that under uniform pricing, a socially optimal subsidy equals the increase in consumer's surplus minus the fare revenue lost from current users due to lower fare. Under nonlinear pricing, the optimal pricing can be achieved when the regulator sets the subsidy so that it is inversely proportional to the network elasticity. The welfare loss due to increasing tax burden and the opportunity cost of providing cash fare service is also taken into account in the optimal pricing rule. A model of bus demand with asymmetric information on the characteristics of bus users is developed. The model allows for habit formation and network effects. The latter effect is due to the positive influence of the aggregate demand for Regional Bus Cards (RBC) on an individual's own demand. The empirical results indicate that in RBC services positive network effects are present and the elasticity of network size is less than one, which implies that the regional bus card is an impure public good. The own price elasticity of RBC in the short run is within the range of -0.3 and -1.1. The demand for RBC cards is more elastic than demand for RBC trips or passenger kilometres. The estimated price elasticity of urban bus demand is in line with that of RBC. A reasonably high cross-price elasticity of RBC trips and the ticket of 40 trips but a lower reverse elasticity were found. A weakly separable demand for car mileage from car ownership and labour supply was rejected as was the exogeneity of car ownership in the mileage model. Therefore, the price elasticity of car mileage with respect to fuel price was estimated from the two equation model of car mileage with endogenous car ownership. The estimated parameters of the Tobit model are consistent but slightly higher than those estimated from the least squares. The fuel price elasticity varies from -0.2 to -0.9 with exogenous and endogenous car ownership, respectively. The findings of this study can be applied in the analysis and implementation of different pricing and subsidy schemes for public transportation, as well as in the evaluation of the effectiveness of economic instruments for managing the growth of private car use