An empirical assessment of the merger between Iberia, Clickair and Vueling

In this paper, I apply a difference-in-difference estimator to examine the impact of the merger between Iberia, Clickair and Vueling on route flight frequency, which is considered to be the main attribute of quality in the sector. Controlling for different indicators of competition and several route attributes, I show that the merger has implied a decrease in route flight frequency but the magnitude of this effect is modest. A plausible explanation of my result is a more collusive behavior of airlines offering flights in the routes affected by the merger

Do light rail systems reduce traffic externalities? Empirical evidence from mid-size European cities

This paper examines the impact of urban light rail systems on congestion, travel time and pollution. Drawing on data from mid-size European cities, I estimate the impact of supply changes for the entire sample and applied a differences-in-differences analysis to a sample of cities that did not have rail systems in the initial year of the considered period. I find evidence that an increase in the supply of rail transport leads to less congestion, less travel time and less pollution. Furthermore, cities with a new rail system have on average 7% less congestion, 1% less travel time and 3% less pollution than cities with no rail systems. The results suggest that light rail systems have been successful in containing the negative externalities associated with car traffic in mid-size European cities

International Air Travel and FDI Flows: Evidence from Barcelona

This paper provides a bridge between the literature examining the economic impact of air services and the literature analyzing the determinants of bilateral FDI flows. I estimate a gravity equation for the determinants of bilateral FDI flows between the Spanish region of Catalonia, home to the airport of Barcelona, and countries of all over the world for the period 2002 through to 2015. I find evidence that the reduction in travel time due to the availability of non-stop flights scheduled with sufficient frequency increases the amount of FDI due to the enhanced transmission of informatio

Factors influencing prices and frequencies in the interurban bus market: Evidence from Europe

We analyze the determinants of prices and frequencies in the interurban bus services (IBS) market. Drawing on data collected from a sample of routes in six large European countries, we find that intramodal competition is based on frequencies while intermodal competition is based on prices. Furthermore, we provide evidence of the regressive nature of the IBS in Europe by showing that routes with low-income endpoints face higher prices. We also find significant price differences between countries, which can be attributed to differences in their respective regulatory systems

Route expansion in the European air transport market

The factors accounting for the significant increase in new routes in the European air transport market in the period 2002- 13 are examined. Data for 259 airports with more 250,000 annual passengers are used. The analysis reveals that low-cost airlines extended the benefits of air connectivity to regions with relatively low rates of gross domestic product per capita, increasing the geographical coverage of small or medium-sized airports. New routes are more likely when a tourist destination is an endpoint and are less likely in competitive environments. Finally, different opening patterns by low cost and network airlines are found

Ownership, Incentives and Hospitals

This article analyzes hospital privatization by comparing costs and quality between different ownership forms. We put the attention on the distinction between public hospitals and private hospitals with public funding. Using information about Spanish hospitals, we have found that private hospitals provide services at a lower cost at expenses of lower quality. We observe that property rights theory is fulfilled at least for the Spanish hospital market. The way that Heath Authorities finance publicly funded hospitals may be responsible for the differences in incentives between public and private centers. We argue that the trade-off between costs and quality could be minimized by designing financing contracts with fixed and variable components

The effects of the Morocco-European Union open skies agreement: A difference-in-differences analysis

In this paper, we examine the effects of the open skies agreement signed between the EU and Morocco in December 2006. Specifically, we exploit the fact that Morocco was the only country in North Africa to sign such an agreement and that the pre-liberalization traffic in all North African countries presented a common trend. We use data at the route level for the period 2003-2010 to run difference-in-differences regressions and to test for heterogeneous responses. We find a 20-40% increase in the number of seats offered on pre-existing routes and a notable increase in the number of new routes offered

Globalization, long-haul flights and inter-city connections

We estimate a model that identifies the impact of long-haul non-stop flights on traffic flows in inter-city markets, using data that account for the true origin and destination of passengers. In particular, we analyze whether long-haul non-stop flights mayhave a positive and significant effect on traffic flows in a context where indirect connectivity is high. Furthermore, we examine whether the impact of non-stop flights on traffic is associated to the income levels of the destination. We find that even modest increases of non-stop flights lead to significant traffic gainsbut such traffic gains areonly clearly relevant when the destination city is located in a high-income country

Airport dominance, route network design and flight delays

Airlines with a dominant position at the destination airports have little competitive pressure to reduce delays, but they might care about the negative effects that delays generate on their own flights. Using detailed daily flight data for six Spanish airports in 2017-2018 including very precise information on the external factors that generate flight delays, we find that flights operated by network airlines (i.e., airlines that operate a hub-and-spoke network) with a large presence at the destination airports have less delays than flights operated by other airlines. This finding is in line with the literature on congestion internalization, which predicts a negative relationship between airlines' dominance at the destination airports and delays. We also show that flights operated by low-cost airlines (i.e. airlines that operate a point-to-point network) with a dominant presence at destination airports are more likely to exhibit delays. This result could be explained by the route configuration of low-cost airlines and by their relative low number of connecting passengers

What hurts the dominant airlines at hub airports?

This paper estimates a frequency equation to explain the determinants of network airline service levels at their hub airports. Drawing on European data for 2002 - 2013, we find that network airlines reduce frequencies when the share of low - cost airlines increases both on the route and at the hub airport. On the contrary, frequency choices of network airlines are not affected by competition from low - cost airlines operating in nearby secondary airports. We also find some evidence that mergers in Europe may result in a re - organization of the route structure in favor of the hubs of the larger airline