Verhoef, E.T. [Promotor]Rietveld, P. [Promotor

Berg, V.A.C. van den

DSpace at VU

  
 
 
 
Congestion Pricing With Heterogeneous Travellers  
 
Vincent A.C. van den Berg 
  
 
 
 
 
 
 
Heterogeneity in preferences of users affects both the aggregate efficiency effects 
as the distributional effects of congestion pricing. This thesis considers two 
dimensions of heterogeneity. Proportional heterogeneity scales the values of time 
and schedule delay proportionally. More proportional heterogeneity raises the 
welfare gain of road pricing, because the efficiency gain from the reordering of the 
arrival times increases. More heterogeneity in the ratio between the value of time 
and value of schedule delay lowers the gain from tolling, because congestion 
externalities decrease.     
 
This thesis finds that, in the bottleneck model of congestion, the distributional 
effects of congestion pricing are non-monotonic in the value of time and value of 
schedule delay. It is not users with the lowest values who lose most—or gain the 
least—from tolling, but an intermediate type of user. This differs from the 
traditional view that is based on the static flow model of congestion, and states that 
the higher the value of time is, the less harmful tolling is. 
 
Preference heterogeneity also affects empirical estimates. If two heterogeneous 
marginal utilities are correlated, it can even bias the willingness-to-pay estimates 
obtained by logit estimation. The empirical chapters find that travel-cost 
compensation lowers price elasticities and increases the value of time and the 
values of restricting the timings of the travel moments.  
 
 
 
Vincent van den Berg (1983) obtained his MSc in economic from the Utrecht 
University with the qualification cum laude in 2006. He wrote his PhD thesis at 
the department of spatial economics of the VU University, where he started as a 
post-doc researcher in January 2011. 
 


Congestion Pricing With Heterogeneous Travellers

van den Berg, V.A.C.

VU Research Portal

VU Research PortalCongestion Pricing With Heterogeneous Travellersvan den Berg, V.A.C.2011document versionPublisher's PDF, also known as Version of recordLink to publication in VU Research Portalcitation for published version (APA)van den Berg, V. A. C. (2011). Congestion Pricing With Heterogeneous Travellers. Thela Thesis/TinbergenInstitute.General rightsCopyright and moral rights for the publications made accessible in the public portal are retained by the authors and/or other copyright ownersand it is a condition of accessing publications that users recognise and abide by the legal requirements associated with these rights.            • Users may download and print one copy of any publication from the public portal for the purpose of private study or research.            • You may not further distribute the material or use it for any profit-making activity or commercial gain            • You may freely distribute the URL identifying the publication in the public portal ?Take down policyIf you believe that this document breaches copyright please contact us providing details, and we will remove access to the work immediatelyand investigate your claim.E-mail address:vuresearchportal.ub@vu.nlDownload date: 27. May. 2021     Congestion Pricing With Heterogeneous Travellers   Vincent A.C. van den Berg         Heterogeneity in preferences of users affects both the aggregate efficiency effects as the distributional effects of congestion pricing. This thesis considers two dimensions of heterogeneity. Proportional heterogeneity scales the values of time and schedule delay proportionally. More proportional heterogeneity raises the welfare gain of road pricing, because the efficiency gain from the reordering of the arrival times increases. More heterogeneity in the ratio between the value of time and value of schedule delay lowers the gain from tolling, because congestion externalities decrease.      This thesis finds that, in the bottleneck model of congestion, the distributional effects of congestion pricing are non-monotonic in the value of time and value of schedule delay. It is not users with the lowest values who lose most—or gain the least—from tolling, but an intermediate type of user. This differs from the traditional view that is based on the static flow model of congestion, and states that the higher the value of time is, the less harmful tolling is.  Preference heterogeneity also affects empirical estimates. If two heterogeneous marginal utilities are correlated, it can even bias the willingness-to-pay estimates obtained by logit estimation. The empirical chapters find that travel-cost compensation lowers price elasticities and increases the value of time and the values of restricting the timings of the travel moments.     Vincent van den Berg (1983) obtained his MSc in economic from the Utrecht University with the qualification cum laude in 2006. He wrote his PhD thesis at the department of spatial economics of the VU University, where he started as a post-doc researcher in January 2011.  

English

https://research.vu.nl/ws/files/42172685/title%20page.pdf

Congestion Pricing With Heterogeneous Travellers

Abstract

Similar works

Full text

Available Versions

DSpace at VU

VU Research Portal