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Government Failure in Urban Transportation

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Author Info
Clifford Winston

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Abstract

This paper assesses governmental performance in its investment, provision and regulation of urban transportation. Attention is given to public bus and rail transit and road transportation. Evidence based on urban transport in US cities reveals substantial allocative and technical inefficiencies that have led to large public transit deficits and severe highway congestion. I argue that it is futile to expect public officials to remedy the situation by pursuing more efficient policies such as congestion pricing and weighing costs and benefits when deciding transit service. The problem is that urban transportation policy is largely shaped by entrenched political forces that inhibit constructive change. The only realistic way to improve the system is to shield it from those influences and expose it to market forces by privatising it. This position is supported by empirical evidence based on simulations for the US and the UK’s early experience with privatisation.

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Publisher Info
Article provided by Institute for Fiscal Studies in its journal Fiscal Studies.

Volume (Year): 21 (2000)
Issue (Month): 4 (December)
Pages: 403-425
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Handle: RePEc:ifs:fistud:v:21:y:2000:i:4:p:403-425

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Find related papers by JEL classification:
R4 - Urban, Rural, and Regional Economics - - Transportation Systems

References listed on IDEAS
Please report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile, click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.:

  1. Walters, A. A., 1982. "Externalities in urban buses," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 11(1), pages 60-72, January. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  2. David M. Newbery & Georgina Santos, 1999. "Road taxes, road user charges and earmarking," Fiscal Studies, Institute for Fiscal Studies, vol. 20(2), pages 103-132, June. [Downloadable!]
  3. Karlaftis, Matthew & McCarthy, Patrick, 1999. "The Effect of Privatization on Public Transit Costs," Journal of Regulatory Economics, Springer, vol. 16(1), pages 27-43, July. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  4. Kennedy, David, 1995. "London Bus Tendering: The Impact on Costs," International Review of Applied Economics, Taylor and Francis Journals, vol. 9(3), pages 305-17.
  5. Winston, Clifford, 1998. "U.S. Industry Adjustment to Economic Deregulation," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 12(3), pages 89-110, Summer. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  6. Calfee, John & Winston, Clifford, 1998. "The value of automobile travel time: implications for congestion policy," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 69(1), pages 83-102, July. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  7. Peltzman, Sam, 1992. "Voters as Fiscal Conservatives," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, MIT Press, vol. 107(2), pages 327-61, May. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  8. Pashigian, B Peter, 1976. "Consequences and Causes of Public Ownership of Urban Transit Facilities," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 84(6), pages 1239-59, December. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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Cited by:
(explanations, Please report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile, click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.)

  1. Clifford Winston & Jia Yan, 2008. "US Highway Privatization and Heterogeneous Preferences," Working Papers 2008-20, School of Economic Sciences, Washington State University. [Downloadable!]
  2. Eduardo Engel & Ronald Fischer & Alexander Galetovic, 2006. "Privatizing Highways in the United States," Review of Industrial Organization, Springer, vol. 29(1), pages 27-53, September. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
    Other versions:
  3. Feng Xie & David Levinson, 2009. "Governance choice on a serial network," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 141(1), pages 189-212, October. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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This page was last updated on 2009-11-22.

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