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Auctioning Concessions for Private Roads

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Author Info
Barry Ubbels () (Faculty of Economics and Business Administration, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam)
Erik Verhoef () (Faculty of Economics and Business Administration, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam)

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Abstract

Private toll roads are now seriously considered as an alternative to public (free-access) road infrastructure. Nevertheless, complete private provision without governmental control is only rarely considered. A main consideration against private roads would be that operators would be primarily interested in maximizing profits, which – given the market power they will have – will typically not lead to welfare maximizing tolls and capacities. An important question is whether these discrepancies can be mitigated by a proper design of auctions for concessions of private roads. This paper therefore analyses capacity choice and toll setting by private investors in a competitive bidding framework organised by the government. We develop a two-link network simulation model with an untolled alternative to determine relative efficiency effects, and analyse rules for the government to organise the bidding process such that a more desired (welfare optimal) outcome is a! chieved. Our results show that, depending on the design of the auction, its outcomes may vary strongly, and may approach the maximum possible (second-best) welfare gains.

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Paper provided by Tinbergen Institute in its series Tinbergen Institute Discussion Papers with number 04-008/3.

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Date of creation: 22 Jan 2004
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Handle: RePEc:dgr:uvatin:20040008

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Web page: http://www.tinbergen.nl/

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Related research
Keywords: Traffic congestion; road pricing; private roads; second-best regulation;

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This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports: 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. Mills, David E, 1981. "Ownership Arrangements and Congestion-Prone Facilities," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 71(3), pages 493-502, June. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  2. Edelson, Noel M, 1971. "Congestion Tolls Under Monopoly," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 61(5), pages 873-82, December. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  3. Small, Kenneth A., 1999. "Economies of scale and self-financing rules with non-competitive factor markets," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 74(3), pages 431-450, December. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  4. AndrÊ de Palma & Robin Lindsey, 2000. "Private toll roads: Competition under various ownership regimes," The Annals of Regional Science, Springer, vol. 34(1), pages 13-35. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  5. Liu, Louie Nan & McDonald, John F., 1998. "Efficient Congestion Tolls in the Presence of Unpriced Congestion: A Peak and Off-Peak Simulation Model," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 44(3), pages 352-366, November. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  6. Erik T. Verhoef & Kenneth A. Small, 2004. "Product Differentiation on Roads," Journal of Transport Economics and Policy, London School of Economics and University of Bath, vol. 38(1), pages 127-156, January. [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. Barry Ubbels & Erik Verhoef, 2006. "Governmental Competition in Road Charging and Capacity Choice," Tinbergen Institute Discussion Papers 06-036/3, Tinbergen Institute, revised 10 Sep 2007. [Downloadable!]
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  2. Erik T. Verhoef, 2005. "Second-best Road Pricing Through Highway Franchising," Tinbergen Institute Discussion Papers 05-082/3, Tinbergen Institute. [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
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