Advanced Search
MyIDEAS: Login

Too Expensive to Meter: The influence of transaction costs in transportation and communication

Contents:

Author Info

  • David Levinson

    () (Nexus (Networks, Economics, and Urban Systems) Research Group, Department of Civil Engineering, University of Minnesota)

  • Andrew Odlyzko

    (Digital Technology Center, University of Minnesota)

Abstract

Technology appears to be making fine-scale charging (as in tolls on roads that depend on time of day or even on current and anticipated levels of congestion) increasingly feasible. And such charging appears to be increasingly desirable, as traffic on roads continues to grow, and costs and public opposition limit new construction. Similar incentives towards fine-scale charging also appear to be operating in communications and other areas, such as electricity usage. Standard economic theory supports such measures, and technology is being developed and deployed to implement them. But their spread is not very rapid, and prospects for the future are uncertain. This paper presents a collection of sketches, some from ancient history, some from current developments, that illustrate the costs that charging imposes. Some of those costs are explicit (in terms of the monetary costs to users, and the costs of implementing the charging mechanisms). Others are implicit, such as the time or the mental processing costs of users. These argue that the case for fine-scale charging is not unambiguous, and that in many cases may be inappropriate.

Download Info

If you experience problems downloading a file, check if you have the proper application to view it first. In case of further problems read the IDEAS help page. Note that these files are not on the IDEAS site. Please be patient as the files may be large.
File URL: http://nexus.umn.edu/Papers/TooExpensiveToMeter.pdf
File Function: First version, 2007
Download Restriction: no

Bibliographic Info

Paper provided by University of Minnesota: Nexus Research Group in its series Working Papers with number 200802.

as in new window
Length: 24 pages
Date of creation: Feb 2007
Date of revision: Feb 2007
Publication status: Published in Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society A: Mathematical Physical and Engineering Sciences 366(1872) pp 2033Ð2046, doi:10.1098/rsta.2008.0022
Handle: RePEc:nex:wpaper:tooexpensivetometer

Contact details of provider:
Postal: Dept. of Civil Engineering, 500 Pillsbury Drive SE, Minneapolis, MN 55455
Phone: +01 (612) 625-6354
Fax: +01 (612) 626-7750
Web page: http://nexus.umn.edu
More information through EDIRC

Related research

Keywords: transportation; communication; transaction costs; collection costs;

Find related papers by JEL classification:

This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

References

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.:
as in new window
  1. Bogart, Dan, 2005. "Turnpike Trusts, Infrastructure Investment, and the Road Transportation Revolution in Eighteenth-Century England," The Journal of Economic History, Cambridge University Press, vol. 65(02), pages 540-543, June.
  2. Felix R FitzRoy & Ian Smith, 1998. "Season Tickets and the Demand for Public Transport," CRIEFF Discussion Papers 9802, Centre for Research into Industry, Enterprise, Finance and the Firm.
  3. Anna Matas, 2003. "Demand and revenue implications of an integrated public transport policy. The case of," Working Papers wpdea0304, Department of Applied Economics at Universitat Autonoma of Barcelona.
  4. David Levinson, 2001. "Why States Toll: An Empirical Model of Finance Choice," Journal of Transport Economics and Policy, London School of Economics and University of Bath, vol. 35(2), pages 223-237, May.
  5. Coase, R H, 1974. "The Lighthouse in Economics," Journal of Law and Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 17(2), pages 357-76, October.
  6. Hutlkrantz, Lars & Armelius, Hanna, 2005. "The Politico-Economic Link Between Public Transport And Road Pricing: An Ex-Ante Study Of The Stockholm Road-Pricing Trial," Working Papers 2005:8, Örebro University, School of Business.
  7. McCarthy Patrick & Tay Richard, 1993. "Economic Efficiency vs Traffic Restraint: A Note on Singapore's Area License Scheme," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 34(1), pages 96-100, July.
  8. Prud'homme, Rémy & Bocarejo, Juan Pablo, 2005. "The London congestion charge: a tentative economic appraisal," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 12(3), pages 279-287, May.
  9. Mackie, Peter, 2005. "The London congestion charge: A tentative economic appraisal. A comment on the paper by Prud'homme and Bocajero," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 12(3), pages 288-290, May.
  10. Odlyzko, Andrew, 2000. "The Internet and other networks: utilization rates and their implications," Information Economics and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 12(4), pages 341-365, December.
  11. Andrew Odlyzko, 2004. "The Evolution of Price Discrimination in Transportation and its Implications for the Internet," Review of Network Economics, De Gruyter, vol. 3(3), pages 4.
  12. Amy Finkelstein, 2007. "E-ZTax: Tax Salience and Tax Rates," NBER Working Papers 12924, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
  13. Bogart, Dan, 2005. "Turnpike trusts and the transportation revolution in 18th century England," Explorations in Economic History, Elsevier, vol. 42(4), pages 479-508, October.
Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

Citations

Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
as in new window

Cited by:
  1. Benjamin Edelman, 2009. "Priced and Unpriced Online Markets," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 23(3), pages 21-36, Summer.
  2. Nikolas Geroliminis & David Levinson, 2008. "Cordon pricing consistent with the physics of overcrowding," Working Papers 000038, University of Minnesota: Nexus Research Group.

Lists

This item is not listed on Wikipedia, on a reading list or among the top items on IDEAS.

Statistics

Access and download statistics

Corrections

When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:nex:wpaper:tooexpensivetometer

For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: (David Levinson).

If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

If references are entirely missing, you can add them using this form.

If the full references list an item that is present in RePEc, but the system did not link to it, you can help with this form.

If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.