IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/eneeco/v42y2014icp34-42.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

How effective are policies to reduce gasoline consumption? Evaluating a set of measures in Spain

Author

Listed:
  • Asensio, Javier
  • Gómez-Lobo, Andrés
  • Matas, Anna

Abstract

Using a panel of 48 provinces for four years we empirically analyze a series of temporary and permanent policies aimed at curbing fuel consumption implemented in Spain between March and June 2011. The first policy was a reduction in the speed limit in highways. The second policy was an increase in the biofuel content of fuels used in the transport sector. The third measure was a decrease of 5% in commuting and regional train fares that resulted in two major metropolitan areas reducing their overall fare for public transit. The results indicate that the speed limit reduction in highways lowered gasoline consumption by 2% to 3%, while an increase in the biofuel content of gasoline increased this consumption. This last result is consistent with experimental evidence that indicates that mileage per liter falls with an increase in the biofuel content in gasolines. As for the reduction in transit fares, we do not find a significant effect for this policy. However, in specifications including the urban transit fare for the major cities in each province the estimated cross-price elasticity of the demand for gasoline – used as a proxy for car use – with respect to the price of transit is within the range reported in the literature. This is important since one of the main efficiency justifications for subsidizing public transit rests on the positive value of this parameter and most of the estimates reported in the literature are quite dated.

Suggested Citation

  • Asensio, Javier & Gómez-Lobo, Andrés & Matas, Anna, 2014. "How effective are policies to reduce gasoline consumption? Evaluating a set of measures in Spain," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 42(C), pages 34-42.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:eneeco:v:42:y:2014:i:c:p:34-42
    DOI: 10.1016/j.eneco.2013.11.011
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0140988313002739
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.eneco.2013.11.011?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Ian W. H. Parry & Kenneth A. Small, 2009. "Should Urban Transit Subsidies Be Reduced?," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 99(3), pages 700-724, June.
    2. Ana Matas, 1991. "La demanda de transporte urbano: un análisis de las elasticidades y valoraciones del tiempo," Investigaciones Economicas, Fundación SEPI, vol. 15(2), pages 249-267, May.
    3. David M. Drukker, 2003. "Testing for serial correlation in linear panel-data models," Stata Journal, StataCorp LP, vol. 3(2), pages 168-177, June.
    4. Tomás Serebrisky & Andrés Gómez‐Lobo & Nicolás Estupiñán & Ramón Muñoz‐Raskin, 2009. "Affordability and Subsidies in Public Urban Transport: What Do We Mean, What Can Be Done?," Transport Reviews, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 29(6), pages 715-739, January.
    5. Bayraktar, Hakan, 2005. "Experimental and theoretical investigation of using gasoline–ethanol blends in spark-ignition engines," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 30(11), pages 1733-1747.
    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


    Cited by:

    1. Chai, Jian & Yang, Ying & Wang, Shouyang & Lai, Kin Keung, 2016. "Fuel efficiency and emission in China's road transport sector: Induced effect and rebound effect," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 112(C), pages 188-197.
    2. Bakhat, Mohcine & Labandeira, Xavier & Labeaga, José M. & López-Otero, Xiral, 2017. "Elasticities of transport fuels at times of economic crisis: An empirical analysis for Spain," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 68(S1), pages 66-80.
    3. Bergantino, Angela Stefania & Intini, Mario & Perdiguero, Jordi, 2020. "Pay cycles and fuel price: a quasi experimental approach," The Warwick Economics Research Paper Series (TWERPS) 1288, University of Warwick, Department of Economics.
    4. Boring, Anne & Philippe, Arnaud, 2021. "Reducing discrimination in the field: Evidence from an awareness raising intervention targeting gender biases in student evaluations of teaching," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 193(C).
    5. Gössling, Stefan & Cohen, Scott, 2014. "Why sustainable transport policies will fail: EU climate policy in the light of transport taboos," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 39(C), pages 197-207.
    6. Perez-Prada, Fiamma & Monzon, Andres, 2017. "Ex-post environmental and traffic assessment of a speed reduction strategy in Madrid's inner ring-road," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 58(C), pages 256-268.
    7. Gössling, Stefan & Metzler, Daniel, 2017. "Germany's climate policy: Facing an automobile dilemma," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 105(C), pages 418-428.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Javier Asensio & Andrés Gómez-Lobo & Anna Matas, 2013. "How effective are policies to reduce gasoline consumption? Evaluating a quasi-natural experiment in Spain," Working Papers 2013/9, Institut d'Economia de Barcelona (IEB).
    2. Javier Asensio & Andrés Gómez-Lobo & Anna Matas, 2013. "How effective are policies to reduce gasoline consumption? Evaluating a quasi-natural experiment in Spain," Working Papers wpdea1303, Department of Applied Economics at Universitat Autonoma of Barcelona.
    3. Drevs, Florian & Tscheulin, Dieter K. & Lindenmeier, Jörg & Renner, Simone, 2014. "Crowding-in or crowding out: An empirical analysis on the effect of subsidies on individual willingness-to-pay for public transportation," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 59(C), pages 250-261.
    4. Tirachini, Alejandro & Proost, Stef, 2021. "Transport taxes and subsidies in developing countries: The effect of income inequality aversion," Economics of Transportation, Elsevier, vol. 25(C).
    5. Andrés Gomez-Lobo, 2017. "The efficiency case for transit subsidies in the presence of a ‘soft’ budget constraint," Working Papers wp447, University of Chile, Department of Economics.
    6. Sun, Yanshuo & Guo, Qianwen & Schonfeld, Paul & Li, Zhongfei, 2016. "Implications of the cost of public funds in public transit subsidization and regulation," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 91(C), pages 236-250.
    7. Gerlinde Verbist & Michael Föster & Vaalavou, M., 2013. "GINI DP 74: The Impact of Publicly Provided Services on the Distribution of Resources: Review of New Results and Methods," GINI Discussion Papers 74, AIAS, Amsterdam Institute for Advanced Labour Studies.
    8. Börjesson, Maria & Eliasson, Jonas & Rubensson, Isak, 2020. "Distributional effects of public transport subsidies," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 84(C).
    9. Andrés Gómez-Lobo, 2011. "Monopoly, subsidies and the Mohring effect: A synthesis and an extension," Working Papers wp336, University of Chile, Department of Economics.
    10. Matas, Anna & Raymond, Josep-Lluis & Ruiz, Adriana, 2020. "Economic and distributional effects of different fare schemes: Evidence from the Metropolitan Region of Barcelona," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 138(C), pages 1-14.
    11. Ioan RADU & Cleopatra SENDROIU & Mihai DEMETER & Florin CAZACU, 2017. "Theoretical And Methodological Issues Regarding Subsidies For Urban Public Transport Operators," Proceedings of the INTERNATIONAL MANAGEMENT CONFERENCE, Faculty of Management, Academy of Economic Studies, Bucharest, Romania, vol. 11(1), pages 196-210, November.
    12. Guzman, Luis A. & Hessel, Philipp, 2022. "The effects of public transport subsidies for lower-income users on public transport use: A quasi-experimental study," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 126(C), pages 215-224.
    13. Yugang He & Chunlei Wang, 2022. "Does Buddhist Tourism Successfully Result in Local Sustainable Development?," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(6), pages 1-15, March.
    14. Proost, Stef & Van Dender, Kurt, 2012. "Energy and environment challenges in the transport sector," Economics of Transportation, Elsevier, vol. 1(1), pages 77-87.
    15. Hamid Boustanifar & Everett Grant & Ariell Reshef, 2018. "Wages and Human Capital in Finance: International Evidence, 1970–2011 [Financial reform: what shakes it? What shapes it?]," Review of Finance, European Finance Association, vol. 22(2), pages 699-745.
    16. Chimere O. Iheonu, 2019. "Governance and Domestic Investment in Africa," Working Papers 19/001, European Xtramile Centre of African Studies (EXCAS).
    17. Okui, Ryo, 2009. "Testing serial correlation in fixed effects regression models based on asymptotically unbiased autocorrelation estimators," Mathematics and Computers in Simulation (MATCOM), Elsevier, vol. 79(9), pages 2897-2909.
    18. Miguel García-Posada & Juan Mora-Sanguinetti, 2015. "Entrepreneurship and enforcement institutions: disaggregated evidence for Spain," European Journal of Law and Economics, Springer, vol. 40(1), pages 49-74, August.
    19. Hirte, Georg & Tscharaktschiew, Stefan, 2018. "The impact of anti-congestion policies and the role of labor-supply margins," CEPIE Working Papers 04/18, Technische Universität Dresden, Center of Public and International Economics (CEPIE).
    20. Avenali, Alessandro & Catalano, Giuseppe & D'Alfonso, Tiziana & Matteucci, Giorgio, 2020. "The allocation of national public resources in the Italian local public bus transport sector," Research in Transportation Economics, Elsevier, vol. 81(C).

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Fuel consumption; Cross-elasticities; Transport policies; Biofuel; Speed limit reduction;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • Q48 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Energy - - - Government Policy
    • R41 - Urban, Rural, Regional, Real Estate, and Transportation Economics - - Transportation Economics - - - Transportation: Demand, Supply, and Congestion; Travel Time; Safety and Accidents; Transportation Noise
    • R48 - Urban, Rural, Regional, Real Estate, and Transportation Economics - - Transportation Economics - - - Government Pricing and Policy

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:eneeco:v:42:y:2014:i:c:p:34-42. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    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 CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc 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 RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/eneco .

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

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.