IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/transb/v44y2010i4p549-561.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

A matching model for the backhaul problem

Author

Listed:
  • Demirel, Erhan
  • Ommeren, Jos van
  • Rietveld, Piet

Abstract

The 'backhaul problem' is characterized by an imbalance in transport flows between locations. In a perfectly competitive framework with perfect information, the price of transport from low demand locations to high demand locations, the so-called backhaul price, drops to zero when the imbalance is sufficiently large. However, this result is inconsistent with empirical observations for many competitive transport markets (e.g. taxi and inland navigation markets). In this paper, we develop a matching model to show that a deviation from perfect information may address this inconsistency. We argue that carriers' search time to locate customers plays an important role in the determination of prices. We demonstrate that carriers are compensated for a part of the transport cost and for the time they search for customers. This implies positive backhaul prices. The matching model is numerically applied to the inland navigation shipping market in the Rhine river area in Western-Europe. We find that backhaul prices are substantial.

Suggested Citation

  • Demirel, Erhan & Ommeren, Jos van & Rietveld, Piet, 2010. "A matching model for the backhaul problem," Transportation Research Part B: Methodological, Elsevier, vol. 44(4), pages 549-561, May.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:transb:v:44:y:2010:i:4:p:549-561
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0191-2615(09)00123-4
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    ---><---

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

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Christopher A. Pissarides, 1994. "Search Unemployment with On-the-job Search," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 61(3), pages 457-475.
    2. A. C. Pigou & F. W. Taussig, 1913. "Railway Rates and Joint Costs," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 27(4), pages 687-694.
    3. Behrens, Kristian & Gaigne, Carl & Ottaviano, Gianmarco I.P. & Thisse, Jacques-Francois, 2006. "How density economies in international transportation link the internal geography of trading partners," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 60(2), pages 248-263, September.
    4. Ricardo A. Lagos, "undated". "An Alternative Approach to Market Frictions: An Application to the Market for Taxicab Rides," Penn CARESS Working Papers 058589d20e3fbe4e559adb44b, Penn Economics Department.
    5. A. C. Pigou & F. W. Taussig, 1913. "Railway Rates and Joint Cost," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 27(3), pages 535-538.
    6. Krugman, Paul, 1991. "Increasing Returns and Economic Geography," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 99(3), pages 483-499, June.
    7. Piet Rietveld & Roberto Roson, 2002. "Direction dependent prices in public transport: A good idea? The back haul pricing problem for a monopolistic public transport firm," Transportation, Springer, vol. 29(4), pages 397-417, November.
    8. Behrens, Kristian & Gaigné, Carl & Thisse, Jacques-François, 2009. "Industry location and welfare when transport costs are endogenous," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 65(2), pages 195-208, March.
    9. Christopher A. Pissarides, 2000. "Equilibrium Unemployment Theory, 2nd Edition," MIT Press Books, The MIT Press, edition 1, volume 1, number 0262161877, December.
    10. Sjostrom William, 2004. "Ocean Shipping Cartels: A Survey," Review of Network Economics, De Gruyter, vol. 3(2), pages 1-28, June.
    11. Mortensen, Dale T & Pissarides, Christopher A, 1999. "Unemployment Responses to 'Skill-Biased' Technology Shocks: The Role of Labour Market Policy," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 109(455), pages 242-265, April.
    12. Wheaton, William C, 1990. "Vacancy, Search, and Prices in a Housing Market Matching Model," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 98(6), pages 1270-1292, December.
    13. Behrens, Kristian & Picard, Pierre M., 2011. "Transportation, freight rates, and economic geography," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 85(2), pages 280-291.
    14. James E. Anderson & Eric van Wincoop, 2004. "Trade Costs," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 42(3), pages 691-751, September.
    15. Olaf Jonkeren & Erhan Demirel & Jos van Ommeren & Piet Rietveld, 2011. "Endogenous transport prices and trade imbalances," Journal of Economic Geography, Oxford University Press, vol. 11(3), pages 509-527, May.
    16. Arnott, Richard, 1996. "Taxi Travel Should Be Subsidized," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 40(3), pages 316-333, November.
    17. Jong-Wha Lee & Warwick J. McKibbin & Yong Chul Park, 2004. "Transpacific trade imbalances: Causes and cures," CAMA Working Papers 2004-14, Centre for Applied Macroeconomic Analysis, Crawford School of Public Policy, The Australian National University.
    18. Olaf Jonkeren & Piet Rietveld & Jos van Ommeren, 2007. "Climate Change and Inland Waterway Transport: Welfare Effects of Low Water Levels on the river Rhine," Journal of Transport Economics and Policy, University of Bath, vol. 41(3), pages 387-411, September.
    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. Goh, Shao Hung & Chan, Yuxian, 2016. "Operational shadow pricing in back haul container shipping," Transportation Research Part E: Logistics and Transportation Review, Elsevier, vol. 92(C), pages 3-15.
    2. Ishikawa, Jota & Tarui, Nori, 2018. "Backfiring with backhaul problems," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 111(C), pages 81-98.
    3. Tsubota, Kenmei, 2015. "Agglomeration and directional imbalance of freight rates : the role of density economies in the transport sector," IDE Discussion Papers 488, Institute of Developing Economies, Japan External Trade Organization(JETRO).
    4. ISHIKAWA, Jota & 石川, 城太 & TARUI, Nori & 樽井, 礼, 2015. "Backfiring with backhaul problems: Trade and Industrial Policies with Endogenous Transport Costs," Discussion paper series HIAS-E-12, Hitotsubashi Institute for Advanced Study, Hitotsubashi University.
    5. Behrens, Kristian & Picard, Pierre M., 2011. "Transportation, freight rates, and economic geography," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 85(2), pages 280-291.
    6. Felix L. Friedt & Wesley W. Wilson, 2020. "Trade, transport costs and trade imbalances: An empirical examination of international markets and backhauls," Canadian Journal of Economics/Revue canadienne d'économique, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 53(2), pages 592-636, May.

    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. Takahashi, Takaaki, 2011. "Directional imbalance in transport prices and economic geography," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 69(1), pages 92-102, January.
    2. Behrens, Kristian & Picard, Pierre M., 2011. "Transportation, freight rates, and economic geography," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 85(2), pages 280-291.
    3. Olaf Jonkeren & Erhan Demirel & Jos van Ommeren & Piet Rietveld, 2011. "Endogenous transport prices and trade imbalances," Journal of Economic Geography, Oxford University Press, vol. 11(3), pages 509-527, May.
    4. Asturias, Jose, 2020. "Endogenous transportation costs," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 123(C).
    5. Kazuhiro Takauchi & Tomomichi Mizuno, 2022. "Endogenous transport price, R&D spillovers, and trade," The World Economy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 45(5), pages 1477-1500, May.
    6. Felix L. Friedt & Wesley W. Wilson, 2020. "Trade, transport costs and trade imbalances: An empirical examination of international markets and backhauls," Canadian Journal of Economics/Revue canadienne d'économique, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 53(2), pages 592-636, May.
    7. Dominik Boddin & Frank Stähler, 2018. "The Organization of International Trade," CESifo Working Paper Series 7378, CESifo.
    8. Nobuhiro Kiyotaki & Ricardo Lagos, 2007. "A Model of Job and Worker Flows," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 115(5), pages 770-819, October.
    9. Behrens, Kristian & Gaigne, Carl & Ottaviano, Gianmarco I.P. & Thisse, Jacques-Francois, 2007. "Countries, regions and trade: On the welfare impacts of economic integration," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 51(5), pages 1277-1301, July.
    10. Miren Lafourcade & Jacques-François Thisse, 2011. "New Economic Geography: The Role of Transport Costs," Chapters, in: André de Palma & Robin Lindsey & Emile Quinet & Roger Vickerman (ed.), A Handbook of Transport Economics, chapter 4, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    11. Yashiv, Eran, 2007. "Labor search and matching in macroeconomics," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 51(8), pages 1859-1895, November.
    12. Jota Ishikawa & Nori Tarui, 2015. "Backfiring with backhaul problems: Trade and Industrial Policies with Endogenous Transport Costs," Working Papers 201514, University of Hawaii at Manoa, Department of Economics.
    13. Kasy, Maximilian, 2015. "Identification in a model of sorting with social externalities and the causes of urban segregation," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 85(C), pages 16-33.
    14. Tsubota, Kenmei, 2015. "Agglomeration and directional imbalance of freight rates : the role of density economies in the transport sector," IDE Discussion Papers 488, Institute of Developing Economies, Japan External Trade Organization(JETRO).
    15. Maarten Bosker & Eltjo Buringh, 2020. "Ice(berg) Transport Costs," The Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 130(629), pages 1262-1287.
    16. Kazuhiro Takauchi & Tomomichi Mizuno, 2019. "Is competition in the transport industry bad?A welfare analysis of R&D with inter-regional transportation," Discussion Papers 1910, Graduate School of Economics, Kobe University.
    17. Gavrel, Frédéric, 2012. "On the inefficiency of matching models of unemployment with heterogeneous workers and jobs when firms rank their applicants," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 56(8), pages 1746-1758.
    18. Xu, Hangtian & Itoh, Hidekazu, 2018. "Density economies and transport geography: Evidence from the container shipping industry," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 105(C), pages 121-132.
    19. Behrens, Kristian & Gaigné, Carl & Thisse, Jacques-François, 2009. "Industry location and welfare when transport costs are endogenous," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 65(2), pages 195-208, March.
    20. Kiyoyasu Tanaka & Kenmei Tsubota, 2017. "Directional imbalance in freight rates: evidence from Japanese inter-prefectural data," Journal of Economic Geography, Oxford University Press, vol. 17(1), pages 217-232.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Backhaul problem Imperfect information Matching models Search costs;

    JEL classification:

    • R40 - Urban, Rural, Regional, Real Estate, and Transportation Economics - - Transportation Economics - - - General
    • R41 - Urban, Rural, Regional, Real Estate, and Transportation Economics - - Transportation Economics - - - Transportation: Demand, Supply, and Congestion; Travel Time; Safety and Accidents; Transportation Noise

    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:transb:v:44:y:2010:i:4:p:549-561. 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/wps/find/journaldescription.cws_home/548/description#description .

    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.