IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/tpe/jtecpo/v48y2014i1p15-33.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

A Cost Function Approach for Measuring the Marginal Cost of Road Maintenance

Author

Listed:
  • Heike Link

Abstract

This paper analyses the relationship between traffic volume and maintenance costs, and derives estimates for the cost elasticity and the marginal maintenance cost for pricing decisions. Two types of multi-output cost functions were estimated: a translog form and a hybrid form with output variables transformed by Box-Cox metrics. The hybrid model performs statistically better and is the preferable model for the application in this paper. Both approaches derive a decreasing cost elasticity curve and marginal cost curve. The paper also provides evidence for low-factor substitutability, price-inelastic factor demands, and constant returns to scale in the process of maintaining roads. © 2014 LSE and the University of Bath

Suggested Citation

  • Heike Link, 2014. "A Cost Function Approach for Measuring the Marginal Cost of Road Maintenance," Journal of Transport Economics and Policy, University of Bath, vol. 48(1), pages 15-33, January.
  • Handle: RePEc:tpe:jtecpo:v:48:y:2014:i:1:p:15-33
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.catchword.com/cgi-bin/cgi?ini=bc&body=linker&reqidx=0022-5258(20140101)48:1L.15;1-
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    ---><---

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

    Citations

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


    Cited by:

    1. Andrew S. J. Smith & Jan-Eric Nilsson & Ivan Ridderstedt & Oskar Johansson, 2023. "Efficiency measurement in the tendering of road surface renewal contracts," Journal of Productivity Analysis, Springer, vol. 60(2), pages 189-202, October.
    2. Yarmukhamedov, Sherzod & Smith, Andrew S.J. & Thiebaud, Jean-Christophe, 2020. "Competitive tendering, ownership and cost efficiency in road maintenance services in Sweden: A panel data analysis," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 136(C), pages 194-204.
    3. Wheat, Phill, 2017. "Scale, quality and efficiency in road maintenance: Evidence for English local authorities," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 59(C), pages 46-53.
    4. Cathrine Ulla Jensen & Toke Emil Panduro, 2016. "PanJen: A test for functional form with continuous variables," IFRO Working Paper 2016/08, University of Copenhagen, Department of Food and Resource Economics.
    5. Phill Wheat & Alexander D. Stead & William H. Greene, 2019. "Robust stochastic frontier analysis: a Student’s t-half normal model with application to highway maintenance costs in England," Journal of Productivity Analysis, Springer, vol. 51(1), pages 21-38, February.

    More about this item

    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:tpe:jtecpo:v:48:y:2014:i:1:p:15-33. 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.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using 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: Christopher F. Baum (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.bath.ac.uk/e-journals/jtep .

    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.