IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/vrs/econom/v13y2025i1p111-130n1008.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Public Transport Demand Elasticities in Developing Agglomerations: The Case of Tunisian Regions

Author

Listed:
  • Makhlouf Lassaad

    (Faculty of Economics and Management, Research Unit CODECI, University of Sfax, Tunisia)

Abstract

This paper examined the characteristics of public transport demand in some major Tunisian cities. It followed the research trend which calculated the public transport demand elasticities. The adopted procedure in this study consists in estimating a log linear dynamic panel model relating per capita bus patronage to bus fares, users’ income, and service quality. Two variants of the basic model were estimated for the most important Tunisian agglomerations for the period 2003-2020. In the first variant, this paper considered the same fare elasticity value for the different regions, whereas in the second it’s proceeded to the calculation of specific fare elasticity values for each region. The estimation results show interesting and different elasticities compared to those revealed by earlier studies for occidental agglomerations. This result can be explained by specifics users’ characteristics and networks’ configuration. Although these results may sometimes contradict the theoretical suggestions, they still highlight the specificities of the public transport demand in Tunisia and its users’ characteristics. The demand for public transport in large Tunisian agglomerations is not very sensitive to fares changes. Second, income does not have the same effect as that advocated by economic theories. Indeed, we have found a positive impact of income on demand for public transport. Finally, the quality of service has the most important effect on demand. Changes in travel habits and cultures, improvements in the quality of services and their differentiation can be more effective for public transport than fares changes.

Suggested Citation

  • Makhlouf Lassaad, 2025. "Public Transport Demand Elasticities in Developing Agglomerations: The Case of Tunisian Regions," Economics, Sciendo, vol. 13(1), pages 111-130.
    • Handle: RePEc:vrs:econom:v:13:y:2025:i:1:p:111-130:n:1008
    DOI: 10.2478/eoik-2025-0008
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.2478/eoik-2025-0008
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.2478/eoik-2025-0008?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
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Pedroni, Peter, 2004. "Panel Cointegration: Asymptotic And Finite Sample Properties Of Pooled Time Series Tests With An Application To The Ppp Hypothesis," Econometric Theory, Cambridge University Press, vol. 20(3), pages 597-625, June.
    2. Cordera, Ruben & Canales, Cesar & dell’Olio, Luigi & Ibeas, Angel, 2015. "Public transport demand elasticities during the recessionary phases of economic cycles," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 42(C), pages 173-179.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    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. Bilal Mehmood & Syed Hassan Raza & Mahwish Rana & Huma Sohaib & Muhammad Azhar Khan, 2014. "Triangular Relationship between Energy Consumption, Price Index and National Income in Asian Countries: A Pooled Mean Group Approach in Presence of Structural Breaks," International Journal of Energy Economics and Policy, Econjournals, vol. 4(4), pages 610-620.
    2. Pedroni, Peter & Yao, James Yudong, 2006. "Regional income divergence in China," Journal of Asian Economics, Elsevier, vol. 17(2), pages 294-315, April.
    3. Neil A. Wilmot & Ariuna Taivan, 2021. "Examining the Impact of Financial Development on Energy Production in Emerging Economies," JRFM, MDPI, vol. 14(2), pages 1-17, February.
    4. John Baffes & Cristina Savescu, 2014. "Monetary conditions and metal prices," Applied Economics Letters, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 21(7), pages 447-452, May.
    5. Al-mulali, Usama & Fereidouni, Hassan Gholipour & Lee, Janice Y.M., 2014. "Electricity consumption from renewable and non-renewable sources and economic growth: Evidence from Latin American countries," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 30(C), pages 290-298.
    6. Francesca Iorio & Stefano Fachin, 2014. "Savings and investments in the OECD: a panel cointegration study with a new bootstrap test," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 46(4), pages 1271-1300, June.
    7. Boulanouar, Zakaria & Essid, Lobna & Omri, Anis, 2024. "Achieving carbon neutrality in emerging markets: The dual impact of energy transition investments on economic growth and carbon emissions," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 96(PC).
    8. Daniel Fehrle, 2023. "Hedging against inflation: housing versus equity," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 65(6), pages 2583-2626, December.
    9. Nicholas M. Odhiambo & Talknice Saungweme, "undated". "Does International Tourism Spur International Trade In Ssa Countries? A Dynamic Panel Data Analysis," Working Papers AESRI07, African Economic and Social Research Institute (AESRI).
    10. Marius-Răzvan Surugiu & Cristina-Raluca Mazilescu & Camelia Surugiu, 2021. "Analysis of the Tax Compliance in the EU: VECM and SEM," Mathematics, MDPI, vol. 9(17), pages 1-19, September.
    11. Tongurai, Jittima & Vithessonthi, Chaiporn, 2018. "The impact of the banking sector on economic structure and growth," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 56(C), pages 193-207.
    12. Tajul Masron & Mduduzi Biyase & Talent Zwane & Thomas Udimal & Frederich Kirsten, 2023. "Ecological footprint and population health outcomes: an analysis of E7 countries," Economics Working Papers edwrg-07-2023, College of Business and Economics, University of Johannesburg, South Africa, revised 2023.
    13. Bernstein, Ronald & Madlener, Reinhard, 2011. "Responsiveness of Residential Electricity Demand in OECD Countries: A Panel Cointegation and Causality Analysis," FCN Working Papers 8/2011, E.ON Energy Research Center, Future Energy Consumer Needs and Behavior (FCN).
    14. Hosan, Shahadat & Rahman, Md Matiar & Karmaker, Shamal Chandra & Saha, Bidyut Baran, 2023. "Energy subsidies and energy technology innovation: Policies for polygeneration systems diffusion," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 267(C).
    15. Inglesi-Lotz, Roula, 2016. "The impact of renewable energy consumption to economic growth: A panel data application," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 53(C), pages 58-63.
    16. Valérie Mignon & Christophe Hurlin, 2007. "Une synthèse des tests de cointégration sur données de panel," Économie et Prévision, Programme National Persée, vol. 180(4), pages 241-265.
    17. Muntasir Murshed & Seemran Rashid, 2020. "An Empirical Investigation of Real Exchange Rate Responses to Foreign Currency Inflows: Revisiting the Dutch Disease Phenomenon in South Asia," The Economics and Finance Letters, Conscientia Beam, vol. 7(1), pages 23-46.
    18. Tang, Kin-Boon, 2011. "The precise form of uncovered interest parity: A heterogeneous panel application in ASEAN-5 countries," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 28(1-2), pages 568-573, January.
    19. George Halkos & Iacovos Psarianos, 2016. "Exploring the effect of including the environment in the neoclassical growth model," Environmental Economics and Policy Studies, Springer;Society for Environmental Economics and Policy Studies - SEEPS, vol. 18(3), pages 339-358, July.
    20. Adem Y. Elveren, 2014. "Women's labour force participation and pay inequality: evidence from panel cointegration," Applied Economics Letters, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 21(12), pages 862-865, August.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Public Transport Demand; Fare Elasticity; Income Elasticity; Dynamic Panel Model;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • R41 - Urban, Rural, Regional, Real Estate, and Transportation Economics - - Transportation Economics - - - Transportation: Demand, Supply, and Congestion; Travel Time; Safety and Accidents; Transportation Noise
    • D12 - Microeconomics - - Household Behavior - - - Consumer Economics: Empirical Analysis
    • C23 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Single Equation Models; Single Variables - - - Models with Panel Data; Spatio-temporal Models

    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:vrs:econom:v:13:y:2025:i:1:p:111-130:n:1008. 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: Peter Golla (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.sciendo.com .

    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.