Mobility Gini: distributional effects of climate policies through transportation choices

The energy transition implies significant changes for the transport sector. In particular, the mobility of households will be largely impacted by public policies aiming at mitigating climate change. However, such policies may have adverse distributional effects that enhance the mobility cost for low-income people or even prevent them from being mobile. Therefore, we build a geographical distribution index based on availability and costs of transportation Ð a Mobility Gini. This index encompasses household heterogeneity towards transportation choices, household value of travel time and comfort, and transportation offers in the different regions. In addition, we develop the Emissions Mobility Gini to account for lack of access to clean transport. To understand the decision-making process of households, we develop a theoretical model of transport choice versus consumption of other goods. With this model, we test the effects of policies for the Just and Clean transition of the transport sector on household choices and their effects on our proposed inequality measures. Thanks to the methods proposed here, we quantify the potential inequality effects of climate policies for the transport transition.