IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/iza/izadps/dp2576.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Stuck in the Slow Lane: Traffic Composition and the Measurement of Labor Productivity in the U.S. Trucking Industry

Author

Listed:
  • Boyer, Kenneth D.

    (Michigan State University)

  • Burks, Stephen V.

    (University of Minnesota, Morris)

Abstract

Mirroring the railroad industry of the 1940’s and 1950’s, the trucking industry today appears to be achieving impressive productivity gains. But it is easy to confuse true productivity advances in transportation industries with changes in ton-miles per unit of input that are due simply to changes in the composition of traffic, as initially happened with the mid-20th century U.S. railroads. This is due to the fact that transportation has vastly different productivities in different settings – for example, when moving long haul versus short haul traffic – and the measurement of changes in physical productivity can be overwhelmed by even subtle changes in the traffic mix. After controlling for endogenous changes in the composition of truck traffic, we find that trucking has in fact been a lagging sector of the U.S. economy over the period of our data, 1982-1997, with observed productivity changes much more likely due to changes in speed limits and the dimensions of vehicles than adoption of information technology. Our finding of a slow improvement in the physical productivity of trucking inputs does not deny the real improvements in the quality of trucking services (reliability, predictability, speed, order tracking, etc.) that have taken place in the last quarter century. But as in other service industries, true physical productivity improvements in trucking are hard to find.

Suggested Citation

  • Boyer, Kenneth D. & Burks, Stephen V., 2007. "Stuck in the Slow Lane: Traffic Composition and the Measurement of Labor Productivity in the U.S. Trucking Industry," IZA Discussion Papers 2576, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    • Handle: RePEc:iza:izadps:dp2576
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://docs.iza.org/dp2576.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Michael H. Belzer, 1995. "Collective Bargaining after Deregulation: Do the Teamsters Still Count?," ILR Review, Cornell University, ILR School, vol. 48(4), pages 636-655, July.
    2. Baumol, William J, 1972. "Macroeconomics of Unbalanced Growth: Reply," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 62(1), pages 150-150, March.
    3. Dale L. Belman & Kristen A. Monaco, 2001. "The Effects of Deregulation, De-Unionization, Technology, and Human Capital on the Work and Work Lives of Truck Drivers," ILR Review, Cornell University, ILR School, vol. 54(2), pages 502-524, January.
    4. John G. Fernald, 1999. "Roads to Prosperity? Assessing the Link between Public Capital and Productivity," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 89(3), pages 619-638, June.
    5. Dale L. Belman & Kristen A. Monaco, 2001. "The Effects of Deregulation, De-Unionization, Technology, and Human Capital on the Work and Work Lives of Truck Drivers," ILR Review, Cornell University, ILR School, vol. 54(2A), pages 502-524, March.
    6. John E. DiNardo & Jörn-Steffen Pischke, 1997. "The Returns to Computer Use Revisited: Have Pencils Changed the Wage Structure Too?," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 112(1), pages 291-303.
    7. Thomas N. Hubbard, 2003. "Information, Decisions, and Productivity: On-Board Computers and Capacity Utilization in Trucking," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 93(4), pages 1328-1353, 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. Burks, Stephen V. & Carpenter, Jeffrey P. & Götte, Lorenz & Monaco, Kristen & Porter, Kay & Rustichini, Aldo, 2007. "Using Behavioral Economic Experiments at a Large Motor Carrier: The Context and Design of the Truckers and Turnover Project," IZA Discussion Papers 2789, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    2. Richards, Timothy J. & Rutledge, Zachariah, 2023. "COVID-19, Truck Rates, and Trucking Shortages," 2023 Annual Meeting, July 23-25, Washington D.C. 335435, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association.
    3. Stephen V. Burks & Jeffrey Carpenter & Lorenz Goette & Kristen Monaco & Aldo Rustichini & Kay Porter, 2007. "Using Behavioral Economic Field Experiments at a Large Motor Carrier: The Context and Design of the Truckers and Turnover Project," NBER Working Papers 12976, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.

    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. Kenneth D. Boyer & Stephen V. Burks, 2009. "Stuck in the Slow Lane: Undoing Traffic Composition Biases in the Measurement of Trucking Productivity," Southern Economic Journal, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 75(4), pages 1220-1237, April.
    2. Berger, Thor & Chen, Chinchih & Frey, Carl Benedikt, 2018. "Drivers of disruption? Estimating the Uber effect," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 110(C), pages 197-210.
    3. Dale Belman & Kristen Monaco, 2005. "Are truck drivers underpaid?," Applied Economics Letters, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 12(1), pages 13-18.
    4. Natália Pimenta Monteiro, 2004. "Regulatory reform and the Portuguese banking labour market: two decades later," NIPE Working Papers 10/2004, NIPE - Universidade do Minho.
    5. Burks, Stephen V. & Carpenter, Jeffrey P. & Götte, Lorenz & Monaco, Kristen & Porter, Kay & Rustichini, Aldo, 2007. "Using Behavioral Economic Experiments at a Large Motor Carrier: The Context and Design of the Truckers and Turnover Project," IZA Discussion Papers 2789, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    6. Ark, Bart van, 2004. "Productivity and employment growth: an empirical review of long and medium run evidence : background working paper for the world employment report 2004," GGDC Research Memorandum 200471, Groningen Growth and Development Centre, University of Groningen.
    7. Timothy De Stefano & Richard Kneller & Jonathan Timmis, 2014. "The (Fuzzy) Digital Divide: The Effect of Broadband Internet Use on UK Firm Performance," Discussion Papers 14/06, University of Nottingham, School of Economics.
    8. Timothy Bresnahan & Pai-Ling Yin, 2017. "Adoption of New Information and Communications Technologies in the Workplace Today," Innovation Policy and the Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 17(1), pages 95-124.
    9. Peterson, Steven, 2006. "Differences in Truck Driver Labor Supply Between Owner-Operators and Employees," 47th Annual Transportation Research Forum, New York, New York, March 23-25, 2006 207957, Transportation Research Forum.
    10. Alexey Levkov, 2010. "Branching of banks and union decline," Supervisory Research and Analysis Working Papers QAU10-7, Federal Reserve Bank of Boston.
    11. Stephen V. Burks & Jeffrey Carpenter & Lorenz Goette & Kristen Monaco & Aldo Rustichini & Kay Porter, 2007. "Using Behavioral Economic Field Experiments at a Large Motor Carrier: The Context and Design of the Truckers and Turnover Project," NBER Working Papers 12976, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    12. de Vries, Jelle & de Koster, René & Rijsdijk, Serge & Roy, Debjit, 2017. "Determinants of safe and productive truck driving: Empirical evidence from long-haul cargo transport," Transportation Research Part E: Logistics and Transportation Review, Elsevier, vol. 97(C), pages 113-131.
    13. repec:dgr:rugggd:200471 is not listed on IDEAS
    14. Zhenhua Chen & Kingsley Haynes, 2015. "Multilevel assessment of public transportation infrastructure: a spatial econometric computable general equilibrium approach," The Annals of Regional Science, Springer;Western Regional Science Association, vol. 54(3), pages 663-685, May.
    15. Josef Falkinger & Volker Grossmann, 2003. "Workplaces in the Primary Economy and Wage Pressure in the Secondary Labor Market," Journal of Institutional and Theoretical Economics (JITE), Mohr Siebeck, Tübingen, vol. 159(3), pages 523-544, September.
    16. Hoffman, Mitchell & Burks, Stephen V., 2017. "Worker Overconfidence: Field Evidence and Implications for Employee Turnover and Returns from Training," IZA Discussion Papers 10794, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    17. Leora Friedberg, 2003. "The Impact of Technological Change on Older Workers: Evidence from Data on Computer Use," ILR Review, Cornell University, ILR School, vol. 56(3), pages 511-529, April.
    18. Pablo D. Fajgelbaum & Edouard Schaal, 2020. "Optimal Transport Networks in Spatial Equilibrium," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 88(4), pages 1411-1452, July.
    19. James P. Vere, 2005. "Wage Structure Effects of Taiwan's Science and Technology Development Policy," Asian Economic Journal, East Asian Economic Association, vol. 19(2), pages 159-180, June.
    20. Herranz-Loncan, Alfonso, 2007. "Infrastructure investment and Spanish economic growth, 1850-1935," Explorations in Economic History, Elsevier, vol. 44(3), pages 452-468, July.
    21. Giacomello, Giampiero & Picci, Lucio, 2003. "My scale or your meter? Evaluating methods of measuring the Internet," Information Economics and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 15(3), pages 363-383, September.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    VIUS; transportation; nominal versus real productivity; service quality; short haul; trucking industry; physical productivity; traffic mix; labor productivity; long haul; ton-mile;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • L92 - Industrial Organization - - Industry Studies: Transportation and Utilities - - - Railroads and Other Surface Transportation
    • D24 - Microeconomics - - Production and Organizations - - - Production; Cost; Capital; Capital, Total Factor, and Multifactor Productivity; Capacity
    • C43 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Econometric and Statistical Methods: Special Topics - - - Index Numbers and Aggregation

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    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:iza:izadps:dp2576. 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: Holger Hinte (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/izaaade.html .

    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.