IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/mtu/wpaper/23_10.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Domestic transport charges: Estimation of transport-related elasticities

Author

Listed:
  • Dean Hyslop

    (Motu Economic and Public Policy Research)

  • Trinh Le

    (Motu Economic and Public Policy Research)

  • David Maré

    (Motu Economic and Public Policy Research)

  • Lynn Riggs

    (Motu Economic and Public Policy Research)

  • Nic Watson

    (Motu Economic and Public Policy Research)

Abstract

In order to better understand the potential effects of transport policies, it is important to understand household spending patterns across different transport-related categories as well as across different households. This study uses three distinct approaches to estimating transport elasticities for New Zealand: cross section, time series, and event studies. The estimated own-price elasticity of fuel demand ranges from –0.1 (very inelastic) based on time-series data to around –2 (very elastic) based on the event-study approach. Using cross-sectional household-level data and regional price variation, we estimate that price elasticity of petrol demand is –0.66 over all households, and ranges from –0.78 for the lowest household expenditure quintile to –0.43 for the highest expenditure quintile, indicating that petrol demand is price-inelastic, and more so for richer households. The different fuel price elasticities estimated by this study represent a range of possible consumer responses when modelling the impact of price changes.

Suggested Citation

  • Dean Hyslop & Trinh Le & David Maré & Lynn Riggs & Nic Watson, 2023. "Domestic transport charges: Estimation of transport-related elasticities," Working Papers 23_10, Motu Economic and Public Policy Research.
    • Handle: RePEc:mtu:wpaper:23_10
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://motu-www.motu.org.nz/wpapers/23_10.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Sheng, Mingyue & Sharp, Basil, 2019. "Aggregate road passenger travel demand in New Zealand: A seemingly unrelated regression approach," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 124(C), pages 55-68.
    2. Savin, N Eugene & White, Kenneth J, 1977. "The Durbin-Watson Test for Serial Correlation with Extreme Sample Sizes or Many Regressors," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 45(8), pages 1989-1996, November.
    3. Laurence Levin & Matthew S. Lewis & Frank A. Wolak, 2017. "High Frequency Evidence on the Demand for Gasoline," American Economic Journal: Economic Policy, American Economic Association, vol. 9(3), pages 314-347, August.
    4. Nicol, C. J., 2003. "Elasticities of demand for gasoline in Canada and the United States," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 25(2), pages 201-214, March.
    5. Kenneth A. Small & Kurt Van Dender, 2007. "Fuel Efficiency and Motor Vehicle Travel: The Declining Rebound Effect," The Energy Journal, International Association for Energy Economics, vol. 0(Number 1), pages 25-52.
    6. Knittel, Christopher R. & Tanaka, Shinsuke, 2021. "Fuel economy and the price of gasoline: Evidence from fueling-level micro data," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 202(C).
    7. James Banks & Richard Blundell & Arthur Lewbel, 1997. "Quadratic Engel Curves And Consumer Demand," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 79(4), pages 527-539, November.
    8. Daniel J. Graham & Stephen Glaister, 2002. "The Demand for Automobile Fuel: A Survey of Elasticities," Journal of Transport Economics and Policy, University of Bath, vol. 36(1), pages 1-25, January.
    9. Ye Feng & Don Fullerton & Li Gan, 2013. "Vehicle choices, miles driven, and pollution policies," Journal of Regulatory Economics, Springer, vol. 44(1), pages 4-29, August.
    10. David L. Greene, 1992. "Vehicle Use and Fuel Economy: How Big is the "Rebound" Effect?," The Energy Journal, International Association for Energy Economics, vol. 0(Number 1), pages 117-144.
    11. Mark Wardman, 2014. "Price Elasticities of Surface Travel Demand A Meta-analysis of UK Evidence," Journal of Transport Economics and Policy, University of Bath, vol. 48(3), pages 367-384, September.
    12. Puller, Steven L. & Greening, Lorna A., 1999. "Household adjustment to gasoline price change: an analysis using 9 years of US survey data," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 21(1), pages 37-52, February.
    13. Pinelopi Koujianou Goldberg, 1998. "The Effects of the Corporate Average Fuel Efficiency Standards in the US," Journal of Industrial Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 46(1), pages 1-33, March.
    14. Park, Sung Y. & Zhao, Guochang, 2010. "An estimation of U.S. gasoline demand: A smooth time-varying cointegration approach," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 32(1), pages 110-120, January.
    15. Steven T. Berry & Philip A. Haile, 2021. "Foundations of Demand Estimation," NBER Working Papers 29305, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    16. Thomas, Alastair, 2019. "Who Would Win from a Multi-rate GST in New Zealand: Evidence from a QUAIDS Model," Working Paper Series 20932, Victoria University of Wellington, Chair in Public Finance.
    17. Brian P. Poi, 2012. "Easy demand-system estimation with quaids," Stata Journal, StataCorp LP, vol. 12(3), pages 433-446, September.
    18. Banfi, Silvia & Filippini, Massimo & Hunt, Lester C., 2005. "Fuel tourism in border regions: The case of Switzerland," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 27(5), pages 689-707, September.
    19. Bergantino, Angela Stefania & Capurso, Mauro & Toner, Jeremy, 2018. "Households’ expenditure elasticities for transport products and services: a geo-demographic approach," Working Papers 18_3, SIET Società Italiana di Economia dei Trasporti e della Logistica.
    20. Deaton, Angus S & Muellbauer, John, 1980. "An Almost Ideal Demand System," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 70(3), pages 312-326, June.
    21. Thomas, Alastair, 2019. "Who Would Win from a Multi-rate GST in New Zealand: Evidence from a QUAIDS Model," Working Paper Series 8127, Victoria University of Wellington, Chair in Public Finance.
    22. Richard Schmalensee & Thomas M. Stoker, 1999. "Household Gasoline Demand in the United States," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 67(3), pages 645-662, May.
    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. Moshiri, Saeed & Aliyev, Kamil, 2017. "Rebound effect of efficiency improvement in passenger cars on gasoline consumption in Canada," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 131(C), pages 330-341.
    2. Dimitropoulos, Alexandros & Oueslati, Walid & Sintek, Christina, 2018. "The rebound effect in road transport: A meta-analysis of empirical studies," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 75(C), pages 163-179.
    3. Liu, Weiwei, 2015. "Gasoline taxes or efficiency standards? A heterogeneous household demand analysis," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 80(C), pages 54-64.
    4. Wadud, Zia & Graham, Daniel J. & Noland, Robert B., 2009. "Modelling fuel demand for different socio-economic groups," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 86(12), pages 2740-2749, December.
    5. Xavier Labandeira & José M. Labeaga & Miguel Rodríguez, 2006. "A Residential Energy Demand System for Spain," The Energy Journal, International Association for Energy Economics, vol. 0(Number 2), pages 87-112.
    6. Tscharaktschiew, Stefan, 2014. "Shedding light on the appropriateness of the (high) gasoline tax level in Germany," Economics of Transportation, Elsevier, vol. 3(3), pages 189-210.
    7. Tilov, Ivan & Weber, Sylvain, 2023. "Heterogeneity in price elasticity of vehicle kilometers traveled: Evidence from micro-level panel data," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 127(PA).
    8. Spiller, Elisheba & Stephens, Heather M. & Chen, Yong, 2017. "Understanding the heterogeneous effects of gasoline taxes across income and location," Resource and Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 50(C), pages 74-90.
    9. Xavier Labandeira & José M. Labeaga & Miguel Rodríguez, "undated". "Microsimulating the Effects of Household Energy Price Changes in Spain," Studies on the Spanish Economy 196, FEDEA.
    10. Banzhaf, H. Spencer & Kasim, M. Taha, 2019. "Fuel consumption and gasoline prices: The role of assortative matching between households and automobiles," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 95(C), pages 1-25.
    11. Wadud, Zia & Noland, Robert B. & Graham, Daniel J., 2010. "A semiparametric model of household gasoline demand," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 32(1), pages 93-101, January.
    12. Javier D. Donna, 2021. "Measuring long‐run gasoline price elasticities in urban travel demand," RAND Journal of Economics, RAND Corporation, vol. 52(4), pages 945-994, December.
    13. Donna, Javier D., 2018. "Measuring Long-Run Price Elasticities in Urban Travel Demand," MPRA Paper 90059, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    14. Tiezzi, Silvia & Verde, Stefano F., 2016. "Differential demand response to gasoline taxes and gasoline prices in the U.S," Resource and Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 44(C), pages 71-91.
    15. Anas, Alex & Hiramatsu, Tomoru, 2012. "The effect of the price of gasoline on the urban economy: From route choice to general equilibrium," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 46(6), pages 855-873.
    16. Cantos-Sánchez, Pedro & Gutiérrez-i-Puigarnau, Eva & Mulalic, Ismir, 2018. "The impact of scrappage programmes on the demand for new vehicles: Evidence from Spain," Research in Transportation Economics, Elsevier, vol. 70(C), pages 83-96.
    17. Baranzini, Andrea & Weber, Sylvain, 2013. "Elasticities of gasoline demand in Switzerland," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 63(C), pages 674-680.
    18. Bonilla, David & Schmitz, Klaus E. & Akisawa, Atsushi, 2012. "Demand for mini cars and large cars; decay effects, and gasoline demand in Japan," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 50(C), pages 217-227.
    19. Rosa M. González-Marrero & Rosa M. Lorenzo-Alegría & Gustavo A. Marrero, 2011. "Gasoline and Diesel Consumption for Road Transport in Spain: a Dynamic Panel Data Approach," Economic Reports 04-2011, FEDEA.
    20. Eakins, John, 2016. "An application of the double hurdle model to petrol and diesel household expenditures in Ireland," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 47(C), pages 84-93.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    price elasticities; transport demand vehicle kilometres travelled; fuel usage;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D12 - Microeconomics - - Household Behavior - - - Consumer Economics: Empirical Analysis
    • R22 - Urban, Rural, Regional, Real Estate, and Transportation Economics - - Household Analysis - - - Other Demand

    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:mtu:wpaper:23_10. 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: Maxine Watene (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/motuenz.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.