We examine the impacts of increased US gasoline taxes in a model that links the markets for new, used, and scrapped vehicles and recognizes the consider able heterogeneity among households and cars. Household choice parameters derive from an estimation procedure that integrates individual choices for car ownership and miles traveled. We find that each cent-per-gallon increase in the price of gasoline reduces the equilibrium gasoline consumption by about 0.2

/pdf/distributional-and-efficiency-impacts-of-increased-us-2255mc3o0r.pdf

Distributional and Efficiency Impacts of Increased US Gasoline Taxes

Do urban workers commute too much? Bruce Hamilton (1982) was the first to raise the question whether urban workers' commuting journeys are too long or, in his terms, "wasteful." He argued that the monocentric urban model predicts that workers' commuting journeys will be minimized. To test the model, he calculated the minimum commuting journey length for the average worker in a group of U.S. cities and compared the results to the actual average commuting journey length for those workers. He assumed that any difference between the two figures was "wasteful commuting." He found that the average minimum commuting distance was only 1.1 miles, but the average distance actually commuted by workers in those cities was 8.7 miles, or nearly eight times as great. Hamilton therefore concluded that the monocentric urban model has little predictive value concerning commuting behavior and that actual commuting behavior could be predicted just as well using an assumption that commuting is random. Commuting behavior is a central feature of any model that purports to explain urban residential and job location choice. Hamilton's assertion that the monocentric urban model has little predictive value concerning commuting behavior therefore strikes at the heart of

Urban commuting journeys are not wasteful

Transportation, energy and environmental tax reforms represent an ongoing 
debate in contemporary policy. The main aim of this paper is to shed some light on this 
debate using microsimulation tools to analyse consumer response and welfare effects of 
environmental policy consisting of an increment of the indirect taxes on fuels to finance 
the elimination of VAT on the public means of transport. In order to do so, we first 
estimate an Almost Ideal Demand System for 16 different groups of goods in the 
Spanish economy, for the purpose of evaluating expenditure and price elasticities. Using 
this information, we then micro-simulate the abolition of VAT on public transport 
services and a simultaneous increment on fuel taxes, so that total revenue remains 
unchanged. The welfare effects of this revenue-neutral tax reform are evaluated. The 
aim of this simulation is to define a public policy that increases public transportation 
availability and use in order to bring about decreases in pollution and congestion.

A Revenue-Neutral Tax Reform to Increase Demand for Public Transport Services

The literature on car cruising is dominated by theory. We examine cruising for parking using a nation-wide random sample of car trips. We exclude employer-provided and residential parking. We focus on the Netherlands, where levels of on-street and off-street parking prices are locally the same. We demonstrate then that due to this price setting the average cruising time in the Netherlands is only 36 s per car trip. Furthermore, we show that cruising is not random. It is more common in (large) cities that receive more car trips, particularly for shopping and leisure activities. Cruising time increases with travel duration as well as with parking duration. Cruising has a distinctive pattern over the day with a peak in the morning, so the order of arrival is essential to parking. Because cruising has a spatial and time component, policies may be considered that reduce cruising time through flexible pricing of parking or improved information about vacant parking spaces.

/pdf/empirical-evidence-on-cruising-for-parking-7bi5mtr91f.pdf

Empirical evidence on cruising for parking

We examine the relationship between individual commuting behavior and household responsibilities, with a focus on gender differences in that relationship. Using the Dutch Time Use Survey for the years 2000 and 2005, we analyze the relationship between commuting time, home production, and childcare. To deal with reverse causality, we use Propenstity Score Matching techniques to obtain imputed data for individuals. We find that the effect of home production on commuting time for women is more than double that for men, while childcare time has an effect on women's commuting behavior only. Our results shedding light on the Household Responsibility Hypothesis.

/pdf/commuting-time-and-household-responsibilities-evidence-using-53cixom8jr.pdf

Commuting time and household responsibilities: evidence using propensity score matching

In Europe, many employees receive company cars as fringe benefits induced by taxation. We analyze the welfare effects of company car taxation for the Netherlands by estimating to what extent car expenditure and private car travel change when employees receive a company car. Tax treatment of company cars generates an annual welfare loss, ranging from €600 to €780 per company car, mainly due to a shift toward more expensive cars (from €420 to €600), but also due to increased private travel (€180). For the whole of Europe, the annual welfare loss is about €12 billion. © (2011) by the Economics Department of the University of Pennsylvania and the Osaka University Institute of Social and Economic Research Association.

/pdf/welfare-effects-of-distortionary-fringe-benefits-taxation-1kzvfyj8r7.pdf

Welfare effects of distortionary fringe benefits taxation: the case of employer-provided cars*

One of the classic predictions of urban economic theory is that high-income and low-income households choose different residential locations and therefore, conditional on workplace location, have different commuting patterns. According to theory, the effect of household income on commuting distance may be positive or negative. Empirical tests of this effect are not standard, due to reverse causation and lack of good control variables. To address reverse causation, estimates of household income on commuting distance are derived using changes in distance through residential moves keeping workplace location constant. Our results show that the (long-run) income elasticity of distance is non-negative and around 0.14 for dual wage-earners.

Do rich households live farther away from their workplaces

One of the classic predictions of urban economic theory is that high-income and low-income households choose different residential locations and therefore, conditional on workplace location, have different commuting patterns. The effect of household income on commuting distance may be positive, because of an increased demand for housing as house prices are lower further from workplace locations, or negative, because of an increase in the value of travel time. In addition, the sign of this effect may depend on the location of residential amenities relative to workplaces. Empirical tests of this effect are not standard, due to reverse causation and lack of good control variables. To address reverse causation, this effect is derived using changes in household income and distance through residential moves keeping workplace location constant. Our results contradict previous results in the literature. We show that for Denmark, conditional on the workplace location, the income elasticity of distance is negative and in the order of −0.18. This elasticity is larger for single-earner than for dual-earner households. Conditional on that the household moves residence between municipalities, the elasticity is suggested to be around −0.60.

/pdf/do-rich-households-live-farther-away-from-their-workplaces-2i3n2fd6ng.pdf

Do Rich Households Live Farther Away from Their Workplaces

According to theory, road pricing may reduce welfare when labour supply is negatively distorted by an income tax. This effect particularly occurs when commuting costs reduce labour supply. We examine the hypothesis that commuting costs reduce labour supply in the short-run. In particular, we estimate the effect of commuting time on labour supply in the UK. We account for endogeneity of commuting time by employing exogenous changes in commuting time resulting from firm relocations and changes in infrastructure. Our results cast doubt on the idea that increases in commuting cost reduce labour supply, at least in the short-run. More precisely, we find that females’ labour supply reacts positively to or is unaffected by increases in commuting time, whereas males’ labour supply is unaffected.

Commuting and labour supply revisited

https://mpra.ub.uni-muenchen.de/61224/1/MPRA_paper_61224.pdf

Eva Gutiérrez-i-Puigarnau

Papers

Welfare effects of distortionary fringe benefits taxation: the case of employer-provided cars*

Do rich households live farther away from their workplaces

Do Rich Households Live Farther Away from Their Workplaces

Commuting and labour supply revisited

The impact of scrappage programmes on the demand for new vehicles: Evidence from Spain