Towards an efficient use of infrastructure and the built environment : essays in transport and housing economics

Infrastructure, in the form of roads and rail, will only contribute to our welfare if used. But the usage also has negative effects like emissions and increased risk of traffic accidents that influence others than those that use the infrastructure. An optimal usage therefore must balance the benefits and costs of traffic, considering both the road and rail users and the rest of society. But to do that we need to know the size of the different cost components. We also need to form policies that makes it possible to make people consider not only their own benefits and costs from their choices but also how these choices affect their neighbours and fellow citizens. The thesis consists of four articles, three of them focuses on externalities in the transport sector and how these can be handled in order to achieve economic efficiency. The fourth article in the thesis concerns the housing market and how a tax reform in 2008 influenced the housing tenure transitions of the elderly. A common theme in the articles is how to achieve an efficient use of infrastructure. For the use of transport infrastructure, pricing according to short run marginal cost is one answer to the question how this can be achieved. The first two articles estimate parts of this marginal cost, relating to noise and traffic accidents. The third article instead looks at the attitude to pricing road traffic according to the marginal cost of road congestion. In the fourth article I leave the transport sector and instead look at the use of the housing stock.

Language

  • English

Media Info

  • Pagination: 123p

Subject/Index Terms

Filing Info

  • Accession Number: 01844867
  • Record Type: Publication
  • Source Agency: Swedish National Road and Transport Research Institute (VTI)
  • ISBN: 9789180390019
  • Files: ITRD, VTI
  • Created Date: May 6 2022 5:08PM