85751 - Transport Economics

Academic Year 2018/2019

  • Docente: Aura Reggiani
  • Credits: 6
  • SSD: SECS-P/02
  • Language: Italian

Learning outcomes

The aim of this course is to provide students with instruments concerning the 'dynamics' of transport networks, and its role/impact within the economic and spatial systems. In particular, the students will be able to carry out: – analyses and forecast studies with reference to transport demand and supply – evaluation studies with reference to project choices concerning transport infrastructures – impact analyses to guide public and private actors in their operational choices, both in a static and dynamic framework transport.

Course contents

This course of Transport Economics aims to analyse the role of transport networks within the economic and spatial systems. In particular, methods and models able to guide public and private actors in their operational choices, both in a static and dynamic framework, will be identified and presented. With reference to transport and telecommunication networks, particular attention will be paid to the analysis of behavioural choices at both aggregate and disaggregated scale level. In this context, empirical examples – by means of specific software – will be carried out. 

The content of the Course of Transport Economics – mainly organized in the laboratory – is the following:

- Transport and economic policy: introductory concepts. Evolution of transport networks. Comparative analyses between Europe and United States. Data sources.

- The evaluation of economic and transport projects for the various transport modes. Multicriteria analysis. The specific software.

- Transport sustainability vs. sustainable development. The Kuznets' curve.

- Transport systems modelling. Spatial scale levels and temporal dimensions.

- Demand and supply in transport. Calibration of the Origin/Destination matrix. The cost function.

- Simulating behavioural choices at aggregate level: spatial interaction theory. Generation and distribution models.

- Simulating behavioural choices at (dis)aggregate level: micro-economic theory of random utility models. Logit and nested logit models for the mode and route choice.

- The accessibility function and the related deterrence functional forms. The specific software.

- Air transport in Europe and United States.

- Transport security. The value of time. 

Some seminar activities, with reference to specific arguments, will also be organised.

 

 

Readings/Bibliography

Main References

a) Necessary

- De Dios Ortuzar J., L. G. Willumsen, Pianificazione dei sistemi di trasporto, Hoepli, Milano, 2001.

b) Suggested Reading

- Button K., Transport Economics, Edward Elgar, Cheltenham, 2010 (3rd edition).
- Cascetta E., Teoria e metodi dell'ingegneria dei sistemi di trasporto, UTET, Torino, 1998.
- Banister D., Unsustainable Transport: City Transport in the 21st Century, Routledge, London, 2005.

c) Additional Reading

Additional reading will be provided during the lectures. All this material will be posted at the lab-site, available to students.

Teaching methods

Laboratory and lectures: empirical applications and scenarios/simulation experiments will be carried out, with reference to the topics analysed from the methodological viewpoint. 

Assessment methods

Knowledge and competences acquired will be assessed through an oral presentation concerning the empirical application carried out in the laboratory, jointly with a short written essay. At the end of the course, students are expected to hold the following competences:

  • knowledge of the evolution of transport systems and related literature;
  • ability to integrated methods and software tools presented during the course;
  • ability to design “Research Questions” concerning the use of the adopted instruments to analyse transport systems;
  • ability to discuss the emerging findings, in order to interpret the phenomenon under analysis in the light of recent literature and current transport policy strategies .

Teaching tools

Reading materials, grouped according to the topics of the Course, will be made available at the end of each lecture, at the lab-site. 

In the laboratory of informatics, specific software – first concerning multicriteria analysis and, second, concerning accessibility analysis – will be utilized with reference to transport economic topics.

Office hours

See the website of Aura Reggiani