Search

Despite high ambitions, policies for a modal shift in Europe have largely been unsuccessful. Part of the explanation relates to the inelasticity of freight transport demand. Understanding the demand elasticity of freight transport is important to design and appraise policies for external cost reductions in the transport sector. There have been many studies focused on estimating the elasticity of demand for short-sea shipping, a mode which policy makers have often aimed to strengthen to facilitate a modal shift from road freight. The objective of this review is to build upon the available literature by presenting and comparing estimated elasticities and to demonstrate the state of evidence through the application of two methodological approaches. Our review shows that there is a surprising degree of variation in elasticity estimates, part of which can likely be explained by differing methodological approaches. Applying a deterministic cost-minimising freight transport model and a stochastic multinomial logit approach based on responses from the Swedish Cargo Flow Survey, we demonstrate the inelasticity of Swedish maritime freight flows and provide suggestions for future research and policy discussions. For future studies of maritime transport demand elasticities to arrive at reliable and policy-relevant results, we highlight the need for combined and pluralistic methodological approaches and an increased use of real-world data. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study analyzes how information about noise pollution affects neighborhood composition and households' choice of housing quality. I find that the announcement of a renewal of an airport operating contract induced high-income households to shift away from the zone exposed to airport noise. High-income households who still located in the airport noise zone after the announcement selected homes of better quality. These results help reconcile mixed findings on residential sorting in the literature. (JEL Q53, R21) [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study explores the stricter cap on the sulfur content in marine fuel implemented in seas in north-western Europe in 2015. The analysis is built on a difference-in-differences design that compares outcomes in coastal areas before and after the tightening of the sulfur cap, to the outcomes in control areas over the same period. The results show that the new sulfur cap reduced annual average ambient concentrations of sulfur dioxide (S O 2 ) in coastal areas by 22 percent and levels of fine particulate matter (PM2.5) by 6 percent, compared to control areas. In the subsample with available air quality readings, the sulfur cap led to a 7 percent reduction in the risk of low birthweight in coastal areas. The estimated improvements provide a benchmark for assessing the benefits of tightening sulfur standards in other settings. • Cap on sulfur content in marine fuel tightened in 2015. • Stricter cap reduced concentrations of sulfur dioxide by 22 percent. • Stricter cap reduced levels of fine particles by 6 percent. • Stricter cap reduced risk of low birthweight by 7 percent in a subsample. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study combines official statistics on freight transportation and emissions to present the long-run development of the use of longer and heavier road vehicles (LHVs), modal split, road freight efficiency, and GHG emissions and air pollution following the increase in the maximum permissible vehicle weight in Sweden in 1990 and 1993. We find that LHVs were quickly incorporated in the vehicle fleet and that road freight efficiency of the largest vehicles increased after the reforms. There was no discernable break in modal split trends as the modal share for road continued its long-run development. We show that road transportation contributes by far the most to emission costs. The composition of the emissions from road freight changed after the weight reforms, with an increasing share of GHG-emissions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]