1,720,962 research outputs found
Evolving long-distance passenger services. Market concentration, fares and specialisation patterns in Italy
Full text linkDespite its importance, the analysis of long-distance transport dynamics and policies has not reached the same understanding of local transport services. One reason is the market-driven nature with respect to the planning-driven one, which makes the most important planning decisions taken internally to the firms. The aim of this paper is to discuss quantitatively the main characteristics of long-distance transport in a liberalised environment (Italy) in terms of market concentration levels, fares and product specialisation. We will consider rail, coach and carpooling services, which are not fully separate markets and interact in terms of supply, prices and groups of customers. The paper also discusses one of the main remaining regulatory issue, in Italy but also in other deregulated markets, which is the potential distortions due to the overlap of subsidised and planned Public Service Obligations with market services
Prime evidenze sul Carpooling in Italia: chi, dove e quando
Full text linkLe pratiche di mobilità innovativa (carsharing, carpooling, mobilità elettrica, etc.) mostrano una sempre maggiore penetrazione nel mercato italiano. Sebbene ancora marginali in termini di mobilità complessiva, esse rappresentano nicchie sempre più importanti in alcuni contesti, oltre che un’interessante fonte di informazioni sulle pratiche di mobilità. In questo articolo viene presentato e studiato un primo campione di dati raccolto dalla più conosciuta piattaforma web per il carpooling (BlaBlaCar). Il duplice fine che ci si propone è quello di poter, da un lato, comprendere meglio quali siano le dinamiche e la diffusione del servizio a scala nazionale e, dall'altro, di ottenere alcune informazioni sul segmento della mobilità meno noto alle statistiche, cioè la mobilità occasionale di lunga percorrenza. I primi risultati ottenuti mostrano come gli utilizzatori del servizio rappresentino ancora una quota marginale degli spostamenti che interessano la nostra penisola, ma diano utili indicazioni sulle attuali pratiche di mobilità. I viaggi offerti, ad esempio, si svolgono su distanze medie nell'ordine dei 300 km e sono maggiori a nord rispetto al resto della penisola. Inoltre, presentano diversi pattern di distribuzione settimanale a seconda del luogo di origine, così come una diversa diffusione geografica. Le grandi città, Milano in primo luogo, generano viaggi su aree molto ampie, mentre i capoluoghi di provincia presentano catchment area molto più limitate e polarizzate
Long-distance rail prices in a competitive market. Evidence from head-on competition in Italy
No full textRail liberalisation is far from homogeneous across Europe. Italy, thanks to a process started well before the European deadlines, is now one of the most interesting continental markets, at least limited to long-distance segment. The paper aims at understanding the pricing strategies of the two domestic Italian rail companies, with a focus on price discrimination using traditional methods and yield management. We are also investigating if price levels depend on the type of route and in particular on the presence or absence of intra-modal competition. Methodologically, the paper computes the price-per-km and the price dispersion for about thirty OD pairs in Italy for nearly two years, using observed prices. Routes cover the entire mainland of the country and represent different situations in terms of high-speed/conventional infrastructure and competition. We find that incumbent's prices are higher than the competitors. However, the incumbent is not applying higher prices on non-competing routes. This fact tells us that competition is not the only element ruling the prices, but also demand, capacity, users' willingness to pay, and obviously distance. These considerations are also useful to understand the network-strategy followed until now by the newcomer and what could happen in the future
Integration between Transport Models and Cost-Benefit Analysis to Support Decision-Making Practices: Two Applications in Northern Italy
Full text linkDecisions on transport plans and projects involve relevant public investments and may also determine radical changes in users' costs. Unfortunately, it is not rare that - especially at the strategic planning stage - decisions on alternative projects or scenarios are made on a qualitative basis or, at best, by setting some indicators and verifying how much they reach the politically decided targets (e.g., "increasing the use of bicycles by 10%"). In order to reduce subjectivity, a more quantitative and comprehensive approach to the evaluation is needed. A Cost-Benefit Analysis is a tool commonly used to assess public expenditure, but its application to mobility plans introduces further practical and theoretical complexities. In this paper, we will thus try to contribute to the topic of the assessment of both sustainable mobility transport plans and infrastructure projects by presenting the operative application of a CBA methodology that is, at the same time, theoretically coherent and rich in outputs to support the decision-maker. Moreover, we will discuss the possible use of GIS software in order to provide to the decision-makers a clear and immediate "picture" of the effects on the network linked to different scenarios. The structure is as follows. Firstly, we discuss the complexities involved in the evaluation of plans with respect to a single infrastructure. Secondly, we introduce the available approaches for the assessment of consumer surplus, namely, the Rule of Half and the logsum function method, which allow the perfect integration between CBA and transport models. Thirdly, we present, through some operative case studies, the methodologies applied to the assessment and the network effects visualization of the urban mobility plan and new infrastructures. Finally, we underline how we can make the results more understandable to politicians, policy-makers, stakeholders, and citizens and in general improve the transparency and the awareness of the choices
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
Full text linkThe present study examines one of the fundamental aspects of author co-citation analysis (ACA) - the way co-citation
counts are defined. Co-citation counting provides the data on which all subsequent statistical analyses and mappings
are based, and we compare ACA results based on two different types of co-citation counting - the traditional type that
only counts the first one among a cited work's authors on the one hand and a non-traditional type that takes into
account the first 5 authors of a cited work on the other hand. Results indicate that the picture produced through this non-traditional author co-citation counting contains more coherent author groups and is therefore considerably clearer. However, this picture represents fewer specialties in the research field being studied than that produced through the traditional first-author co-citation counting when the same number of top-ranked authors is selected and analyzed. Reasons for these effects are discussed
Variations on the Author
Full text link“Variations on the Author” discusses two of Eduardo Coutinho’s recent films (Um Dia na Vida, from 2010, and Últimas Conversas, posthumously released in 2015) and their contribution to the general question of documentary authorship. The director’s filmography is characterized by a consistent yet self-effacing form of authorial self-inscription: Coutinho often features as an interviewer that rather than express opinions propels discourses; an interviewer that is good at listening. This mode of self-inscription characterizes him as an author who is not expressive but who is nonetheless markedly present on the screen. In Um Dia na Vida, however, Coutinho is completely absent form the image, while Últimas Conversas, on the contrary, includes a confessional prologue that moves the director from the margins to the center of his films. This article examines the ways in which these works stand out in the filmography of a director who offers new insights into the notion of cinematic authorship
Appropriate Similarity Measures for Author Cocitation Analysis
Full text linkWe provide a number of new insights into the methodological discussion about author cocitation analysis. We first argue that the use of the Pearson correlation for measuring the similarity between authors’ cocitation profiles is not very satisfactory. We then discuss what kind of similarity measures may be used as an alternative to the Pearson correlation. We consider three similarity measures in particular. One is the well-known cosine. The other two similarity measures have not been used before in the bibliometric literature. Finally, we show by means of an example that our findings have a high practical relevance.information science;Pearson correlation;cosine;similarity measure;author cocitation analysis
Dispelling the Myths Behind First-author Citation Counts
Full text linkWe conducted a full-scale evaluative citation analysis study of scholars in the XML research field to explore just how different from each other author rankings resulting from different citation counting methods actually are, and to demonstrate the capability of emerging data and tools on the Web in supporting more realistic citation counting methods. Our results contest some common arguments for the continued
use of first-author citation counts in the evaluation of scholars, such as high correlations between author rankings by first-author citation counts and other citation
counting methods, and high costs of using more realistic citation counting methods that are not well-supported by the ISI databases. It is argued that increasingly available digital full text research papers make it possible for citation analysis studies to go beyond what the ISI databases have directly supported and to employ more
sophisticated methods
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