1,721,104 research outputs found

    Heterogeneity in urban freight policy impact: own-account agents in Rome’s LTZ, Working Paper SIET

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    Urban freight policy-making aims to improve the efficiency of freight movement in cities. Importantly, contemplated policies impact on complex pre-existent relationships among various agents operating in the distribution chain. The most relevant operators to study are: retailers, transport providers and own-account. There is a lack of knowledge concerning the specificities of these agent-types behaviour that calls for a more detailed analysis at the agent-specific level. This paper focuses on Urban Freight Transport (UFT) where an agent-specific policy analysis is carried out with specific attention to own account agents. Own account is, in fact, among the least studied agent-types in this context. This lack of attention is mainly due to the difficulty in acquiring data concerning their preferences and also to the widely accepted presumption concerning their relative inefficiency often giving rise to highly penalizing policies specifically aimed at this group. The empirical results reported are derived from a study conducted in the limited traffic zone (LTZ) in Rome's city centre in 2009. The analysis is based on a highly detailed and representative data set. This include both general information on the specific respondent involved along with company characteristics as well as stated ranking exercises (SRE) where interviewees are presented with alternative policy scenarios and asked to rank them according to their preference structure. The paper reports on the specific preference structure for own account operators. The paper proposes a systematic comparison, via WTP/WTA measures, between the potentially inaccurate estimates deriving from a simplistic analysis of preferences and those originating from an advanced treatment of preference heterogeneity. These considerations are prodromal to potentially distorted policy forecasts that, in turn, would be fed into micro simulation models to evaluate policy impacts. Various forms of heterogeneity are explored. The data allow the analysis, among other socioeconomic characteristics, of the impact that belonging to specific macro-freight-sectors has on the attributes used in the SRE. Furthermore, adopting a latent class (LC) specification, we test for the presence of respondent clusters in evaluating the policy mix considered for implementation. The paper addresses methodologically innovative issues; uses a new, detailed and significant data set; discusses a policy relevant issue and produces useful information from a policy-making perspective. The quantification of WTP and WTA measures for possible policies to be implemented provides an important benchmark both for policy makers as well as for researchers in this sector

    Multi-level governance and transport policy: the road of local policy in Italy

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    Italy is a multi-level polity where policymaking and implementation involves both public and private actors. Both territorial and functional decentralisation have an impact on the 8nal results of policy making. In fact, territorial decentralisation implies the delegation of functions to wide multi-purpose tiers of sub-national governance, which has been a central dynamic of Italian governance. Furthermore functional decentralisation stresses the assignment of functions, vertically and horizontally, to single-purpose quasiautonomous agencies. Multi level governance (MLG) aims at understanding the nature and explaining the structure of governance networks, their inter-relationship with control, capacity, accountability and e9ciency of political systems (Bache and Flinders, 2004 ; Piattoni, 2010 ). To date, only a limited use has been made of this important instrument of analysis, at least in Italy, in transport policy, in general, and in the road sector, in particular. Research in various domains such as political geography (Shaw et al., 2009), regional and urban studies (Kern and Bulkeley, 2009) and institutional economics (Marsden et al., 2009) have all stressed the crucial role governance plays in the transport sector notwithstanding the lack of a common framework of analysis. The paper synthetically reports the de8nitions of MLG proposed, describing their characteristics and clarifying their implications for the transport sector, as well as discussing the implications of a speci8c MLG for the transport sector regulatory system and for the role of local public authorities. Management and programs of the local road sector in Italy are discussed with a particular focus on the di:erent types of solutions adopted and to the impact on the level of integration among di:erent governance levels. Finally a critical discussion of the situation of the local road sector in Italy, its governability and some suggestions for the future are reported
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