Transport Economic Theory

Book details for Transport Economic Theory

Contributor(s): Sergio Jara-Diaz (author),

Format: Hardback, 234 x 156 x 9mm , 148 pp, Illustrations

Publication date: 18 Jul 2007

Imprint: Elsevier Science Ltd

ISBN: 9780080450285

Price: £65.95

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Synopsis

The study of transport is the study of movements, of displacements of individuals and things in both space and time. The objective of this book is to provide the basic concepts and tools for the economic analysis of transport systems, with emphasis on the behaviour of users and operators. Distinctive features will be introduced and treated as the natural consequence of processes that deal with displacements in space-time. Emphasis will be given to the operation of transportation systems, i.e. to the actual form of combining vehicles, terminals and rights-of-way in order to produce certain level of flows of different things in different directions. Thus, ours will be a short run oriented view, dealing with the adequate usage of resources for given levels of investment. This book focuses on the behavior of users and operators outside of traditional economic behavior theory. It includes time and space as a distinctive feature of transport economics.

Reviews

I congratulate Sergio Jara-Diaz on the publication of Transport Economic Theory. This book addresses the fundamental economic questions of how to design and evaluate transportation projects and price transportation services. It is a definitive and concise exposition of the applicable economic theory of resource valuation and allocation, and adds to that theory in the areas of spatial technology and the valuation of benefits from public projectsA". Sergio's book provides a solid theoretical foundation for the principles that, if employed in transportation planning and policy choices, will improve transportation systems and the lives of consumers who use them.A" Daniel L. McFadden, 2000 Nobel Laureate in Economics, University of California, Berkeley. This is a book that is well overdue that finally integrates, in such a poetic way, the important contribution to transport microeconomic theory that Sergio Jara-Diaz has made over the last 25 years. A serious student of transport economics, admittedly one with some appreciation of essential mathematical tools, will find this book essential reading, almost the status of a primer. It is rich in structure and content but, most importantly, flows naturally as the author builds up the theoretical toolkit in economic theories of production, cost, demand, valuation and pricing. The emphasis on space and time is crucial to transport economics and Sergio Jara-Diaz is a master of the craft in developing, demonstrating and convincing everyone of the way in which space and time should be built into the theory of transport economics. It is worth investing time in reading this book, since it will save time in having to wade through the enormous literature in the journals and other books. This book has reset the benchmark in scholarship in transport economicsA". Professor David A. Hensher FASSA, Director, Faculty of Economics and Business, Institute of Transport and Logistics Studies, The University of Sydney.