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"Albalate, Daniel"
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The privatisation and nationalisation of European roads : success and failure in public-private partnerships
This distinctive and timely book examines the current state and trends in the ownership, management and financing of European high capacity roads. Offering an analysis of three pioneer countries in road privatization, Spain, France and Italy, from their origins to their recent developments, it evaluates how the design of privatisation policies may lead to their success or failure. Describing the trend in favouring public-private collaboration and road charging, Professor Daniel Albalate presents the theoretical framework of road privatisation and its relevant design issues. Exhaustively studying the national experiences in historical perspective, he aims at providing lessons on the good, the bad and the ugly of road privatisation. As a result, this excellent study shows the increasing role of private financing and ownership in Europe, a trend mainly explained by fiscal motivations and the thrust of the European Commission. Presenting an evaluation of the critical elements of the contractual and regulatory design of the public-private collaboration that determines the likelihood of success and failure, this unique book will be of special interest to academics, graduate students and policy makers interested in the public provision and financing of road infrastructure, and public finance more generally. --Publisher description.
Book
High-Speed Rail: Lessons for Policy Makers from Experiences Abroad
In April2009, the U.S. government unveiled its blueprint for a national network of high-speed passenger rail (HSR) lines, aimed at reducing traffic congestion, cutting national dependence on foreign oil, and improving rural and urban environments. In implementing such a project, it is essential to identify the factors that might influence decision making and the eventual success of the HSR project, as well as to foresee the obstacles that must be overcome. The authors review, summarize, and analyze the most important HSR projects carried out to date around the globe, focusing on the main concerns of HSR projects: their impact on mobility, the environment, the economy, and urban centers. The authors identify lessons for policy makers and managers who are implementing HSR projects.
Journal Article
The Economics and Politics of High-Speed Rail
The technological revolution linked to high speed rail (HSR) has been accompanied by myths and claims about its contribution to society and the economy. Although HSR is unquestionably a technological advance that has become a symbol of modernity, this review and analysis of the international experiences shows that the conditions necessary to have a positive impact, economically, socially and environmentally, are enormously restrictive. The Economics and Politics of High Speed Rail: Lessons from Experiences Abroad, by Daniel Albalate and Germà Bel, introduces the main questions policy makers and scholars should examine when considering and studying HSR implementation, with particular emphasis on the US’s recent interest in this technology and possible application in California. Albalate and Bel then review the experiences of the most significant implementations of HSR around the globe. This in-depth international perspective includes chapters on the pioneers of HSR (Japan and France), the European followers (Germany, Spain and Italy), as well as Asian experiences in China, Taiwan, and Korea. Albalate and Bel’s study provides a clear distinction between the myths and realities associated with this transportation innovation. Among the most relevant findings, this study highlights how HSR projects that do not satisfy highly restrictive conditions—on mobility patterns, measured costs, and economically rational designs—that make it desirable have been the source of huge financial debacles and the economic failure of HSR in most cases, which result in unfortunate consequences for taxpayers. The Economics and Politics of High Speed Rail is a rigorous investigation of the economic and political challenges and ramifications of implementing new public transportation technology.
eBook
Congestion, Road Safety, and the Effectiveness of Public Policies in Urban Areas
Congestion and road accidents are both considered essential challenges for sustainable mobility in large cities, but their relationship is only partially explored by the literature. In this paper, we empirically examine different public policies aimed at reducing urban traffic congestion but which may also have indirect effects on road accidents and casualties. We use data from 25 large urban areas in Spain for the period 2008–2017 and apply econometric methods to investigate how a variety of public policies do affect both negative externalities. Although the relationship between congestion and road safety is complex, we find that the promotion of certain modes of public transportation and the regulation of parking spaces may contribute to making cities more sustainable, both in terms of the time spent traveling and the probability of being affected by an accident. Considering whether policies addressing congestion improve or damage road safety as an indirect result is a useful approach for local policy-makers and planners in their attempt to get sustainable transportation outcomes.
Journal Article
Entry Regulation Asymmetries and Petrol Competition in a Mixed Motorway Network
Regulatory and funding asymmetries in the Spanish motorway network produce huge differences in the structure of petrol markets. While competition is encouraged among petrol stations on free motorways, the regulations for toll motorways allow private concessionaires to auction all petrol stations to the same provider, thereby limiting competition and consolidating market power. This paper reports how this regulatory asymmetry results in higher prices and fewer stations. Specifically, we empirically show that competition is constrained on toll motorways by the granting of geographical monopolies. The lack of competition would seem to account for the price differential between toll and free motorways.
Journal Article
Weakening political connections by means of regulatory reform: Evidence from contracting out water services in Spain
One area of public policy where rent-seeking and favoritism is relatively common is the contracting out of public services. Private firms can improve their chances of obtaining contracts by bribing politicians or public servants and funding political parties. In the same vein, firms can gain access to policymakers by hiring influential former politicians—a practice commonly referred to as
revolving-doors
. In this paper, we use information from 922 privatizations of water services in Spanish municipalities between 1984 and 2016 and multinomial logistic regression techniques to study the association between specific firms securing contracts and the political parties ruling the municipalities. We find robust statistical evidence of an association between the Popular Party (
Partido Popular
or PP) and the firm
Aqualia
, part of the large Spanish holding company
Fomento de Construcciones y Contratas
(FCC), which is known to have funded the Popular Party. Furthermore, former PP politicians have been appointed to top positions in the FCC Board of Directors. However, this relationship weakened after the institutional reform of 2007 on public procurement and financing of political parties, which is empirically evaluated in this paper.
Journal Article
Lowering blood alcohol content levels to save lives: The European experience
Road safety is of increasing concern in developed countries because of the significant number of deaths and large economic losses. One tool commonly used by governments to deal with road accidents is the enactment of stricter policies and regulations. Drunk driving is one of the leading concerns in this field and several European countries have decided to lower their illegal Blood Alcohol Content levels to 0.5 mg/ml over the last decade. This study uses European panel-based data (CARE) for the period 1991-2003 for the first time to evaluate the effectiveness of this transition by applying the differences-in-differences method in a fixed effects estimation that allows for any pattern of correlation (Cluster-Robust). The results show positive policy impacts, particularly on certain groups of victims, such as young males in urban zones. However, there are reasons to expect a short lag in that effectiveness.
Journal Article
The influence of population aging on global climate policy
We study the connection between the demographic transition to an aging population and global climate policy ambition in the outcomes from recent international agreements on climate change: We test whether the share of the elderly in a population is a significant determinant of the quantity and ambition of a country’s policy actions against climate change. We use different indicators of climate policy ambition as measured by the Nationally Determined Contributions (NDC) of the Paris Agreement as updated in the Glasgow Climate Pact. We also use the number of climate change laws passed in a country to further test robustness of main results. We resort to instrumental variables as part of our identification strategy to account for potential endogeneity. Our econometric results indicate a negative association between the share of the elderly and both policy ambition in climate agreements and the intensity of regulatory initiatives to fight climate change. This suggests that the increasing political influence of the older population as a consequence of aging hinders climate policy ambition. Policy implications are discussed.
Journal Article