Economics 4325

Additional Questions for Review

 

  1. What determines the pattern of traffic for commuters?

 

  1. Why is the supply side of interurban trips the public sector’s responsibility?

 

  1. Give three alternative schools of thought with regard to the role of urban policy toward public transportation.

 

  1. Why is the demand for personal transit in urban areas so complex?

 

  1. Why should an urban transportation system have to be tailored to each individual urban area?

 

  1. What are the effects of changes urban form, incomes, automobile ownership, and suburbanization on the relative importance of automobile versus public transit since WWII?

 

  1. In a modal choice model, what four factors affect individual decisions? What are the two components of transit cost?

 

  1. Why would more distant, higher income households favor autos as the lower cost method of journey-to-work trips?

 

  1. What would the be effects of each of the following on the demand for auto versus bus transit choice: (a) time savings in walking and waiting; (b) higher incomes; (c) higher central city parking fees; (d) greater automobile congestion costs?

 

  1. Why is congestion pricing a peak-load problem?

 

  1. Why is congestion viewed as a negative external cost that is not fully paid by private automobile users?

 

  1. What happens to the short-run efficiency of existing expressway capacity when a time of day congestion toll is charged? What should be the amount of that toll?

 

  1. Evaluate the relative effectiveness of the following forms of peak-load "pricing": (a) stop lights regulating expressway entry; (b) gasoline taxes; (c) commuter taxes; (d) higher central city parking fees; (e) express lanes for carpools.

 

  1. Why is the amount of additional capacity projected for investment in congested expressways likely to be underestimated?

 

  1. How could investment that lowers time cost of auto trips involve a tradeoff with pollution costs?

 

  1. How do threshold demand and lower average cost with increased traffic density affect the choice among private auto, bus, and fixed rail for urban transit use?

 

  1. How do urban poverty and urban transportation system relate? Is this a transportation problem, a housing problem, or job location problem?
  2. Make a recommendation concerning an optimal use of urban streets for intraurban freight transport.

 

  1. Give five reasons for the cries of fiscal crisis by central cities in urban areas.

 

  1. Why are local public goods and services not likely to be "pure" public goods? What does this imply about the methods used to supply the goods and services?

 

  1. What is the Tiebout Hypothesis? Does this result in the most efficient distribution of local goods and services?

 

  1. How does the Tiebout solution reduce the redistributive burden of poor households?

 

  1. How is the fiscal gain from the Tiebout solution capitalized into the value of housing?

 

  1. What limits the welfare efficiency of the Tiebout method of allocation?

 

  1. How does the Tiebout mechanism influence the distribution of educational services?

 

  1. How do centralization, vouchers, and privatization redistribute educational services more equitably?

 

  1. Suggest some solutions to closing down open air drug markets in urban areas.

 

  1. What are the two kinds of regulation by local governments?

 

  1. How are amenities, rents, wages, and location affected by pollution within urban areas?

 

  1. Why are the externalities of urbanization likely to be more severe in developing countries than in developed countries?

 

  1. Why are policies to restrict primacy or excessive size of the largest metropolitan areas likely to be beneficial in developing countries?

 

  1. What does the Kuznets curve show for developing countries?

 

  1. What is the likely effect of land reform to redistribute income in developing countries on the degree of urbanization?

 

  1. Since developing countries face a housing shortage with little filtering, what is likely to be the geographic location low income squatter settlements? How is government likely to respond to the problem of squatters?