This course teaches how principles of economics can be applied to evaluate the effects of transportation plans and/or policies.
By the end of this course, students will understand the economic framework to analyze the supply and demands for transportation.
Economics, Microeconomics, Transportation Economics, Transport Policy, Cost Benefit Analysis, Urban Economics
✔ Specialist skills | Intercultural skills | Communication skills | Critical thinking skills | Practical and/or problem-solving skills |
While teaching theoretical foundations of microeconomics, four assignments will be given to students. Final exam or final presentation will be conducted.
Course schedule | Required learning | |
---|---|---|
Class 1 | Introduction of Economic Theory for Transportation Studies | - Aims & Scopes of this Course - Introduction to Microeconomics |
Class 2 | Transportation Demand: Case of Divisible Goods | Basic concepts of Consumer Behavior Theory -Preferences -Utility -Choice -Elasticity, Income effect, Substitute/Complementary -Indirect utility -Welfare measures (Consumer surplus, EV, CV) |
Class 3 | Transportation Demand: Case of Discrete Goods | - Discrete choice model - Travel mode choice - Value of travel time |
Class 4 | Firm Production and Cost in Transportation | - Production technology - Production costs - Transportation costs |
Class 5 | Congestion Pricing: Theory and Practice | - Fundamentals of static congestion pricing - Fundamentals of dynamic congestion pricing - Practices of congestion pricing |
Class 6 | Emergence of Cities and Agglomeration | - Economics of agglomeration - Location choice and transport cost |
Class 7 | Land Use Pattern in a City: Urban Spatial Structure | - Land use pattern - Bid-rent curve |
Lecture materials will be uploaded and delivered via OCWi
Varian, H.R. “Microeconomic Analysis,” Norton, 1992.
McCarthy, P. “Transportation Economics,” Blackwell, 2001.
Small, K. and Verhoef, E. “The Economics of Urban Transportation,” Routledge, 2007.
Jara-Diaz, S. “Transport Economic Theory,” Elsevier, 2007.
Brueckner, J. “Lectures on Urban Economics,” The MIT Press, 2011.
- Assignments (40%)
- Final exam or final presentation (60%)
Participants should have fundamental knowledge on mathematical modeling of human behavior, particularly the one about microeconomics.