GE 541 The Economic Geography of Transport

September 2, 2008

Introduction to the Course

Transport provides utility of a place at a distance

1. expands the range of your activities

- broadens your horizons

e.g. Adam Smith as a gentleman’s tutor

2. as transport costs fall, increased flows

• of people • of goods • of services • of ideas, knowledge and culture

3. Transport as a transforming force

When aided by new operational processes and organizational changes in transport using activities

Promotion of a new economic geography of production and consumption

Importance of Transport

Transport innovations and how they transform the economy, the settlement and knit together various regions & countries

Physical innovations (e.g. containers, jet air craft & the interstate highway system

Non physical innovations e.g. business logistical systems - reinvention of crossboard flows of goods

Course will focus on the following topics:

History of Transport is One of Innovation

Infrequent at first (e.g., wheel, stirrup, sailing ship)

Quickening pace in recent times

e.g. steamship, locomotive, electric streetcar, internal combustion engines, jet aircraft, containers, ‘megaships’

also, tunnels, suspension bridges, rail roads, interstate, modern airports & marine terminals.

vehicles

infrastructure

Logistical Innovations

Transformation of production by transport and IT

Economic Consequences of Transport Investment

- Microeconomic Modeling

- Macroeconomic Modeling

- Broader Economic Consequences

- Evidence from Economic History

- General Equilibrium Modeling

Transport Externalities

- Congestion

- Pollution

Urban Public Transportationin Advanced Countries

• Affluence, social incentives and automobility

• Declining transit

• Environmental concerns and policy responses

Transport Regulation, Deregulation

Competition and Privatization

Urban Transportation Issues in Industrializing Countries