Network industries have undergone a deep process of reform, including both changes in their vertical integration and in the possibilities of introducing competition at different stages. The characteristics of different sectors and the willingness of different countries to approach those changes from alternative perspectives have created a wide array of examples and experiences. The aim of this workshop is to revise some of these cases from a multi-sectorial perspective in order to learn about their relative success, or failure.

The programme of the workshop covers different infrastructure-based markets. Professor Yves Crozet (Université de Lyon) will address the implications of opening high-speed rail markets to competition, with a simulation of its impacts in the French case. Mattia Nardotto (Universität zu Köln) will present a paper on the effects of broadband telecomunications policies in the UK at the local level. Finally, Xavier Fageda (Universitat de Barcelona) will analyse the response of airlines of different types to the liberalisation of air markets in Europe and the development of low cost carriers. The papers will be discussed by Germà Bel, Francesc Trillas and Ofelia Betancor.

The role that competition plays in the provision of public transport services varies widely in Europe. Different countries have introduced mechanisms of competition both in rail and bus services, with their performance depending on a combination of institutional and market-level variables. Other countries, however, have taken a much slower path in opening their services to competition, either for or in the market. One of the critical issues seems to depend on the way in which tendering public transport services is applied in practice.

We empirically estimate the effects of regulated access prices and firms’ multinational status on firm performance by using firm, corporate group, and country level information for the European broadband market between 2002 and 2010. Three measures of firm performance are used, namely: market share, turnover and productivity. Special attention is paid to differences in the impact on the performance measures depending on a firm’s position as either a market incumbent or entrant. We find that while access prices have a negative effect on entrants’ market share and turnover, the effect on incumbents’ market share, turnover and productivity is positive. Further, we find that multinational entrants perform better than national entrants in terms of their market share but worse in terms of their turnover and productivity. The opposite is true of incumbent multinationals which perform better than nationals in terms of their turnover and productivity but worse in terms of their market share. This confirms that a firm’s multinational status has a significant impact on its performance, and that this impact differs for incumbents and entrants. Finally, when evaluating the impact of access prices on firm performance at the mean performance of national and multinational firms, we find that the impact of access prices is lower for multinational than for national firms.

Although the transport sector cannot be considered as one of the culprits of the current economic crisis, it is obviously influenced by its consequences. The ability of the public sector to finance new infrastructure projects or to subsidise the operational deficits of public transport modes has certainly diminished. This is forcing administrations around the world to reassess their investment and pricing policies. Other current debates in transport economics focus on the possibilities of curbing atmospheric emissions, the effects of liberalising sectors that had been insulated from competition or the changes in accessibility due to urban and regional transformations, among others.

The aim of this meeting is to discuss recent research in the area of transport economics. The meeting will focus on issues related to pricing, investment and competition. However, research papers in other areas of transport economics and infrastructure analysis are also welcome both from empirical and theoretical perspectives. Between 10 and 12 papers will be accepted for presentation and discussion at the meeting, which will take place during a single day at the University of Barcelona (Av. Diagonal, 690, Barcelona).

Year 2013 has been declared by the European Commission as the “Year of Air”. The right of citizens to breathe clean air has become a priority objective within the European environmental policy. In this context the environmental impact of transport is quite relevant.

Transport activities not only negatively affect the air quality, but there are also other important externalities to consider like noise, global warming, landscape impacts, flora and fauna effects, etc. According to the European Environment Agency, transport accounts for around a third of all final energy consumption and for more than a fifth of greenhouse gas emissions. It is also responsible for a large share of urban air pollution as well as noise nuisance. Furthermore, transport has a serious impact on the landscape because it divides natural areas into small patches with serious consequences for animals and plants.

The long term environmental objectives of the EU are stated in the 2011 White Paper «Roadmap to a Single European Transport Area». According to this policy paper a reduction of at least 60% of global warming gases by 2050 with respect to 1990 is required from the transport sector. To that end it is foreseen halving the use of ‘conventionally-fuelled’ cars in urban transport by 2030 and phase them out in cities by 2050. In addition, 50% of interurban transport should shift to other modes such as rail or waterborne transport by 2050. Meeting this goal will also require the development of appropriate infrastructure.

The discussions that will take place in this workshop will address several of the aforementioned issues. The workshop includes three presentations by prestigious academics within the area of environmental transport economics. Professor Stef Proost (Katholieke Universiteit Leuven) will discuss the economics of local air pollution, energy supply and climate change with relation to road transport. He will analyze a wide set of instruments to deal with each of the three issues. Professor David Banister (University of Oxford) will examine the different policy solutions to address the impact on environment derived from the growth of CO2-intensive transport and mobility. Finally, Pilar Socorro (Universidad de Las Palmas de Gran Canaria) will discuss the implications of the European Trading System devised for the airline market on market competition. The papers will be discussed by Xavier Labandeira, Emilio Padilla and Gustavo Nombela, respectively. The workshop ends up with a round table that analyses the issue of aviation and emission trading systems. In this round table there will be representatives from the airline industry, public institutions and private firms.

Using a panel of 48 provinces for four years we empirically analyze a series of temporary policies aimed at curbing fuel consumption implemented in Spain between March and June 2011. The first policy was a reduction in the speed limit in highways. The second policy was an increase in the biofuel content of fuels used in the transport sector. The third measure was a reduction of 5% in commuting and regional train fares that resulted in two major metropolitan areas reducing their overall fare for public transit. The results indicate that the speed limit reduction in highways reduced gasoline consumption by between 2% and 3%, while an increase in the biofuel content of gasoline increased this consumption. This last result is consistent with experimental evidence that indicates that mileage per liter falls with an increase in the biofuel content in gasolines. As for the reduction in transit fares, we do not find a significant effect for this policy. However, in specifications including the urban transit fare for the major cities in each province the estimated cross-price elasticity of the demand for gasoline -used as a proxy for car use- with respect to the price of transit is within the range reported in the literature. This is important since one of the main efficiency justification for subsidizing public transit rests on the positive value of this parameter and most of the estimates reported in the literature are quite dated.