Saksith Chalermpong

Rail Transit and Residential Land Use in Developing Countries: Hedonic Study of Residential Property Prices in Bangkok, Thailand

The effects of public transit improvements on residential land use in general, and on residential property prices in particular, have not been well investigated in developing countries. Such an understanding is necessary for the formulation of value capture policies, which can be instrumental in the financing of transit infrastructure. In this paper past studies on the effect of transit improvements on property prices in developing countries are reviewed, and the hedonic models are developed to examine this relationship in Bangkok, Thailand. Spatial regression models are estimated with data on multifamily residential properties near the Bangkok transit systems stations. Estimation results show that the premium of transit accessibility is approximately

Impact of Airport Noise on Property Values: Case of Suvarnabhumi International Airport, Bangkok, Thailand

10 for every meter closer to a station, and the price elasticity with respect to the distance to the nearest station is roughly −0.09. These findings are consistent with the range found in past studies from other developing countries. The substantial premium of transit accessibility implies that there is a great potential for the use of value capture policies to raise additional funds for investments in Bangkoks transit system.

Empirical Study of Economic Spillovers of Interstate 105 in Los Angeles County

The impact of airport noise on home prices has received much attention in North America, where many hedonic price studies have been performed to examine the issue. In developing countries, however, extremely limited academic work on this topic has been conducted. The recent opening of Suvarnabhumi Airport in Bangkok, Thailand, presented a unique opportunity to address this research gap. In this paper, sales data of new homes near the airport that were sold between 2002 and 2008 are used to examine both the anticipatory effect and actual effects of airport noise on home prices. On the basis of this data set, hedonic price models are estimated and subjected to various diagnostic tests, including those for heteroscedasticity and spatial autocorrelation. The results show no anticipatory effects of airport noise on prices before the beginning of airport operations in 2006. More important, prices of new properties sold after 2006 are 19.15% lower in the most severely affected area and 8.55% lower in moderately affected areas. These estimates imply a noise depreciation index of 2.12% per decibel, which is in the high range of values found in the literature and implies that the potential benefits of a noise reduction program at Suvarnabhumi Airport might be substantial.

Market and Institutional Characteristics of Passenger Van Services in Bangkok, Thailand

Many researchers agree that at this time new investments in highways in the United States have little impact on overall growth in output. New highways play a more important role in shifting economic activities among places, drawing jobs from other locations into the highway corridors—a phenomenon known as negative spillovers. Testing the hypothesis of economic spillovers of highway investment at the metropolitan level is the objective. Empirical tests of the spillover hypothesis are conducted with census tracts as the unit of observation. Results of the quasi-experiment reveal census tract employment growth patterns that confirm the existence of negative spillovers caused by the 1993 opening of Los Angeles Countys Interstate 105. The benefiting area, which is limited to a long narrow corridor around the highway, grew substantially after the highway was opened, while nearby locations outside the corridor experienced slow growth relative to the rest of the metropolitan area, after controlling for various factors. These results show that negative spillovers from new highways are present not only at the aggregate geographic level, such as states or counties, as demonstrated in the literature, but also at the highly localized level, that is, in a metropolitan area.

Valuing Aviation Noise with the Contingent Valuation Method: Case of Suvarnabhumi Airport, Bangkok, Thailand

The market and institutional characteristics of passenger van services in Bangkok, Thailand, are examined. Empirical evidence from the field survey, which included route and ownership types and cost structures, is presented first. Then regulatory and institutional issues in the van services are discussed, with particular attention to the dominant roles of route associations. It was found that passenger vans provide indispensable services to travelers in Bangkok, in terms of both point-to-point services between residential areas and commercial centers and feeder services connecting areas underserved by public transport to rail transit systems. Starting as informal services, passenger vans in Bangkok have become legalized over the years. With constantly growing demand and supply restriction by excessive regulations, the licenses for legal operation have become prohibitively expensive. Together with lax regulatory enforcement and prevalent corruption, there is a proliferation of unregistered vans that compete directly against registered vans. The conclusion contains policy recommendations.

How Operators’ Legal Status Affects Safety of Intercity Buses in Thailand:

Aviation noise from Suvarnabhumi Airport, Bangkok, Thailand, has had a severe impact on the quality of life of people who live in the surrounding areas since the airport began operation in 2006. The airport authority offered to buy homes in the most severely affected areas or to provide funds to soundproof them, but the compensation program was aimed mainly at homeowners, not renters of apartments or dormitories. In previous studies in Thailand, the focus was on examining the noise depreciation of home values by hedonic price modeling. In this paper, the scope of previous research is broadened to include the noise impact on renters by using the contingent valuation method to examine their willingness to accept compensation (WTA) when the noise level increases. Estimation of WTA was based on a choice experiment in which subjects were asked to evaluate alternatives in hypothetical scenarios and to select their preferred alternative. Scenarios with various levels of flight frequency and amounts of compensation were systematically developed to study trade-off behavior between these attributes. Coefficient estimates of the multinomial logit model imply that the WTA for an increase of one flight movement ranges from 18.87 to 68.62 baht (US

How the Poor Commute in Bangkok, Thailand

0.63 to US

How Land Use Affects Station Access Behaviors of Bus Rapid Transit Passengers in Bangkok, Thailand

2.29) per month. The results of this study can be useful in informing the airport authoritys noise compensation policy, which needs to be revised in the near future in light of plans for the airports expansion.

Monopoly Rents in Motorcycle Taxi Services in Bangkok, Thailand

Legalization is often a policy solution to perceived problems of inefficient and unsafe operation of informal buses in developing countries. Facing the world’s second worst road safety record, the Thai government is set to ban the use of vans for intercity bus services and is considering banning individual operators and requiring them to form a legal entity. A question thus arises whether an operator’s legal status significantly affects bus safety. This paper aims to answer that question by analyzing route-level data on accidents and legal status of intercity bus operators. The results of Poisson and negative binomial regression analyses confirm that the use of vans increases accident and fatality risks of intercity bus services. But the evidence does not support the government’s claim that requiring operators to register as legal entities would make intercity services safer. For long-distance routes, more bus companies mean greater accident risks. The only situation where more individual operators mean higher safety risks is with fatality rates on long-distance routes. However, fatality rates are actually lower with more individual operators on short-distance routes. This is likely because most individual operators on short-distance routes belong to informal operator groups that adopt internal rules and procedures to govern members’ behaviors. The key policy implications are that mandatory legal registration of operators does not automatically enhance bus safety, and that safety measures should focus on operational characteristics and actual practice.

Specification issues in models of population and employment growth

This study examined how the poor traveled to work in Bangkok, Thailand. Two sets of travel surveys were conducted in groups categorized as low income: residents in low-income communities and low-paid workers in various job locations. The results confirmed the general understanding that travel behaviors of the poor depended not only on income but also on public transport availability, job location, and home community location. Suburban residents with limited public transport services tended to travel by private motorcycles and to spend a large portion of household transport expenditures on vehicle and fuel costs. Others who lived near public transport services depended more on public transport and spent a larger share of transport expenditures on fares. No significant difference in household transport expenditures between the two groups was found. The travel survey by occupation revealed that privately owned motorcycles were the most popular mode, followed by employer-provided transport and public buses. Informal modes constituted a small share because of the relatively high fares. The average commute costs of informal modes were higher than the average cost of public buses and were closer to the average cost of private motorcycles. Male commuters were more dependent on private motorcycles and less on public transport than female commuters. With age, dependence on private motorcycles increased and dependence on public transport decreased. Average commute times did not vary significantly among occupational groups. These results highlighted the importance of low-cost public transport to vulnerable subgroups of the urban poor.