Se-il Mun

Optimal cordon pricing

Abstract This paper presents a simple spatial model of traffic congestion for a monocentric city to investigate the effects of cordon pricing on trip-making and congestion level in each location. Optimal cordon pricing is obtained as a combination of the cordon location (i.e., distance of the cordon from the CBD) and the amount of toll charged there that maximizes the total social surplus in a city. Under optimal cordon pricing, trips originating from locations inside the cordon are under-priced, those just outside the cordon are over-priced and those near the urban fringe are under-priced. Numerical simulations using the parameter values based on Japanese data suggest that cordon pricing attains an economic welfare level very close to the first-best optimum.

Traffic jams and the congestion toll

The theory of congestion tolls, in particular, the traffic jam, is developed. A dynamic model of traffic flow is presented that describes the formation and development of the traffic jam based on the theory of kinematic waves. I demonstrate the dynamic externality present when traffic is jammed. Furthermore, I obtained some results that differ from those based on the conventional approach: (a) the cost curve for travel on a long road does not include the backward-bending section that appears in the conventional approach; (b) I allow for traffic jams during optimal use of road.

Impacts of Developments in Telecommunication Systems on Travel Demand and the Location of Office Firms

Office firms must communicate with other firms, mainly via face-to- face contacts. It has been understood that the need for such contacts is the driving force behind the agglomeration of office firms in the downtown area of cities; see, for example, O’Hara, (1977); Fujita and Ogawa, (1982); Tauchen and Witte, (1983, 1984).

Communication among Firms, Traffic Congestion and Office Agglomeration

In this paper, we propose a model of office location which deals explicitly with the role of face-to-face contacts among firms. In the model, the frequency of contacts with other firms are endogenously determined. The trade-off between communication activity and routine work is described by introducing a time constraint on working hours. Through numerical simulations, the properties of office location are demonstrated. First, the impacts of changes in model parameters on the spatial distribution of office firms are analyzed. Second, by taking account of traffic congestion on the road network as an agglomeration diseconomy, various patterns of office distribution are described.

Effects of urban transportation system change on land prices in the setting of owner-occupied residence

Abstract The purpose of this study is to analyze the impact of transportation improvement on the land development process and land price structure in an owner-occupied residence setting. A dynamic model of household and landowner in which the role of land as an asset is explicitly considered is presented, and the process of land development and land price change after the announcement of transportation improvement is investigated. During the period between the announcement and the completion of urban transportation improvement, it is observed that the price of the land that is presently used for agriculture but will be developed in the future is higher than the agricultural land price.

The Economic System of Small-to-Medium Sized Regions in Japan

In Japan, since the end of World War II, the three largest metropolitan areas (Tokyo, Kinki, and Chukyo) have constantly experienced population growth and, in particular, the Tokyo metropolitan area has been attracting positive net population in-migration. In brief, population and economic activities have continued to concentrate in a few of the larger areas. The central government has attempted to alter this tendency to concentrate so as to disperse population and economic activities from central metropolitan areas to peripheral, less-dense areas through transportation system improvements, industry-related infrastructure investment, lower taxes and subsidies. However, this effort has not been very successful because such policies have not been effective in modifying the results brought about by market forces. In other words, planners intending to change the spatial structure of the economy need to investigate carefully the market forces prevailing in the existing system of regions. The present research is motivated by this conclusion.

Telecommunication Technologies and Optimal Location of Office Firms

This paper presents a model for optimal location of office firms in the circumstances that firms can communicate with each other not only face-to-face but also by telecommunications. We derive the conditions for optimal allocation and show that the decentralized market system fails to achieve the optimal location due to the external economies of agglomeration. Properties of the optimal location and the impacts of telecommunication technologies are investigated by means of numerical simulations.

A Land Use Model for Spatial Policy Analysis and Multi-Criteria Evaluation of Regional Development Planning

The land use models have been recognized as the powerful tool for spatial policy analysis, in which the models can be used for projection of future state of urban and regional systems which is influenced by implementation of public policies and measuring the effects of various kinds of policy alternatives. Despite of an increasing emphasis on the roles of land use models, the almost past researches were only aimed to improve the explanation of locational behavior including refinement and extension of models, new procedures of estimation and of model validation, and relatively little efforts have been spent toward the exploitation of the possibility to achieve a better methodology for actual policy making by means of land use models.