Congestion, taxes & welfare : the effects of congestion externalities on spatial equilibrium
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2021
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Abstract
We study the effects of congestion externalities on spatial equilibrium. We develop a quantitative spatial trade model capable of characterizing a decentralized equilibrium in the presence of congestion externalities. This model contemplates a neoclassical economy with labor mobility in which locations are arranged on a graph, goods are shipped between locations through routes optimally chosen by a transport sector, and where transport costs depend on congestion, road infrastructure and other factors. We allow the possibility of internalizing the externalities by including a planner who imposes pricing on the transport network and redistributes taxes among consumers. We study different sets of corrective taxes on the transport network. We show that congestion externalities affect spatial distribution, evidencing the biases of the efficient equilibrium analysis. We show heterogeneous effects on trade flows, prices and consumption according to which cities show greater dependence on trade. We find that target pricing rises transportation costs of non-priced routes, as the trader compensates with more intensive use of alternative routes. We show heterogeneous effects on individual’s welfare, concluding that pricing policies increase income and equality in utility distribution. We also show that externalities affect production intensity with heterogeneous effects on labor allocation in cities. Additionally, we find that congestion externalities affect labor distribution, increasing agglomeration in the most productive cities, and show that pricing policies increase welfare and homogeneity in labor distribution. Finally, we show that target pricing generates
labor migration to cities less dependent on priced routes.
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Tesis (Magíster en Economía)--Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, 2021