There have been dramatic swings in retail gasoline prices over the past decade, along with reports in the media of consumers changing their driving habits – providing a unique opportunity to examine how consumers respond to changes in gasoline prices. This paper exploits a unique and extremely rich vehicle-level dataset of all new vehicles registered in California in 2001-2003 and then subsequently given a smog check in 2005-2009, a period of steady economic growth but rapidly increasing gasoline prices after 2005. The primary empirical result is a medium-run estimate of the the elasticity of vehicle-miles-traveled with respect to gasoline price for new vehicles of-0.22. There is evidence of considerable heterogeneity in this elasticity across buyer types, demographics, and geography. Surprisingly, the vehicle-level responsiveness is increasing with income, perhaps due to within-household switching of vehicles. The estimated elasticity has important implications for the effectiveness of price policies, such as increased gasoline taxes or a carbon policy, in reducing greenhouse gases. The heterogeneity in the elasticity underscores differing distributional and local air pollution benefits of

This paper develops a structural econometric model of vehicle choice and subsequent driving decisions to examine the consumer responsiveness to gasoline price changes on both margins. Consumer decisions are modeled in a dynamic setting that explicitly accounts for selection on unobserved driving preference. The model leverages a unique and extremely rich dataset of all vehicle registrations in California in 2001-2009, which are matched at the vehicle-level with smog check data that include odometer readings at the time of the test. Results suggest that consumers are responsive to gasoline prices in both vehicle choice and driving decisions, with a medium-run (roughly two years) gasoline price elasticity of fuel economy and driving for personal vehicles around 0.09 and-0.15 respectively. These responses vary by income, geographic, and demographic groups. Counterfactual policy simulations of a gasoline tax and feebate policy illustrate the use of the model. The results have key implications for the effectiveness and consequences of policies to reduce emissions from the transportation sector.

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The separate processes of a specific production... should not be manufactured for their own sake, but only because they are more and more demanded by the branches of manufacturing articles consumption. In vehicle industry, it has been trends towards focusing on pull-based systems and elimination of waste (Lean), which decrease the tied-up cap-ital level in the focal factory. Research by Holweg & Miemczyk (2002) showed that the relevant supply chain has low inventory level in the fo-cal factory, but at upstream and especially downstream; the tied-up capital level is dramatically higher in comparison to the focal factory. By conducting research and extensive literature reviews, this volatil-ity of tied-up capital level has been studied and analysed with regard to push and pull systems. As the three main causes of this unevenness; bull-whip effect, CODP position in supply chain and intensity level of supplier relationship have been identified and explained. As a practical solution for decreasing the tied-up capital level of fin-ished vehicles, implementation of centralised warehouse structure has been suggested and discussed. Moreover, as an application of game theory in logistics, iterated prison-ers ’ dilemma has been discussed as the base for a progressive relationship with suppliers (upgrading to win-win game) which is requisite for the suc-cess of pull-based supply chains.

We compare aviation markets under conditions of competition, codesharing contracts and anti-trust immune alliances, assuming that demand for flights depends on the level of frequency offered. From a managerial perspective, the stronger the inter-airline agreement, the greater the likely profitability, whereas consumer surplus and overall social welfare are maximized under limited codesharing agreements. However, (partial) mergers appear preferable to no agreement on ‘thin ’ markets, in which both demand and profit margins are relatively low. Finally, a realistic case study demonstrates that under asymmetric and uncertain demand, codesharing on parallel links may be preferable to competitive outcomes for multiple consumer types.

In this chapter we describe the institutions and economics of new- and used-car retailing. Our aim is to provide a resource for researchers interested in the automobile market. We focus on three categories of economic concepts relevant to car retailing: dealership location choice, including agglomeration, entry, and exit; determinants of car pricing; and information, which is central to the used-car market but also affects the new-car market. We also provide a primer on the institutions of car retailing and a reference on data sources for researchers interested in empirical work involving cars. 1 We thank George Iny of the Automobile Protection Association for providing very helpful comments on an earlier draft. 2 1.