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<p style="margin-bottom:0cm"><font face="sans-serif"><font style="font-size:11pt" size="3">Lalive
R, Luechinger S, Armin S. Does Supporting Passenger Railways Reduce
Road Traffic Externalities? Centre for Economic Policy Research;
Discussion Paper, Series No. 9335<font size="3">. Attached in .pdf and</font> <font size="3">a</font>vailable online at:
<a href="http://www.cepr.org/pubs/dps/DP9335.asp">www.cepr.org/pubs/dps/DP9335.asp<br></a></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom:0cm"><a href="http://www.cepr.org/pubs/dps/DP9335.asp"></a>
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</p><p style="margin-bottom:0cm"><font face="sans-serif"><font style="font-size:11pt" size="3">p
4</font></font></p>
<p style="margin-bottom:0cm"><font face="sans-serif"><font style="font-size:11pt" size="3">Our
analysis supports the hypothesis that improvements in the quality of
local passenger transportation cause improvements in the outcome
variables of interest. </font></font>
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<p style="margin-bottom:0cm">
</p>
<ol><li><font face="sans-serif"><font style="font-size:11pt" size="3">First,
we find a substantial negative effect of improved passenger
transportation on road accidents. Because road accidents are
exclusively the result of road transportation, this finding suggests
that increasing the frequency of regional passenger railway services
reduces road traffic (C1).</font></font></li><li><font face="sans-serif"><font style="font-size:11pt" size="3">Second,
we observe negative and significant effects of an increase in the
frequency of service on NO and NO<font style="font-size:7pt" size="1">2</font>;
the effects on CO are also negative, but weaker and imprecisely
estimated. </font></font>
</li><li><font face="sans-serif"><font style="font-size:11pt" size="3">Third,
we test the validity of the instrument by placebo regressions on SO<font style="font-size:7pt" size="1">2 </font>pollution;
SO<font style="font-size:7pt" size="1">2 </font>is mainly emitted from
power stations. We find that improving the railway service frequency
has no effects on the concentration of SO<font style="font-size:7pt" size="1">2</font>.
</font></font>
</li><li><font face="sans-serif"><font style="font-size:11pt" size="3">Similarly,
we do not find any effect of railway services on O<font style="font-size:7pt" size="1">3</font>.
Again, this is not surprising. Even though road traffic is an
important source of O<font style="font-size:7pt" size="1">3 </font>and
CO, NO and NO<font style="font-size:7pt" size="1">2 </font>are
precursors of O<font style="font-size:7pt" size="1">3</font>, the
complex chemistry of ozone formation often leads to high O<font style="font-size:7pt" size="1">3
</font>concentrations far away from the emission sources. </font></font>
</li><li><font face="sans-serif"><font style="font-size:11pt" size="3">Fifth,
we find some evidence that the increase in the frequency of rail
services reduced infant mortality rates. </font></font>
</li></ol>
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<p style="margin-bottom:0cm"><font face="sans-serif"><font style="font-size:11pt" size="3">Summing
up, our analysis supports the idea that improvements in the quality
of railway services can substantially reduce road traffic
externalities.</font></font></p>
<p style="margin-bottom:0cm">
</p>
<p style="margin-bottom:0cm">P 27-8</p>
<p style="margin-bottom:0cm"><font face="sans-serif"><font style="font-size:11pt" size="3">This
paper exploits regional variation in the supply of railway services
to identify the effects of support for passenger railways on road
traffic externalities. </font></font>
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<p style="margin-bottom:0cm"><font face="sans-serif"><font style="font-size:11pt" size="3">The
substitution from cars to railways most likely has considerable
effects on other externalities. For instance, the substitution should
lead to less emissions of carbon dioxide, less noise and lower
congestion externalities.</font></font></p>
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</p>
<p style="margin-bottom:0cm"><font face="sans-serif"><font style="font-size:11pt" size="3">Regional
passenger railway service is heavily subsidized in Germany. Is this a
worthwhile cost to taxpayers? We provide estimates of the monetary
benefits of the 28% expansion in the capacity of regional railway
services between 1994 and 2004. Our estimates indicate that these
monetary benefits are in the same order of magnitude as the costs.
While we do not have any precise figures on the additional subsidies
required to finance this growth, it appears unlikely that these
additional funds are much higher than the corresponding monetary
benefits.</font></font></p>