This publication contains three reports: The importance of the cost and time of transport for international trade (A Deardorff); Time and passenger transport (Y Crozet); and The value of freight transport time - a logistics perspective - state of the art and research challenges (L Tavasszy and N Bruzelius). A summary of the discussion of these papers is presented that considers the value of time for passenger travel time and for freight transport. It is suggested that increased demand for rapid international freight transport may lead to swift relocations of production, with the consequence of rapidly changing international trade patterns. How transport policy should react to these changes is discussed. The value of freight transport time, as reflected in the capital costs of the goods in transit, should be fully reflected in the market price of the final consumer good. A capital cost approach to the value of time is discussed. Stated and revealed preference studies have given values of time far higher than the values obtained from capital value studies. It is considered that the benefits of transport policies to reduce time requirements for international freight transport have been subsstantially underestimated. In passenger transport, the importance of value-of-time savings for transport policy projects and programmes has not led to universally accepted evaluation conventions. Microeconomic models of passenger time valuation and the constancy (or otherwise) of travel time budgets are discussed. The presumption of a fixed time budget has led to concerns that time savings achieved by transport policy actions are partly undone by the reactions of passengers, with negative consequences for the environment. The empirical evidence shows that it is the speed of international transport, rather than savings in resource costs, which has worked as a determinant for the intensification of international economic relations.
Samenvatting