Management System for Transport Infrastructure (1995)

 

©Antti Talvitie, 1995

Management System for Transport Infrastructure

Transportation Research Record, No. 1499,pp. 37-49, 1995.

Antti Talvitie (aptalvitie(at)gmail.com)

The World Bank

Washington D.C., USA

ABSTRACT

Unlike for road rehabilitation or maintenance, no network level management models have been developed for new investments to transportation facilities to improve access, to increase capacity or to achieve other socially desirable goals. Yet, highway investment takes 40-80 percent of the road budget, and its share on other modes is not negligible. Two or three road network design models aimed at this objective have, however, been proposed. In this paper a model is described having the dual objective of network design and comprehensive, multimodal transport investment.

Organization, Management and Financing in a Road Agency (1994)

©Antti Talvitie and Jukka Hirvela, 1994

Organization, Management and Financing in a Road Agency

Transportation Research Record, No. 1450, pp.72-79, 1994, Washington DC (with J. Hirvela).

Antti Talvitie (aptalvitie(at)gmail.com)

The World Bank

1818 H Street, Washington D.C. 20433, USA

(formerly Director in the Finnish National Road Administration)

and
Jukka Hirvelä, Director

Ministry of Finance, Finland

(Currently Director in the Finnish National Road Administration)

ABSTRACT

This paper focuses on issues and concepts involved in the road administration organization, management, and financing. Road Administration organization is analyzed using a cost function which supported a decentralized "fractal organization" for a road agency. Road management systems are then discussed. It is argued that for the management systems to be useful must be compatible with the agency organization. Finally, the Road Fund and road user charges are discussed and their importance to road administration management elaborated.

Analysis of Productivity in Highway Construction (1991)

©Antti Talvitie and Catharina Sikow, 1991

Analysis of Productivity in Highway Construction

Transportation Research A, 1992 (with Catharina Sikow)

A.P. Talvitie (aptalvitie(at)gmail.com)

and Catharina Sikow

Viatek Ltd, Espoo Finland

(Received 15 September 1991)

ABSTRACT

Productivity in a state administration has become an important topic in recent years. In the paper, productivity growth (decline) in highway construction over time and comparisons between different regions of a highway agency are made. The cost function is used to analyze the road construction process. The explanatory variables are the factor prices, the output levels and several factors over which the management of the highway agency has control. The hypotheses concerning economies of scale, both at the project level and at the region level, indicate increasing returns to scale. The implications of this and other results of the cost function hypotheses testing to road construction policy and productivity are discussed. Manipulation of the cost function makes it possible to compare productivity growth (decline) and average cost differences between regions or between points of time. In addition, the sources of productivity growth and unit cost difference can be traced to a pure regional effect, an input price effect, an output scale effect, a management effect, technical change and an unexplained component. In spite of the high statistical accuracy of the estimated cost function, this unexplained component, together with the output scale component, appeared to assume a major significance to productivity and average cost. The study shows the fundamental importance of the definition of output in productivity and cost efficiency studies if there are (dis)economies of scale. It is shown, in particular, that if economies of scale are present and they are not taken advantage of in the production, a "technological gap" develops. This means that the agency may appear to be performing in a cost-effective manner when it could, in fact, be performing much better. The method is applied and demonstrated using data from the Finnish Highway Administration. The implications of the results to improving the efficiency and organization of the agency are discussed.

Econometric Analysis of Highway Construction Technology (1989)

 

©Antti Talvitie, Catharina Sikow, 1989

Econometric Analysis of Highway Construction Technology

Selected Proceedings of the Fifth World Conference on Transport Research,
Volume II, pp 69-84, WCTR 1989 (with Catharina Sikow). 
 
A.P. Talvitie (aptalvitie(at)gmail.com)
and Catharina Sikow

ABSTRACT

Finland Highway and Waterways Administration (TVH) data from 1978 to 1987, supplemented over 100 recently completed highway project data, with a duration of 1-4 years. The paper is a comprehensive analysis of highway construction technology with implications for road administration organization and management. Three groups of variables were used: four output classes (Y,); four input factor prices (P); and three management variables (M). Time variable gives a general idea of technological change. The flexible translog cost function was used to estimate the highway construction cost function:

Total costs = f(P, Y, M,T, D) 

According to tests, input prices were found separable from both outputs and management variables, but the latter two not separable from each other. There are economies of scale but no economies of scope. TVH is a multi-product firm, with non-Leontief form and non-Cobb-Douglas type production function construction technology.

Analysis of Technology Bus Firms (1989)

 

©Antti Talvitie and Tom Backstrom, 1989

Analysis of Technology Bus Firms

Finnish Economic Papers - Volume 2-Number 2-Autumn 1989

Antti Talvitie

Finland Highway and Waterway Administration, SF-00521 Helsinki
and
Tom Backstrom

Helsinki School of Economics and Business Administration, SF-00100 Helsinki

ABSTRACT

The study examines the structure of technology of (Finnish) bus companies. Economies of scale and scope, effect of service type and peaking on the average costs, substitution of factors of production, and technical change are analyzed. The majority of the Finnish bus companies operate at too low a level of production to be cost efficient. With »average» product mix the optimum level of output is 6.5 million bus kilometers per year on the Finnish market. The companies can obtain a cost advantage by having a versatile product-mix. The marginal costs of (six) service types change together with the productmix. The peak period marginal costs are similarly dependent on the productmix which influences how efficiently the capacity, often acquired to satisfy the peak period demands, can be utilized outside the peak period.

A Comparison of Privately and Publicly Owned Bus Companies and a Public Bus Transit Agency (1985)

 

©Antti Talvitie, Ari Heinilä, 1985

A Comparison of Privately and Publicly Owned Bus Companies and a Public Bus Transit Agency

ANTTI TALVITIE and ARI HEINILÄ

ABSTRACT

An examination is made of the level of service provided to patrons, the cost structure, the productivity, and the profitability of the companies that offer regularly scheduled bus service in the Metropolitan area of Helsinki, Finland, which includes the cities of Espoo and Vantaa. Data are given on the following types of bus companies: city-owned, private, and a public bus transit agency, Helsingin Kaupungin Liikennelaitos, in Helsinki. The data are averages, and they conceal a variance that is often substantial.. It is believed that this variance is due more to management and managerial skills than to economies of scale or operating environment. Unit costs of bus transportation in the Helsinki region and the composition of these unit costs are presented. A discussion of productivity concludes the paper.