Jules Dupuit and benefit-cost Analysis: Making past to be the present (2018)

©Antti Talvitie, 2018
Jules Dupuit / Paris street: Wikimedia Commons / Public domain

Jules Dupuit and Benefit-Cost Analysis: Making Past to be the Present

Transport Policy, 2018, vol. 70, issue C, pp. 14-21

Antti Talvitie (aptalvitie(at)gmail.com)

ABSTRACT

The paper reviews the enduring contributions of Jules Dupuit (1804-1866), Chief Engineer for the City of Paris and later Inspector-general of the Corps des Pont et Chaussees, on benefit-cost analysis, and his development of aggregate demand function for the identification of benefit, and consumer and producer surpluses as measures of utility.

Economic Benefit Cost Analysis, Social Benefit Cost Analysis and of the Emotional Appeal of Railway Projects in Planning (2018)

©Antti Talvitie, 2018

Jules Dupuit / Paris street: Wikimedia Commons / Public domain

Economic Benefit Cost Analysis, Social Benefit Cost Analysis and of the Emotional Appeal of Railway Projects in Planning

Presentation in AALTO University’s Summer School on Transportation (2021)

Antti Talvitie (aptalvitie(at)gmail.com)

ABSTRACT

This presentation has three perspectives anchored on the author’s professions.  The first perspective is engineering-economic and discusses Economic Benefit Cost Analysis (EBCA) developed by Jules Dupuit in the mid-1800s, which informs on the economic value and outcome of a transport project. The second perspective social-economic, Social Benefit Cost Analysis (SBCA), which informs on socioeconomic value and outcomes of transport projects. The third perspective is psychoanalytic, which informs of the motivations of travel behavior and project decisions.  All are implanted in the author’s professional education, training, and experience as a civil engineer and as a psychoanalyst.

The paper uses three references as the inspirational basis of the paper.  The first two are based on revealed preferences: the author’s retrospective paper on Jules Dupuit’s invention of the (economic) benefit cost analysis (EBCA), and Reginald Arkell’s paper on the social benefits and social costs (SBCA) of the Chicago expressway system. The emotional appeal of the rail mode choice and project decisions is based on stated preferences. The key reference is the author’s “Rail Factor and Realism of the Unconscious”. Supporting references are also cited, some included in the references of the above papers without explicit citation.

Observed Differences in Corruption between Asia and Africa: The Industrial Organization of Corruption and Its Cure (2016)

 

©Antti Talvitie, 2016

Observed Differences in Corruption between Asia and Africa: The Industrial Organization of Corruption and Its Cure

Transportation Research Procedia, Volume 25, Part 6, pp. 4476-4495
(Eds. F. Ulengin et al, ISBN 978-1-5108-4232-8) (2016).

Antti Talvitie (aptalvitie@gmail.com)

ABSTRACT

The paper presents a nonconforming view about corruption and an approach to its ‘cure’. It seeks to explain the situation that despite pervasive corruption and weak institutions, emerging economies in Asia attracted foreign investment and achieved remarkable economic growth and reduction in poverty. Fragile countries in Africa have done less well.

Freud, the Big Bang, and the Origin of Life (2016)

©Antti Talvitie, 2016 (revised as noted)
Freud: Wikimedia Commons / Max Halberstad / Public domain

ABSTRACT
Freud, the Big Bang, and the Origin of Life

Antti Talvitie (aptalvitie@gmail.com) 

In 1924, Freud thought that the “the theory of the instincts is the most important but…the least complete portion of psycho-analysis” (Freud 1905, p 168, fn in 1924).  The paper addresses this matter and starts where Freud broke off his reflections about the origin of life in Beyond the Pleasure Principle: “…that living substance at the time of its coming to life was torn into small particles, which have ever since endeavoured to reunite through the sexual instincts.” In this paper, these words are placed in the context of the Big Bang beginning of the Universe, which is discussed and then related to concepts and processes in Freud’s theory.  Other theories about the origin of life are discussed briefly.  A hypothesis is then made that Freud’s constructs of life and death instincts are real, a viable fifth force, and absent from the present standard model of physics. They originated with the Big Bang. A companion hypothesis is that, after a supernova, the fifth force’s means of transmission (particles, if particles are used to transmit it) produced organic elements which when combined with an energy source, formed living eukaryotic cells by a process “of which we have no conception” (Freud’s words).  Simply, it is hypothesized that the fifth force ignited the formation of life and consciousness and their continued evolution. There was (cosmological) physics before biology. These hypotheses are discussed, and proposals are made to test them.

Reasoning-Building Process for Transportation Project Evaluation (2015)

  

© Kronprasert, N. and Talvitie, A.P. (2015)

Paper Submitted for Publication in the Transportation Research Record

Journal of Transportation Research Board

Paper 14-1784

Reasoning-Building Process for Transportation Project Evaluation and Decision-Making: Use of Reasoning Map and Evidence Theory

TRB Record 2453, pp. 11-21 (2015). Washington DC, (with Kronprasert).

Nopadon Kronprasert, Ph.D. (Corresponding Author)

Research Associate

National Research Council

Federal Highway Administration

6300 Georgetown Pike, McLean, VA 22101, USA

Antti P. Talvitie, Ph.D., Professor (em)

Aalto University, Finland

Rakentajanaukio 4, Pl 2100, Espoo, Finland

Email: (aptalvitie(at)gmail.com)

ABSTRACT

Policy-makers of today’s transportation investment projects engage in dialogues and debates in which the reasonableness and clarity are of great value. In the traditional transportation systems planning practices, different stakeholders reason and provide evidence in support of their preferences, but these opinions are often conflicting and rarely consistent. This paper presents a goal-oriented decision-making method for finding a transportation alternative that best achieves the project’s goals and also indicating the level of satisfaction of different stakeholders. The proposed method (i) applies a reasoning map to structure how experts and citizens perceive the alternatives for achieving the project’s goals, and (ii) provides belief measures in evidence theory to what extent the alternatives achieve the goals of different stakeholders.

Use of Reasoning Maps in Evaluation of Transport Alternatives (2015)

© Kronprasert, N. and Talvitie, A.P. (2014)

Use of Reasoning Maps in Evaluation of Transport Alternatives

Springer Science+Business Media,New York, 2014

Nopadon Kronprasert

Antti Talvitie (aptalvitie(at)gmail.com)

ABSTRACT

Selection of a transport alternative is usually a messy process. The traditional approaches consider the relationships as either deterministic or probabilistic, neither of which incorporates the degree of ignorance (i.e., ‘‘I don’t know’’ opinion). Further, different stakeholders seek to justify their preferences with reasoning that suits their agenda. This paper proposes and demonstrates a method that evaluates the validity of the reasoning process and derives the degrees of belief that stated goals are achieved. The paper demonstrates a ‘reasoning map’ method for evaluating transport alternatives, where the analysts accept and employ the notion of ‘‘I don’t know’’ about an issue. The reasoning map depicts the relational chains from the attributes of an action to the stated goals, and recognizes the notion of ‘‘I don’t know’’. This paper uses the theory of evidence to account for ignorance; it calculates the propagation of uncertainties along the reasoning chains. The context chosen for this demonstration is the selection of a public transit mode, personal rapid transit, over Bus, in a commercial complex in Washington DC. The paper has a limited objective and is not  comprehensive evaluation of alternatives. It merely explains how to compute a numerical value for the strength of reasoning, how to deal with analyst’s notion of ‘‘I don’t know,’’ how to interpret the overall reliability of the reasoning process, how to measure the goal achievement of an alternative, and how to find the critical paths linking the planning options to goals. For use in planning practice, consultation of experts and affected citizens and aggregation of their views is needed to develop the reasoning maps.

The Problem of Trust in Planning (2012)

©Antti Talvitie, 2012
Freud: Wikimedia Commons / Max Halberstad / Public domain

Problem of Trust in Planning

Planning Theory, 2012. Vol 11 (3): 257-278.

Antti Talvitie (aptalvitie(at)gmail.com)

ABSTRACT

The paper reviews recent literature on trust in urban and regional planning from engineering planning, sociological, economic, and psychoanalytic perspectives using the author’s training and experiences as a backdrop. It discusses the various approaches of defining trust in the planning context and discusses four categories of trust proposed by Swain and Tait (2007).

Theoryless Planning (2009)

 

©Antti Talvitie, 2009

Theoryless Planning

Planning Theory, Vol 8(2):166-190, 2009.

Antti Talvitie (aptalvitie(at)gmail.com)
Helsinki University of Technology, Finland

ABSTRACT

The paper begins unconventionally and experientially -- with memories that became the wellspring for the author’s doubts about the scientific basis of (transport) planning.  These memories form an essential substrate for the formal presentation which offers a scientific approach to (transport) planning that is experiential rather than positivist. The transition from the informal to the formal presentation is via a short history of planning.  The article proposes a planning process and technique, which is ‘beyond postmodernism’.  This theoryless planning model takes the almost incomprehensible web of associations in human unconscious as its starting point, and patterns it as modern psychoanalytic process and technique for individuals and groups.  A glossary of key terms is included.

Model, Process, Technique, and the Good Thing (2008)

©Antti Talvitie, 2008

Model, Process, Technique, and the Good Thing

Transportation, 35: 375-393, 2008

Antti Talvitie (aptalvitie(at)gmail.com)

Helsinki University of Technology (TKK)

Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, and

Centre for Urban and Regional Studies

ABSTRACT

 The paper unpacks the planning process into its component parts: model, process, technique, and goals –the “good thing”. The paper advances the concept that planning, policy-making, and organizational restructuring can be analyzed under the same framework. Each of the four components is described and reductionist examples are presented to clarify the intention and to illustrate the technique that the transport analyst teams employ in their work. The examples cover both successes and failures. They point toward the enormous scientific task ahead for planning to become meaningful and relevant to the problems of today. Finally, in the frame of the willingness to pay, the paper puts forward a case for an institutional framework for a financially autonomous road administration. Similarly organized, administered, and managed entities are relevant also for other transport modes.

 

Experiential Incrementalism- On the Theory and Technique to Implement Transport Plans and Policies (2006)

©Antti Talvitie, 2006

Experiential Incrementalism- On the Theory and Technique to Implement Transport Plans and Policies

Transportation 33: 83 -110, 2006.

Antti Talvitie (aptalvitie(at)gmail.com)

Consultant

Springfield, Virginia and Helsinki, Finland

ABSTRACT

Experiential Incrementalism: A Theory and Technique to Implement Transport Plans and Policies.

The paper describes an approach to the vexing problem of transport planning and policy. It deals jointly with three questions, which in today’s practice are addressed separately: How are hypotheses about transport problems and alternatives to their solution developed? How can a good plan or policy be identified? What is the process of implementing a transport plan or policy? In doing this the paper has the ambitious objective of proposing a new model and process for transport planning and policy. It is applicable in developed and developing countries and is not restricted to the transport sector.

Some Managerial and Technical Issues in Transport Sector Development Projects (2006)

 

©Tengiz Gogelia & Antti Talvitie 2006

Some Managerial and Technical Issues in Transport Sector Development Projects

Transportation, 2011: Vol. 38, 5, Pp 779-798.

Dr. Tengiz Gogelia, Consultant for International Aid Projects,
Tbilisi, Georgia, Corresponding author.

Prof. Antti Talvitie, Aalto University, Helsinki, Finland
(aptalvitie(at)gmail.com)

ABSTRACT

In development projects there is only one problem, but it is huge: everything is connected to everything else.  The authors separated from the whole important issues the following:

Project Management and Coordination. The Recipient Country’s Aid Coordination Unit (ACU) and Project Implementation Unit (PIU) staffed with competent local experts to hold reform process memory are necessary.  This issue is considered in the context of “Ownership” and “Government Leadership” as it is recognized in donor aid forums in the last decade.