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

©Antti Talvitie, 2018

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

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.

In the paper Jules Dupuit’s dictum: “The only utility is that which people are willing to pay for” is discussed and elaborated.  It is concluded that the user prices of transport services are a very important gauge of benefits. Both EBCA and SBCA are necessary and indicate the inform of the economic and social values of transport projects. Other important findings are:

• Higher user prices for transport would make cities more compact and population density greater.
  
  
• Value of travel time and land use cannot be counted as net benefits without considering non-users’ reduction in consumer surplus.
  
  
• For summary statistics Net Present Value (NPV) is more informative and should be used and not (only) Benefit/Cost ratio (BCR). 
  
  
• No revealed preference for a rail factor was found in mode choice models.
  
  
• Rail mode has an emotionally stated preference in planning and use, which vanishes if passengers must pay for its costs.

FULL PAPER, Pdf, 407 KB, 18 pages.

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.

The Problem of Trust in Planning (2012)

©Antti Talvitie, 2012

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).

Benchmarking Road Sector Infrastructure for Policy Guidance. Poland as a Case Study (2020)

 ©Antti Talvitie, Magda Nieweglowska, Radek Czapski 2020

Benchmarking Road Sector Infrastructure for Policy Guidance

Poland as a Case Study

Antti Talvitie,
Professor (em) Aalto University, PO Box 14100, FI-00076 AALTO, Finland
(aptalvitie(at)gmail.com)

Magda Nieweglowska
Transport Analysis Specialist, Solidarity Transport Hub;
Transport & ICT Consultant, World Bank 

Radek Czapski
Program Manager - World Bank, Global Road Safety Facility;
Senior Transport Specialist, World Bank 

ABSTRACT

The paper demonstrates a use of comprehensive road sector benchmarking to examine important issues in road management and policymaking. Poland as the focus, with Finland, Germany, Romania, Bulgaria, Croatia, Spain, and Sweden as the benchmark countries, of whom only three -- Finland, Germany, Romania -- were fully usable.  The benchmarking data were developed for 4 years over 2010-2014; 2013 data are used as representative. All data were checked for accuracy and consistency. 

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.

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.