Customer Reviews

Urban Transport Economics (Fundamentals of Pure and Applied Economics)

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This good is very complex for somebody that, like me, doesn't have a economics background. The math is quite simple (I'm an engineer, so my math is very good), but you need a lot of concepts and definitions from economics that you only get in regular courses of microeconomics and econometrics.

If you are not an economists and have never taken an microeconomics course, start with Varian's microeconomics book...

Other than that, I'd really recommend you to take his course at UCI if you can... His classes are great, although he only teaches once every 3 or so years...

This is a college textbook any serious transportation planner, economist and engineer must have in its library. Comprehensive and up to date. As an example, the chapter on pricing includes not only the Singapore case, but also the latest implementations of congestion pricing, including London, Norway, and Stockholm, and also a discussion of the technologies used for practical implementation of road pricing.

Though the economic impact valuation of climate change is just briefly discussed, it caught my attention that as good economists the authors had the courage of being politically incorrect by saying openly that "...precise prediction of effects of carbon dioxide on climate is impossible" (see page 105), but don't get confused, they are not deniers, the subject is objectively discussed within the context of environmental externalities caused by automobiles in urban areas.