Essays on the economics of urban transportation

Abstract

This thesis includes three papers exploring urban traffic congestion and the interplay between urban commuting and economic activity in developing countries. The first paper studies the impact of peak-hour road congestion pricing on commuter welfare, using a field experiment and GPS-based data collection in Bangalore, India. Commuters value time spent commuting highly and are moderately flexible to change departure time. However, welfare gains from optimal congestion pricing are predicted to be low, due primarily to a small road traffic externality. The second paper studies the impact of a high occupancy vehicle (HOV) policy in Jakarta, Indonesia, on road traffic congestion measured using data from Google Maps. The lifting of the "3-in-1" policy led to large increases in traffic congestion throughout the city. The third paper uses cell phone transaction data in Colombo, Sri Lanka and Dhaka, Bangladesh, to construct and validate detailed urban commuting flows, and to then infer urban locations with high labor productivity.