Freight Benefit/Cost Study: Compilation of the Literature

Final Report

February 9, 2001

Presented to:
Federal Highway Administration
Office of Freight Management and Operations
Attn: Ms. Kate Quinn

Presented by the AECOM Team:
ICF Consulting
HLB Decision Economics
Louis Berger Group

Table of Contents

1	Introduction
1.1	FHWA's Freight Benefit/Cost Study
2	Studies on Economic Growth/Productivity and Social Impacts
2.1	Introduction
2.1.1	Impact Types
2.2	Literature Review and Summary of Results
2.2.1	Productivity and National Income
2.2.2	Structure of the Economy
2.2.3	Geographic Distribution
2.2.4	International Trade
2.2.5	Safety and other Social Impacts
2.3	Relevance of this Body of Literature to the Freight BCA Study
2.4	Concluding Remarks
3	Theoretical and Freight Transportation Studies
3.1	Introduction
3.2	Theme 1: Policy and Trends in Freight Transportation
3.3	Theme 2: Theoretical Approaches to Benefits and Productivity Assessments
3.3.1	Macro-Economic Analyses
3.3.2	Micro-Economic Analyses
3.3.3	Benefit/Cost Analysis
3.3.4	Parameter Estimation
3.4	Theme 3: Logistics
3.5	Theme 4: Advances in Technology and Intermodal Freight Transport
3.6	Relevance of this Body of Literature to the Freight BCA Study
3.7	Concluding Remarks
4	Literature on Industry Experiences and Case Studies
4.1	Introduction
4.2	Review of the Literature and Summary of Results
4.3	Relevance of this Body of Literature to the Freight BCA Study
4.4	Concluding Remarks
Appendix A	References

List of Exhibits and Tables

Exhibit 1	Indirect savings as a fraction of direct savings for given transport cost reductions and manufacturing scale economies
Table 1	Effects of Improved Freight Transportation

next