Appendix 1: Annotated Bibliography (Page 1 of 3)

Regulation:

• Internalization policies to internalize transportation externalities;
• Taxes and congestion charges;
• Financing arrangements and subsidies;
• Road safety.

• Significant welfare gains could be realized through policies aimed at internalizing the external costs of transport.
• Four major categories of external costs are identified: accident externalities, environmental damage, uncovered infrastructure costs, and congestion.
• Internalization policies can be implemented through economic instruments, and/or regulations, designed to reduce externalities to the optimal level.
• Internalization has implication for both the structure and the level of prices. However, internalization will primarily involve structuring prices more efficiently, rather than increasing the overall price level.
• Internalization raises some adjustment problems through its impact on different categories of transport users.
• Internalization is expected to have little impact on GDP growth or on competitiveness of transportation industry as a whole. The effects of increased costs will be offset by increases in efficiency and opportunities for reducing general taxes.

Investment and Financing Policies:

• Infrastructure funding;
• Communication technologies

Regulation:

• Intramodal transport;
• Industry structure and competitiveness;

National and International Assistance:

• Facilitation;
• Standards.

• At the European level, combined transport has to be understood as the organization of door-to-door transport by transferring goods from one mode to another without changing the loading unit.
• European countries have been working for many years on joint policies to improve the conditions for combined transport.
• The report presents an overview of combined transport in 30 European countries and a summary of EU activities in the area of combined transport.
• The general analysis considers the main European routes in combined transport and factors, which determine their competitiveness – related infrastructure, transit time and reliability, border crossings.
• Price competition between road and combined transport is illustrated by several case studies.
• The book concludes with a summary of findings and comparison with the conclusions of the 1992 report.

Investment and Financing Policies:

• Economic analysis;
• State funding;

Regulation and Institutional Environment:

• Intramodal transport;

National and International Assistance:

• Facilitation;
• Standards and compatibility.

• Transport infrastructure in Central and Eastern European countries needs considerable investment. A truly integrated pan-European network requires that pertinent criteria be established for funding and building these infrastructures.
• This publication lays out the criteria for determining priority links: service quality, network coherence and institutional constraints, return on investment.
• These criteria are chosen from multimodal standpoint and take account for the alternatives that might be offered by other transport techniques, or routes.
• It also inventories financing possibilities for infrastructures and transport systems in this region by analyzing needs, sources, and mechanisms, as well as the insufficiencies and possibilities for improving current financing systems.

Investment and Financing Policies:

• State funding;
• Communication and information technologies.

National and International Assistance

• Facilitation;
• Logistics management.

• A framework is developed for evaluating European transport networks.
• Government policy, it is argued, needs to be carefully designed to ensure that it is not counterproductive in wasting positive synergy effects.
• Making better use of existing transportation systems and networks rather than constructing large new ones can attain highly cost-effective solutions.
• There is a role for a proactive policy with regard to the fostering of advanced information technologies.
• Some means by which transport infrastructure can be financed through new appropriate allocation of responsibilities between the private and public sectors are examined.
• A conclusion is made that formation of networks at an urban and regional level can make an important contribution to the efficiency of urban public transport.
• The main goals of public intervention, it is argued, should be removal of network barriers by providing information and favoring process that enables actors to initiate and augment linkages.

Regulation and Institutional Environment

• Industry Structure and competitiveness;
• Trade regulation and facilitation.

National and International Assistance

• Administrative services and facilitation

• Transportation is a key component of free trade infrastructure in North America initiated by NAFTA.
• Government transport policy has an important impact on the ability of the trucking industry to meet the needs of the economy in this new environment.
• The economic characteristics of trucking in United States, Canada and Mexico are compared and contrasted.
• The deregulation of trucking in all three countries went at different speeds. One consequence is that this created invisible barriers between them, which need to be removed.
• A conclusion is made that if the market is left to govern conduct in the trucking industry, North American carriers will become more efficient and the other industries will benefit as a result of this.
• As economic regulation disappears in most trucking markets, public policy will refocus on safety and technical regulations.
• The lesson from North America is that inconsistent regulatory policies between countries, states and provinces create economic inefficiency.

Regulation and Institutional Environment:

• Industry structure and competitiveness.

National and International Assistance:

• Facilitation;
• Standards and compatibility.

• Highlights the key trends in the 1980's and summarizes the resultant position of railroad and motor carriers in today's freight markets.
• An assessment is made of where railroads and motor carriers might be in the distant future. It is assumed that the seeds of the technologies and strategies that will be familiar in the year 2020 have already sprouted and are growing quietly.
• The study tries to project major trends in commercial freight. However, the results are qualitative and do not suggest specific policies aimed at improving efficiency of freight industry.

INVESTMENT AND FINANCING POLICIES:

• Economic analysis;
• Federal and State funding.

National and International Assistance:

• Logistics management.

• The link between transportation and economic productivity is examined.
• Policy implications: first, it shows the potential gains that can be obtained by investment in the nation's highways and bridges; second, it shows that an effective transportation network delivers benefits beyond the immediate benefits of improved transportation services.
• The report highlights the need to understand the importance of public capital for the profitability of private firms.
• The case studies presented in this study illustrate how an effective highway network plays an important role in private economic activity.

Investment and Financing Policies:

• Economic analysis;

Regulation and Institutional Environment:

• Industry structure and competitiveness

National and International assistance:

• Logistics management

• This report provides a first step in evaluating the impact that fully pricing the nation's highways would have on the trucking industry. Both the positive and negative externalities are considered.
• The trucking industry's contribution to economic growth and productivity through logistics-related technologies – in part, positive externalities – is contrasted with the negative externalities of congestion and environmental damage caused by truck transport.
• If full social cost pricing is implemented it is likely that the price of truck transportation services will increase, and part of the negative external costs of trucking will be eliminated.
• However, if shippers moderately reduce their capital investment in logistics-related technologies and offer fewer logistic related services in response to an increase in truck transport prices, it is highly probable that economy wide productivity losses will outweigh benefits of reduced congestion and improved air quality.
• Not only will economically beneficial truck trips be priced off the road, but also the overall productivity growth of US manufacturing will be reduced, resulting in a net loss to society.

Investment and Financing:

• Economic analysis;
• Federal and State funding.

Regulation and Institutional Environment:

• Industry structure and competitiveness;
• Economic incentives.

• This research explores the sources of productivity within firms vis-à-vis the transportation and logistics functions.
• Data collected from a survey of six industries are used to estimate elasticities (measures of sensitivity) of benefits to industry from changes in transportation system characteristics.
• It is found that the potential benefits from industrial restructuring are of great significance relative to the conventional benefits which industry derives from transportation system improvements.
• One of the key findings is that while prospective benefits from industrial restructuring may be significant, the likelihood of realizing these benefits is contingent upon firm and industry characteristics.
• It is also found that public agency policies affecting the willingness of firms to undertake investment in physical capital could significantly impact the realization of industrial restructuring benefits.
• Six case studies from firms, which underwent a restructuring of their distribution networks, examine the relationship between freight transport and industry productivity.

Investment and Financing:

• Economic analysis.

Regulation and Institutional Environment:

• Economic incentives (taxes, subsidies).

• Positive externalities of transport activities play a growing role in the political discussion. It is argued that the number and the relevance of positive transportation externalities is low. Moreover, most of the effect counted as positive externalities such as improvement of economic efficiency or development of new consumption/production structures are basically not external but normal consumer's or producer's surpluses induced by market interactions.
• The author concludes, due to the fact that external benefits are negligible, there is no reason to subtract such benefits from the external costs of transportation.
• The conclusions are purely theoretical without statistical or econometric support. Their validity should be further researched.

Regulation and Institutional Environment:

• Economic incentives (road pricing)

• The main characteristic of transport systems, described at the outset is that, with the exception of nearly all railways, transport firms do not own the fixed capital used in the production process.
• The nature of the user costs and the producer costs are considered in the light of empirical findings. Pronounced small-scale diseconomies in the producer costs are characteristics of all sorts of infrastructure – common facilities as well as departmentalized facilities, such as parking facilities. At the other extreme of density of demand where, in addition, space can be very limited, as in central cities, plant-size economies cease very definitely with dramatic consequences for optimal pricing.
• In the case of road infrastructure external costs should be the main item in the determination of optimal pricing, because the cost of accidents and environmental cost are important both in congested and uncongested conditions.
• When asking the question whether optimal road pricing will pay for the roads, however, the focus should be on congestion costs.

Investment and Financing Policies

• Economic analysis;
• State funding.

• An objective examination of the facts and figures, as the author argues, leads to a surprising conclusion. For both people and freight, it is impossible to alleviate road traffic in anything but a marginal way by developing other modes of transport.
• Things would be different if it were possible to impose the choice of means of transport on users. The countries of Eastern Europe proceeded in this manner until liberation from communism in 1989. The railway and, to a lesser extent, the waterway, monopolized almost all traffic there, at the price of considerable delays and costs to the economy. But in this case, too, everything has reversed since economic actors have free choice of their decisions. The railroad has seen its traffic collapse, while road traffic is literally exploding.
• Unless restrictive measures are imposed, which no one cab seriously consider as a general rule in a market oriented country, the fact must be faced when a new transport investment is planned that only the road can relieve the road.
• The main conclusion, though controversial, deserves the attention of policy makers when considering alternative options for relieving congestion.

Investment and Financing Policies:

• Economic analysis;
• State funding.

Regulation and Institutional Environment

• Industry structure and competitiveness;
• Economic incentives (taxes, tariffs)

• Infrastructure in the transition economies requires substantial restructuring.
• Given the shift in composition of output toward higher value-added products and the increased demand for personal transport, there is likely to be a shift towards greater reliance on road services.
• The current East European structure of railway tariffs (and fuel taxes) runs the risk of encouraging excessive substitution of road for rail-based services, and this should be realigned.
• Estimates of annual investment requirements range between 2 and 3 percent of east European GDP over the next decade.
• A more commercial approach to infrastructure, including greater private participation, is an effective means of facilitating tariff reform and expanding access to private finance for investment.
• The results are based on extensive use and comparisons of macroeconomic data from the east European countries. They highlight the shortcomings of central planning in infrastructure development and the trends established by market forces after its removal.

Investment and Financing Policies:

• Federal and State Funding;
• Communication and Information Technologies (ITS).

• This document provides information on the Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS) Architecture Development Program, highlighting the four architectures being developed.
• Preliminary qualitative results about the ITS architecture.

Investment and Financing Policies:

• Federal and State Funding;
• Communication and Information Technologies (ITS).

• This report describes those ITS projects that are wholly or partially funded by the Department of Transportation's (DOT) modal administrations, including the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA), the Federal Transit Administration (FTA) and the National Highway Traffic Administration (NHTSA).
• The report is a complement to the National ITS Program Plan, and is organized to describe those DOT-sponsored activities which support the development of user services, national compatibility planning, deployment, deployment support, and program assessment.
• In most the cases results of implementation are not available.

Investment and Financing Policies:

• Federal and State Funding;
• Communication and Information Technologies (ITS).

• The purpose of the National ITS Program Plan is to guide the development and deployment of Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS) in the United States.
• The first edition of the Plan is a joint effort of ITS America and the United States Department of Transportation.
• The plan is developed through a consensus process involving the entire ITS community.
• The executive summary provides a very brief overview of the goals, objectives and recommendations presented in the National ITS Plan.

Investment and Financing Policies:

• Federal and State Funding;
• Communication and Information Technologies (ITS).

• The purpose of the National ITS Program Plan is to guide the development and deployment of Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS) in the United States.
• The first edition of the Plan is a joint effort of ITS America and the United States Department of Transportation. The plan is developed through a consensus process involving the entire ITS community.
• The Synopsis provides an overview of the major subject areas within the National ITS Program Plan, with special emphasis on the area of current and future deployment.

Investment and Financing Policies:

• Federal and State Funding;
• Communication and Information Technologies (ITS).

• The purpose of the National ITS Program Plan is to guide the development and deployment of Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS) in the United States.
• The first edition of the Plan is a joint effort of ITS America and the United States Department of Transportation.
• The plan is developed through a consensus process involving the entire ITS community.
• Volume I focuses on the issues of goals, compatibility, deployment, and program assessment of the National ITS Plan.

Investment and Financing Policies:

• Federal and State Funding;
• Communication and Information Technologies (ITS).

• The purpose of the National ITS Program Plan is to guide the development and deployment of Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS) in the United States.
• The first edition of the Plan is a joint effort of ITS America and the United States Department of Transportation.
• The plan is developed through a consensus process involving the entire ITS community.
• Volume II contains detailed descriptions and plans for each of the twenty-nine user services identified in the National ITS Plan.

Investment and Financing Policies:

• Federal and State Funding.

Regulation and Institutional Environment

• Intramodal and intermodal transport
• Industry structure and competitiveness;
• Economic incentives (federal subsidies)

• The study is organized around a framework in which transportation is viewed as an integral part of the socioeconomic system.
• The first four chapters discuss the impact of demographic changes, the future course of the economy, the energy supply, and preservation of environment on the future development of transportation.
• The succeeding five chapters describe the setting within which infrastructure issues are reviewed. The relevant factors include trends in passenger travel and freight movement and comparisons of transportation development in the international arena.
• The role of government vis-à-vis the transportation industry is explored from the perspective of economic deregulation and of ensuring the traveling public's safety and security.
• Several chapters address various components of the transportation system from a modal perspective.
• Finally, the results of urban transportation studies are synthesized.

Investment and Financing Policies:

• Economic Analysis;
• Federal and State funding.

Regulation and Institutional Environment:

• Intermodality;
• Industry structure and competitiveness;
• Economic incentives (pricing)

• This is the second in a series of combined documents satisfying statutory requirements for reports by the Department of Transportation to Congress on the condition, performance, and capital investment requirements of the Nation's highway and transit system.
• The introduction of the Highway Economic Requirement System (HERS) that uses marginal benefit-cost analysis to optimize highway investment is one of two significant changes in this version of the report.
• The other major change concerns assumptions regarding future travel demand in major metropolitan areas. The travel forecasts in developing investment estimates in this report reflect the current and expected policies adopted locally to manage and satisfy future travel demand.
• The report provides quantitative and qualitative estimates of the current and future conditions and performance of the Nation's surface transportation system. It incorporates some important steps, like HERS analysis cited above, multimodal analysis and other, in the recognition of the rapid growth in intermodalism.

Investment and Financing Policies:

• Economic Analysis;
• Federal and State Funding.

National and International Assistance

• Logistics Management

• The report identifies, describes and critically evaluates methodologies available to analyze the relationship between transportation investment and gains in industrial productivity and competitiveness.
• A primer for transportation executives and decision-makers is developed. It documents what is known about the relationship between transportation and the economy and provides guidance on use of economic analysis to identify policies and investments with the potential to foster growth and productivity.
• Strategies for the selection and use of various methodologies are presented.
• The report describes the steps to identify and obtain the benefits and costs of transportation policies. They are evaluated together in an integrated methodological approach taking into account the time value of money and strategies for coping with risk and uncertainty.
• The "Technical Report - Supplement to NCHRP Report 342 is designed for the participating transport analyst. It presents a new approach that enables the analyst to identify and quantify the logistics-related benefits for private firms that stem from transportation investments.

Investment and Financing Policies:

• Economic analysis;
• Federal and State Funding.

• Advanced econometric techniques are applied to study the problem of measuring the contributions of highway capital to private sector productivity growth. The model is estimated using disaggregated data composed of 35 sectors in the U.S. economy for the period 1950-1991.
• An increase in highway capital has initial productivity effect: it reduces total cost for a given level of output for all industries. The reduction in production costs induces output expansion in all industries.
• When output level increases, the productivity gains of highway capital offset the cost increases required by output expansion.
• Given a level of output, an increase in highway capital leads to a reduction in demand for labor and materials and an increase in demand for private capital.
• The marginal benefits of highway capital are in the range 0.2 cents to 0.6 cents per year per $1 increase in highway capital. Industry marginal benefits are additive across sectors. Their sum across all industries is about 0.295.
• The contribution of highway capital to productivity growth is positive in all industries. At the aggregate level, this contribution is about 25 percent.
• An approximate method for determining whether highway capital is optimally provided is to compare rate of return on highway capital investment with the rate of return on private capital. The two rates are nearly equal by the end of the 1980's, which implies a close to optimal investment.

Investment and Financing Policies:

• Economic analysis (capital stock measures)

• Gross capital stock is obtained by adding up investments. Net capital stock requires that the gross capital stock be reduced by the amount of wear and tear on the asset. The sum of wear and tear, termed "loss in efficiency," and asset retirement is termed "deterioration".
• Two issues of particular importance in measuring net highway capital stock are (1) measures of road asset deterioration and (2) quantification of quality changes and facility obsolescence.
• Productive capital stock is the appropriate concept for estimating the productivity of capital stock. It is adjusted for current and past declines in efficiency.
• The study describes possible methodologies and relevant capital stock concepts.
• Existing highway and other public capital stock studies are surveyed.
• Recommendations for construction of a quality adjusted productive highway capital stock and for further work are made.
• A productive total highway capital series, useful to FHWA and others, is presented.
• Productive highway stock estimates are compared to other wealth-based estimates.
• The construction of a productive highway capital stock series is detailed. It can facilitate updating and adoption of relevant assumptions and methodologies by other researchers.
• A pro-forma productive highway capital stock series for the period 1950 to 1997 are also available.

Investment and Financing Policies

• Economic analysis (costs).

Regulation and Institutional Environment

• Economic incentives (charges and taxes)

• Passenger vehicles travel 93 percent of all VMT, account for 96 percent of all vehicles and will pay about 64 percent of all Federal highway user fees in 2000. Trucks pay almost 10 times more Federal highway user fees per mile of travel than passenger vehicles.
• Passenger vehicles are expected to overpay Federal user fees by about 10 percent, while single unit and combination trucks will underpay by about 10 percent. However, the lightest truck vehicles pay more than their share of highway costs. The opposite is true for the heaviest trucks.
• In general, the more axles under heavy vehicles, the lower their highway cost responsibility at any given weight and the more closely they come to paying their highway cost responsibility.
• State government collects over two-thirds of total highway user fees and the equity of their structures strongly affects the overall structure of user fees collected.
• Increasing the diesel differentials or eliminating the $550 cap on the HVUT could result in incremental improvements to user fee equity.
• Safety, congestion and environmental of highway remain large despite significant progress in reducing those costs through regulatory and highway improvements programs. Imposing charges to reduce those costs is promising, but these social costs are highly localized and are more amenable to local pricing than pricing at the Federal level.

Investment and Financing Policies

• Federal and State Funding (innovative finance)

• Since 1994, the U.S. FHWA has been spearheading an initiative, known as TE-045, to introduce new flexibility into the financial characteristics of the Federal-aid highway program.
• Throughout this process, FHWA has emphasized four objectives: to increase investment, to accelerate projects, to improve the utility of existing financing opportunities, and to lay the groundwork for long-term programmatic changes.
• Eight major types of financing tools have been proposed and tested under TE-045. They can be generally characterized as investment tools or cash flow tools.
• Although TE-045, by design, provided no new Federal funds to participating States, the initiative has nonetheless supported significant increases in investment levels.
• These increases have occurred when the purchasing power of existing Federal and State resources is multiplied (or leveraged) through newfound opportunities to attract additional funds to infrastructure projects. In addition, the leverage of existing public funds can occur when nontraditional uses of Federal funds serve to enhance the viability of financing projects partially with debt.
• The two final objectives of the TE-045 initiative centered on (1) facilitating use of financing tools introduced under ISTEA, and (2) building a base of experience from which to develop future legislation to improve the financial characteristics of the Federal-aid highway program.

Investment and Financing Policies

• Economic analysis.

• This study addresses the issue of measuring the comparative efficiency gains experienced by individual transportation modes as a result of highway investment.
• Both railroad and motor freight, from 1963 to 1991, posted among the highest direct productivity gains of any sector in the economy. If evaluated at 1972 prices, the rail sector was in fact the highest-performing sector in the economy, increasing its productivity by 2 percent per year.
• Unlike most sectors rail experienced productivity growth from 1963 to 1991 in all inputs (capital, labor, and materials). Motor freight experienced by far the largest portion of that growth from increased labor productivity.
• Rail and motor freight were top productivity performers, surrounded by 'high technology" sectors. With rail ranking third and motor freight seventh, note that computers rank first, telecommunication services second, and scientific instruments fourth.
• The aggregate transportation services sector contributed 8.3 percent to national productivity gains.
• Motor freight and railroads, from 1963 to 1991, were responsible for 3.4 percent and 2.7 percent of the economy productivity growth, respectively.

Investment and Financing Policies

• Economic Analysis

• Research shows that some types of infrastructure investments (typically in selected airport and highway projects) have very large economic rates of return).
• There is little relationship between aggregate spending on infrastructure and economic growth. The main reason is that most infrastructure projects are promoted in terms of "distributional" effects – e.g., the number of jobs they will create in a specific locality. It is shown that this kind of "job creation" seldom involves real economic growth; it simply redistributes resources from one use or location to another use or location.
• Economic rate of return, not number of "jobs created," should be the criterion for project selection.
• If federal infrastructure programs were re-designed to incorporate appropriate incentives, national infrastructure investment would automatically find a level and mix that yields optimal economic rate of return.
• One tool for accomplishing the above purpose is privatization, understood as using private capital for selected infrastructure projects.
• For the public sector, the key lies in adopting appropriate objectives, decision criteria and appraisal methodologies by government decision-makers.

Investment and Financing Policies:

• Economic analysis.

• One possible explanation of the productivity slowdown in the United States since 1973 is that the recent decline in public infrastructure investment has contributed to the slowdown in productivity.
• National production function studies suggest that a decline in public capital is responsible for almost half the decline in U.S. productivity.
• The public contribution to private production has been largely ignored because economic analysis techniques are oriented to private enterprise. Further, some studies that conclude that public capital has no role in the productivity decline are based on interpretation rather than on tests of statistical significance.
• The majority of state level studies indicate that public capital has a small, positive effect on private output and productivity, and that the decline in public capital is a factor in the decline in productivity.
• Some estimates show that investments in highways have a significant, positive effect on private output that is two times the significant, positive effect of water and sewer facilities.
• Open research questions: Do different industries receive different benefits from transportation infrastructure? How does return on investment in highway construction differs from highway maintenance? Can we isolate the effects stemming from reverse causation?

Investment and Financing Policies

• Economic analysis (research funding)

• Decisions about surface transportation research have significant impacts because research provides the knowledge, products, and technologies needed to make transportation more efficient, effective, and save.
• From fiscal year 1992 through fiscal year 1996, the federal funding for surface transportation research has reached $2.9 billion. About $2.1 billion went to FHWA, which allocated nearly half of the funds for the Intelligent Transportation Systems projects.
• Surface transportation research within the U.S. DOT is focused on improving individual modes of transportation rather than on creating an integrated framework for surface transportation research.
• According to public and private transportation officials, the current investment in surface transportation research is inadequate to build knowledge, either in three emerging areas – system assessment, policy research, and intermodal research – or in basic, long term, research.
• Policy research is a high priority for the federal government, as well as for state and local governments faced with complex transportation problems.
• Intermodal research – on how people and freight move between highways, mass transit, and rail – is increasingly important. Institutional barriers and freight movements are identified as intermodal problems requiring further research.

Investment and Financing Policies:

• Economic Analysis (methodologies).

• The report identifies, describes and critically evaluates methodologies available to analyze the relationship between transportation investment and gains in industrial productivity and competitiveness.
• The supplement to Report 342 is designed for the practicing transportation analysts. It provides the technical background for the material in report 342. The presented approach enables the analysts to identify and quantify the logistics-related benefits for private firms that stem from transportation improvements.
• Four main questions are addressed in part I: (1) the economic objectives of infrastructure investment; (2) the relationship between objectives and the choice of appropriate methodology for evaluating infrastructure investments; (3) the capability of methodologies to measure in-full all relevant economic impacts; and (4) the valid and effective application of appropriate methodologies.
• Part II applies the evaluation design developed in part I to a representative sample of case studies.
• First the analytical approach and the size and the composition of the sample are chosen. Second, it is established whether practitioners choose project acceptance criteria and assessment procedures that are consistent with economic objectives of infrastructure investment. Finally, the application of technical procedures and the identification of general equilibrium impacts of public infrastructure are considered.

Investment and Financing Policies

• Economic analysis (productivity change in transport)

• This paper points out that there are pitfalls in the common practice of using measures such as output per man-hour as an indicator of productivity.
• It is argued that a thorough understanding of the relationships between inputs and outputs can proceed from knowledge of the economic production theory.
• The paper describes the relevant theoretical concepts and then examines applications of that theory in transport industries.
• It demonstrates multimodal interest in developing more rigorous and satisfying ways of measuring and analyzing productivity difference. The technique employed range from the more complex models at the forefront of economic theory, to rudimentary methods, which are, at best, capable of testing only the simplest types of hypotheses.
• It is concluded that the value-added concept of productivity favored in early inter-industry studies led to substantial overestimates of productivity growth in transport.
• Some productivity gains should be properly attributed to the achievements of scale and scope effects. Furthermore, a number of studies suggest the need to find satisfactory explanations of firm-specific effects.
• It is argued that the greatest successes will come about through improvements in data, which will permit applications of more complex, but proven techniques of analysis in areas such as road and maritime transport.

National and International Assistance

• Logistics management.

• This research is based on detailed survey questionnaire responses from over 400 U.S. based manufacturers, distributors, and retailers.

Major Study Findings

• Companies that have had major successes in productivity improvement share common characteristics: they are customers oriented, apply Total Quality Management, use structured approach towards improvement, and involve suppliers and customers as partners in quality improvement initiatives.
• Logistics quality and productivity improvement is integral to overall improvement.
• The logistics process is at the heart of executing a customer satisfaction strategy. Most of the companies have not yet established a foundation of logistics excellence to support a customer satisfaction strategy.
• "Gaps" between suppliers and customers inhibit quality improvement in logistics for many companies.
• Future improvements in logistics will come from nontraditional areas. Traditionally, they have been measured in terms of cost reductions or productivity gains stemming from improvements in transportation and warehousing. Instead, firms will look to purchasing, materials planning, and informational systems as sources for future productivity gains.
• The survey identifies 61 specific high-impact actions that produced major quality and/or productivity benefits from logistics restructuring.

Investment and Financing Policies

• Communication and information technologies.

Regulation and Institutional Environment

• Intramodality and Intermodality;
• Trade Regulation and Facilitation.

National and International Assistance:

• Administrative services and Facilitation;
• Standards and Compatibility.

• Intermodal transportation, as defined in the book, is the concept of transporting passengers and freight in such a way that all the parts of transportation process, including information exchange, are efficiently connected and coordinated, offering flexibility.
• Intermodal freight transportation is increasingly focused on the customer.
• Expediting the flow of data on intermodal shipments is as important as expediting the intermodal transportation and transfer of cargo itself.
• The use of advanced communication and information systems has experienced the most rapid change in recent years.
• Since the 1970s, growing momentum for transportation deregulation provides a chance for intermodalism to develop to its fullest possibilities. Greater possibilities for intermodalism continue to be fostered by the break down in trade barriers between countries, as illustrated by NAFTA, the European Union, etc.
• The practice of intermodalism furnished firms with competitive advantage and improves their productivity.