Impact of High-Speed Rail on Social Equity—Insights from a Stated Preference Survey in Vietnam

This study investigated the impact of high-speed rail (HSR) on social equity, utilizing information from a stated preference survey conducted in Vietnam. Social equity was examined across the population of four cities representing the northern, central, and southern areas of Vietnam. In general, the high price of HSR is one of the barriers to using HSR over inter-city buses and conventional trains. Low-income groups (less than VND 6 million per month) have 4.894 and 4.725 times the likelihoods, compared to higher income groups, of retaining the use of an inter-city bus or conventional train, respectively, after introducing HSR. Our findings reveal the fact that social inequity may occur, with the low-income group being especially vulnerable, due to the existence of HSR in the future. Furthermore, our results indicate that the interest of people towards inter-city buses and conventional trains varied among the four cities before and after the presence of HSR. More specifically, low-income groups in Vinh and Nha Trang were observed to have a higher feeling of staying away from HSR, as they prefer to use inter-city buses. The findings of this study suggest that planners and policymakers need to consider various components of HSR ticket planning, in order to achieve sustainable evolution of the passenger rail system.

Willingness to Pay for Wine Bullshit: Some New Estimates

As part of a classic article in this journal, Richard Quandt identified 123 wine descriptors that he deemed to be bullshit. In this paper, I examine whether wine consumers are willing to pay any more (or less) for wine if it is described by one of those “bullshit” descriptors. I use three methods to examine that. The first method involves applying a hedonic regression to a dataset of prices and expert descriptions for about 50,000 wines. The second method involves applying a matching estimator to the same dataset. The third method involves a stated-preference survey of about 500 wine consumers. The three methods suggest that for most of the descriptors Quandt deemed to be bullshit, most consumers’ marginal willingness to pay for a descriptor is zero or near-zero. Yet, for some of the descriptors, some consumers do seem to have a non-zero marginal willingness to pay, perhaps because the descriptors shape a consumer's subjective experience or because they signal objective aspects of wine. (JEL Classifications: D12, D83, L66)

Preferences toward Bus Alternatives in Rural Areas of the Netherlands: A Stated Choice Experiment

Public transport in rural areas is under pressure because demand is low and dispersed. To reduce costs, flexible and on-demand services are often proposed as alternatives for conventional bus services. Conventional services are generally not suitable for rural areas, because the demand is low and dispersed. In this paper, a stated preference survey is designed to identify the preferences of rural bus users for alternative services. Other than the traditional bus, two other modes are included in this study: a demand responsive transport (DRT) service and an express bus service with bike-sharing services for last mile transport. Given the on-demand nature of these alternatives, flexibility- and reliability-related attributes are included in the stated preference survey. The results from the choice model indicate that the reliability and flexibility aspects do not have a large effect on the preference for the on-demand alternatives. Instead, cost, access and egress times, and in-vehicle time play a bigger role in individuals’ preferences toward the different alternatives. A sensitivity analysis shows that changes in the operational characteristics can make the on-demand alternatives more attractive. However, many bus users still prefer the conventional bus service over the on-demand alternatives.