Using differential pricing to mitigate the impact of congestion on metro: a big data study base on Shanghai metro

Metro, which is one of the most popular way of public transportation, has shown inability to withstand the high intensity of congestion presented in the first two decades of the new millennia. Despite the effort made by government which includes adding multiple metro line, the situation is still grievous. Unlike other form of transportation such as train or airplane, the ridership of metro wasn’t staggered and can be manipulated. In this paper, we employ differential pricing to alleviate traffic pressure on metro during the peak hours. As people have different elasticity of demand for metro transportation in different time interval, we can reduce the number of passengers who relatively treat metro transportation as unnecessary in specific time interval and place by setting up different price. Base on the data of shanghai metro, we show different aspects in our model in which we use system clustering, optimization model of social welfare and calculate an acceptable range of price using Ramsey pricing model. We validate our solution, using the agent simulation model, to be considerably capable at easing the traffic pressure of metro, whether comparably or statistically.

Inter-Basin Water Transfer Supply Chain Coordination with Ramsey Pricing

Often enough, social welfare and private benefit do not align for quasi-public goods/services. The inter-basin water transfer (IBWT) project provides a vivid example of this. In this paper, following the game-theoretical approach, we derive an optimal Ramsey pricing scheme to resolve these conflicts. We try to compare traditional supply chain management models with an optimal Ramsey pricing scheme, with an enforcement of coordination among firms. Using simulation techniques, we compute numerical estimates under three regimes: a standard equilibrium decision framework, a coordination decision model and a coordinated Ramsey pricing scheme. Our results show the relative welfare impact of different settings, revealing that the optimal pricing scheme based on the two-part tariff structure cannot only improve social welfare, but also ensure a target profit for participating firms. Lastly, our findings have strong policy implications for the government with profit regulation and the control of water resources.

Ramsey Pricing for Cost Recovery Applied to Reservoir Infrastructure in Andalucía (Spain)

This paper proposes the Ramsey pricing methodology as a useful tool for water managers. As a case study, first we propose an alternative calculation of the annual depreciation charge for the investment in water infrastructure to that currently made by public administration, and then we apply the Ramsey contribution to the calculation of the price or regulatory tariff charged in 2009 by the Guadalquivir River Basin Authority (Andalucía, Spain) for providing water for urban supply and irrigation. According to Ramsey’s formula, its greatest effect is felt by domestic users, whose demand is relatively inelastic, compared to those whose demand is for agricultural purposes.