Scandinavian Working Papers in Economics

Working papers in Transport Economics,
CTS - Centre for Transport Studies Stockholm (KTH and VTI)

No 2013:15: On the other half of the story: allowing for discrete penalties for excessive travel times in scheduling models

Qian Wang (), Marcus Sundberg () and Anders Karlström ()
Additional contact information
Qian Wang: KTH, Postal: Centrum för Transportstudier (CTS), Teknikringen 10, 100 44 Stockholm, Sweden
Marcus Sundberg: KTH, Postal: Centrum för Transportstudier (CTS), Teknikringen 10, 100 44 Stockholm, Sweden
Anders Karlström: KTH, Postal: Centrum för Transportstudier (CTS), Teknikringen 10, 100 44 Stockholm, Sweden

Abstract: In this paper, we introduce a discrete penalty for excessive travel times into scheduling models whose maximal expected utilities have attractive theoretical features of linearity in standard deviation or variance. The extended models maintain the properties of linearity, and its maximal expected utility depends on the shape of the travel time distribution. The value of travel time and its variability could be measured indirectly by the scheduling preferences. The results from empirical data reveal that the extended models, with such a discrete penalty, provide a highly significant better goodness of fit to the data. Furthermore, introducing the penalty for excessive travel time has a strong effect on the estimates of the other scheduling parameters, thus affecting the valuations of travel time. Our findings indicate that, apart from the mean and standard deviation (or variance), individuals value other characteristics of travel time distribution, in particular the probability of excessive travel time.

Keywords: Scheduling preferences; Travel time variability; Asymmetric travel time distribution; Excessive travel time

JEL-codes: R40

21 pages, September 19, 2013

Note: This paper is presented on internal and external seminars, and presented at the annual conference of the International Association of transportation Economics (ITEA Kuhmo Nectar), in Berlin June 2012.

Full text files

CTS2013-15.pdf PDF-file 

Download statistics

Questions (including download problems) about the papers in this series should be directed to CTS ()
Report other problems with accessing this service to Sune Karlsson ().

This page generated on 2024-02-05 17:11:08.