Bartlomiej Rokicki (p), Marcin Stępniak

Accessibility improvement and territorial cohesion are general policy goals that are in the core of the EU Cohesion Policy. Yet, while there exists an abundant literature on evaluation of transport infrastructure investment on changes in accessibility or the impact of transport infrastructure investment on regional growth very few papers try to verify the possible link between accessibility and regional economic development (measured in terms of productivity increase). This issue seems to be particularly interesting in the case of the EU New Member states that have experienced a big push to the transportation networks in the last decade. Hence, in the present paper we apply the accessibility indicator for Poland in order to verify general productivity effects of infrastructure between 2004 and 2014. We use accessibility indicator developed by Rosik et al. (2015) to evaluate changes in the road potential accessibility of Polish regions in the first decade of Polish EU membership. We calculate travel times between nodes that represent all municipalities (LAU-2 units), receiving accessibility values at the municipal level, which are then aggregated to regional units (NUTS-3 and NUTS-2 units), applying population weighted averages. In our estimations we use different spatial econometric tools to compare the above relationship at different levels of territorial aggregation (NUTS2 vs. NUTS3) and for different types of accessibility (international vs. interregional).

Liviu Stefan Rancioaga, Simona Curpan (p)

The dynamicity and the complexity of urban areas’ functioning are more and more analyzed and brought into question in the European Union at supranational, national and local level. The issues related to cities, towns or suburbs seem to be more a top-down approach than a bottom-up trend. Are the cities contributing and determining the European framework to help themselves or is the EU identifying the issues of the urban agglomerations and then it only indicates the way of solving them? The concepts of ‘Smart Cities’ and ‘Urban Agenda’ are relatively new but in an ascendant trend at all levels of decision making, academia, private sector or NGOs. Big cities cope with different situations regarding air quality, housing, urban poverty, energy transition, urban mobility, digital transition and more. Is it suitable to operate with the same definitions and to have the same expectations from cities with different density of population, transport infrastructure and accessibility to jobs, homes or public services? The present paper aims to analyze how the ‘Smart City’ concept is perceived in the EU, Romania and particularly in Bucharest Capital City’s region. We will focus on the ‘urban mobility’ dimension emphasizing the initiatives taken by decision makers and other stakeholders in this urban area of around 3 million people. Which are the solutions proposed by local authorities and partnters for the smooth traffic flow, jams, connectivity of over- and underground infrastructure, poor safety of pedestrians and cyclists?

Geun Won Ahn (p)

Korean government subsidy on public transportation has been mainly oriented toward supply side. Annual government subsidy in the public transit has been increasing since 2007, and it becomes financial burdens for municipalities. The supply side subsidiy on public transportation deteriorates the quality of public transportation services, and fails to meet users’ satisfactions on public transportation. Due to these problems, the public transportation subsidy needs to be restructured in order to boost user satisfaction, economic development, income distribution, and transport stimulation. Several policy alternatives through user direct grant program and subsidies can be considered as follows: 1) allowing income tax deductions of public transportation expenses 2) introducing a system of public transportation voucher for low income families 3) subsidizing commuter fare to employees 4) offering a monthly transportation pass. Using stated preference method (SP), we analyze the expected effect of these demand side policy alternatives on changes in patterns of public transportation use, responsiveness of public transportation use with respect to the changes in the price, and both direct and indirect benefit consumers receive under each policy alternatives. The analysis shows that users are very responsive to price changes over 200 won, while they are not that much responsive to the price changes up to 100 won. Introduction of system of transportation voucher for lower income bracket is found to provide the highest monetary benefit. On the other hand, provision of a monthly mass- transit pass is shown to be the most effective on promoting public transportation use.

Eri Nakamura (p), Hiroki Sakai, Ken'ichi Shoji

We explore the effects and the efficient scheme of managers’ temporary transfer to reduce transaction costs between unbundled business units, through a case study of five Japanese private railway companies that have holding company structures. The conflicts inside a corporate group are very few in the groups, since some arrangements are made between the related operating firms through informal communication before the conflicts are actualized. Managers’ temporary transfers could contribute to these arrangements by either enhancing the information sharing or directly arbitrating. The conflicts between operating firms and the HQ are also very few because the investment plans brought from the former to the latter already satisfy the requirement of the HQ. This means that the information on group policy and the evaluation criterion of the HQ is transmitted well to the operating firms. Managers’ temporary transfer also contributes to the transmission. However, in some cases the transfer has very little effect on conflict reduction. For example, when the group organization is not so large and the daily communication is easily carried out, or when the HQ directly arbitrates the disputes, there is no need for managers’ temporary transfers. In addition, the group-level human resource development scheme can sometimes work instead of the transfers. Nevertheless, all groups recognize that managers’ temporary transfer enhances information sharing inside a group. There are some important factors regarding the operational costs of the transfers. First, the decision making for the entire group is done by the staff from the railway firm, which is the most efficient way, considering the regulatory environments. Second, when they transfer to the operating firm, the transferees leave their affiliation registers in the HQ. This enables them to maintain the perspective of total optimization as a whole group and saves the costs for motivating the transferring managers for group-level optimization. Third, most groups determine their rules so that the transferees could receive their wages as at least equal to the previous one. Fourth, the HQ strongly controls the transfers of upper-level managers but operates flexibly to avoid organizational rigidification. Fifth, specific training programs for transferring managers are not necessary, since the trainings for general managers could also suffice as education for transferees. Moreover, the temporary transfer is utilized for group cooperation in a positive mood rather than for cost reduction and the discharge of employees from the HQ, which could reduce the compensation costs for the transferring managers.