Daniel Carvalho, Gervasio Santos (p)

Weronika Michalska

The objective of this paper is to estimate the effect of the expansion of the federal highway transportation network on the aggregated and disaggregated distribution of economic activity in peripheral municipalities of Brazil, considering the long-haul (dis)economies and the sectoral specialization. The organization of economic activity within the Brazilian geographical space is historically linked to transformations in road transportation. The development of an integrated national network, beginning in the second half of the 20th century, coincided with the weakening of isolated settlements, which lost significant participation in the Brazilian economy. The theoretical literature in the context of New Economic Geography (NEG) points out that transportation costs are a key aspect in firms' location decisions and, consequently, the behavior of the labor force. Thus, the instrumental variables methodology was used to capture the effect of exogenous variations in infrastructure on economic activity. This exogenous variation was based on historical plans of the federal highway transport network aimed at connecting state capitals to the Federal District and meeting other economic and military needs. Additionally, historical input-output tables were used to capture each sector's dependence on transportation services and to characterize possible channels of transmission of infrastructural development on sectoral activities. The database for this research includes a set of quantitative and qualitative information gathered from census microdata and archives of public institutions of transport, which respectively describe the evolution of local economies and national infrastructures from 1970 to 2010. The results showed that access to federal highways positively affects the shares of employment and income in the treated municipalities. The largest impacts were observed in industrial activities of lower technological intensity. These findings validate the reference model of Koster et al. (2022), which predicts a positive return from integration in the predominance of long-haul diseconomies, as estimated for Brazilian highways. In summary, we offer insights into how national transportation corridors shape the growth and specialization of small markets spread across large urban centers.

Weronika Michalska (p)

Thomas De Graaff

The basic function of modern zoos, associated with international nature conservation organizations, is to save endangered species of wild animals and provide them with appropriate living conditions. They contribute to maintaining or increasing a healthy population of animals threatened with extinction in captivity. The ZOO Wroclaw and the Łódź ZOO Orientarium in Poland, as a part of the European Association of Zoos and Aquariums (EAZA), implement the mission of modern zoos by participating in the international transport of endangered animal species (Piasecka 2023).

The aim of this paper is to explain how the international transport of wild animals between zoos associated with EAZA contributes to the preservation of animal species biodiversity in the world in the context of sustainable resources management. The analysed case studies are the Wroclaw and Łódź zoos, which are also among the largest in Poland in terms of the number of animals, their species and among the most modern institutions dealing with breeding and protection of animals threatened with extinction in Europe.

The presentation will determine the main reasons and legal conditions for the transport of wild animals between zoos. The required transport conditions for individual species of wild animals will also be presented.

Then, the topic of changes in the frequency and directions of international transport of wild animals will be discussed, using the example of the ZOO Wroclaw and the Łódź ZOO Orientarium. The considerations will concern both the number of animals transported and the network of contacts created together with other zoological institutions.

Thomas De Graaff (p), Eric Pels

Gervasio Santos

Air transport policy requires precise information on the price elasticity of air travel demand. This paper provides a systematic overview of the current literature on the price-elasticity of aviation demand. To do, we provide a meta-analysis on the price elasticity of passenger air transport. Following a systematic literature search, estimates of price elasticities as well as information on geographic, economic and demographic sample variables and moderator variables are recorded from the literature. A flexible and robust estimation method is used to predict how prices elasticities in direct and indirect markets vary around the sample mean, whilst controlling for study specific effects and heterogeneity. First, a theoretical model describes how prices in direct and indirect markets may influence each other. Here, capacity on a given flight is limited, and seats are allocated according to demand characteristics in the different markets served with the flight under consideration. In the next step, the theoretical model is translated to an empirical model that is used to explain why and how price elasticities differ across markets. This is not the first meta-analysis on this topic. But there have been new empirical findings in the field in the last 20 years, so an update is necessary. Moreover, the distinction between direct and indirect markets is novel and has been an issue in policy making for years: what is the effect on demand if transfer passengers pay the same tax as origin-destination passengers? And if transfer passenger are less price sensitive, then what does this imply for the local economy?