Highlights We develop a theoretic model to analyze interactions between a firm’s distribution strategy and traffic congestion. In an unregulated economy, we characterize the firm’s optimal strategy concerning e-commerce under the influence of traffic congestion. We show that the socially optimal distribution strategy depends on consumers’ acceptance of e-commerce and congestion parameters. We identify the private firm’s incentive distortions from the socially optimal decisions and underlying causes. We propose a differentiated tolls/rebates policy that aligns the firm’s incentives with the social objective and achieves maximum social welfare.

    Abstract E-commerce, due to its ability to re-direct consumers from physical stores to online, can potentially alleviate traffic congestion. In this paper, we set up a theoretic model to analyze interactions between a firm’s distribution strategy and traffic congestion. In an unregulated economy, we first characterize the private firm’s optimal strategy concerning e-commerce under the influence of traffic congestion. We then examine a centralized economy where the firm is publicly owned and derive the distribution strategy that maximizes social welfare. Comparing the two cases, we show that the private firm’s incentives may deviate from the socially optimal decisions, which leads to inefficiency. We identify two effects, i.e., monopoly effect and congestion externality effect, which drive the private firm to deviate from the social optimum. Based on our analysis, we propose a differentiated tolls/rebates policy to achieve maximum social welfare. Under such a policy, the firm will not only adopt the socially optimal distribution strategy but offer the socially optimal quantities.


    Zugriff

    Zugriff prüfen

    Verfügbarkeit in meiner Bibliothek prüfen

    Bestellung bei Subito €


    Exportieren, teilen und zitieren



    Titel :

    E-commerce and traffic congestion: An economic and policy analysis


    Beteiligte:
    Shao, Jing (Autor:in) / Yang, Hangjun (Autor:in) / Xing, Xiaoqiang (Autor:in) / Yang, Liu (Autor:in)


    Erscheinungsdatum :

    2015-11-02


    Format / Umfang :

    13 pages




    Medientyp :

    Aufsatz (Zeitschrift)


    Format :

    Elektronische Ressource


    Sprache :

    Englisch





    Economic Cost of Traffic Congestion in Florida

    A. G. Blanco / R. L. Steiner / Z. R. Peng et al. | NTIS | 2010


    The Economic Impacts of Air Traffic Congestion

    Kostiuk, Peter F. | Online Contents | 1999


    TRAFFIC CONGESTION DETECTION DEVICE, TRAFFIC CONGESTION DETECTION SYSTEM, AND TRAFFIC CONGESTION DETECTION METHOD

    ESHITA NAOHIKO / MORIGUCHI TAKUO / TOKUUME SHINYA et al. | Europäisches Patentamt | 2022

    Freier Zugriff

    Traffic congestion

    Schofield, H. | Engineering Index Backfile | 1956