ART interviews TSE researchers

This report is available for consultation on the website of ART: "Menu de Contrats pour les Concessions d'Autoroutes" (in French only).

The 2022 Annual Report of ART (Part II) featured an interview of our researchers (see below). 
Thanks to ART for its support and the visibility given to our teams' research work. 

As economists, why did you become interested in the highway sector?

Highway transportation is central to our lives. First of all, a significant portion of goods and services continues to be transported via this network, which raises environmental concerns that economists cannot ignore.

Furthermore, the ongoing public debate over the “fair price” of highway services also reflects households’ concerns about the growing share of their budget that must now be devoted to transportation. For example, the Yellow Vests crisis undoubtedly has its roots in a crisis over the cost of transportation. Here again, economists have a duty to shed light on the terms of a debate often dominated by dogmatic stances rather than reason.

If you could retain just one recommendation for better regulation of the sector, what would it be?

That public authorities adopt flexible approaches, far removed from dogmatic stances, and equip themselves with the necessary expertise to that end.

More generally, how can economic research inform regulation, and vice versa?

Research on incentive-based regulation—undoubtedly associated with the work of Jean-Jacques Laffont and Jean Tirole, and more broadly with that of the Toulouse School of Economics—offers us a body of work and insights that finds a particularly promising field of application in transportation economics. Conversely, a deeper understanding of the sector enables us, as researchers, to better grasp the institutional and political constraints that influence public decision-making; this sometimes suggests that we should revisit our academic thinking to bring it more in line with the reality on the ground.

Source: ART activity repport 2022, "Construire une régulation performante au service des usagers et de la mobilité" (All Activity by Sector, VOLUME 2)

Useful Links : 

• Interview "What future for motorway concessions?" (Also Published in TSE Reflect, Sept. 2022)
• TSE Infrastructure & Network Center and TSE Competition Policy & Regulation Center
• Research initiative on the economic regulation of railway sector (ART)

Published in TSE Reflect September 2023