https://hdl.handle.net/2123/33278 Tue, 09 Jun 2026 18:23:56 GMT 2026-06-09T18:23:56Z https://hdl.handle.net/2123/34342 Introducing Money into the Framework of a General Equilibrium Model Truong, P. Truong Money is an important factor in economic activities but in a general equilibrium framework the concept of money seems to be absent. In fact money is often considered only as a ‘veil’ in hiding real economic activities, and therefore it has been ‘lifted’ out of the model so that the underlying ‘real’ activities in an economy can be examined more clearly. However, in practice, money is more than just a ‘veil’. It can provide a platform on which many activities and/or commodities can be conceived, produced and exchanged. Money is also a store of value, not of its own, but of others, and with its purchasing-power money can enable its holder to have access to, and command the usage of, many other commodities and labour (human-time) to achieve certain objectives. Money therefore can be considered as part of the infrastructure of an economy which helps the economy to grow and prosper. In the past, economic theories of money and theories of (labour and commodity) values have looked at these two sides of an economy as though they are governed by different ‘laws’, but in fact, there is only one set of laws which govern both the price of money as well as the values of commodities and labour. Since money can act as a means of exchange, it therefore can also act as a constraint on this exchange. This means conceptually and mathematically, the ‘value of money’ is actually just the Lagrangian shadow price of this monetary constraint, but expressed in terms of the values of commodities and labour (not in terms of the ‘value of money’ itself, otherwise this is circular reasoning). If a ‘real’ economy is considered as though consisting of many different value-chains linking all activities together from producers to consumers, then money can act as the shadow price level of all these activity-chains. In this paper, we examine the interactions between the different value-chains and their shadow prices, in a general equilibrium economic model. Since monetary exchange is actually at the core of almost every economic activity in a modern economy, a study of the nature and ‘values’ of these exchanges is important for a better understanding of the working of a ‘real’ economy, and the theory of general equilibrium is a useful foundation or platform on which to conduct this study. Mon, 29 Sep 2025 00:00:00 GMT https://hdl.handle.net/2123/34342 2025-09-29T00:00:00Z https://hdl.handle.net/2123/34268 Road User Charge Reform and the Political Shift in Interest in Australia: Some Thoughts to Contemplate Hensher, David A. The 2024 electric vehicle distance-based charge introduced in Victoria, Australia, to recognise that such vehicles do not pay fuel excise tax, led to a high court challenge in which it was deemed unconstitutional for a State to introduce such a charge, which is the responsibility of the Federal government (through legislation amendment). This loss of fuel excise as a tax (not a charge) on electric cars whetted the appetite of the Federal Government to place road user charging on a round table in August 2025. We now have elevated the topic right into the political sphere where any change will require such support, and it opens up an opportunity to not only consider the fuel excise issue per se but the broader agenda on road pricing reform. For the first time, we have a political appetite to do something even if it is driven by a loss of fuel excise revenue which has never been earmarked back to roads but is a backbone revenue source for many Federal government initiatives. In this paper, we consider a number of ways in which we can begin the journey to satisfy the political appetite while achieving much broader efficiency and equity objectives. Wed, 03 Sep 2025 00:00:00 GMT https://hdl.handle.net/2123/34268 2025-09-03T00:00:00Z https://hdl.handle.net/2123/34242 Personal e-scooter ownership and use: Perspectives from New Zealand Greaves, Stephen; Balfoort, Ferdinand C In common with much of the world, e-scooters have emerged onto the urban landscape in New Zealand, promising both a practical and greener form of personal mobility. While focus has primarily been around managing shared e-scooter services, relatively liberal e-scooter legislation has encouraged the purchase of personal/private e-scooters, which are not regulated at the point of sale, exacerbating concerns around how to safely accommodate this emerging mode. In turn, this highlights the need for better understanding of personal e-scooter users, about which relatively little is known. Drawing from a survey of 252 current and former e-scooter owners in New Zealand, this paper provides estimates of e-scooter ownership, explores motivations for purchasing e-scooters, who is buying them, what consumers are looking for, how they are being used and implications for shared e-scooter schemes. Results suggest around 60% of personal e-scooters are capable of travelling about the maximum ‘safe’ e-scooter speed limit in New Zealand of 25 kph. E-scooter owners are more likely be male, middle-aged, middle/higher income, employed and have tried a shared e-scooter scheme prior to purchase and be motivated by the flexibility, performance, and potential cost-savings. The growing number of shared e-scooter services is evidently providing a pathway to purchase, a complementary mode and potentially a factor in people selling their e-scooter. Going forward, safely accommodating, and regulating e-scooter usage without compromising the intrinsic appeal of this emerging mode of transport is essential, if it is to play a meaningful role in moving us towards more sustainable mobility systems. Wed, 20 Aug 2025 00:00:00 GMT https://hdl.handle.net/2123/34242 2025-08-20T00:00:00Z https://hdl.handle.net/2123/34231 Healthy ageing and active travel: Identifying age-related barriers to walking and cycling Vukalovich, Natarsha; Greaves, Stephen; Owen, Katherine; Tiedemann, Anne; Crane, Melanie In a period of increasing mobility technologies, sustainable transport options, and healthy ageing concerns it is timely to better understand the barriers to active travel, particularly for older adults. Drawing from a survey of 1,522 Sydney residents, we compare travel patterns and perceived barriers to walking and cycling for older adults (60+) and younger adults (18-59). Car/motorbike/Uber use and walking have frequent and consistent use across both age groups. In contrast, public transport and bicycle/e-bicycle use both decline with age. Perceived barriers to walking and cycling are analysed across age groups using logistic regression. Relative to younger adults, older adults are more likely to identify an injury or disability (OR 1.45, 95% CI 1.02 to 2.04) and the convenience of driving (OR 1.35, 95% CI 1.05 to 1.73) as barriers to walking/walking more. Conversely, older adults are less likely to identify no-one to walk with (OR 0.47, 95% CI 0.33 to 0.68), personal safety (OR, 0.28, 95% 0.17 to 0.45), traffic (OR 0.26, 95% CI 0.17 to 0.41), inadequate street lighting (OR 0.50, 95% CI 0.27 to 0.90), no footpaths (OR 0.41, 95% CI 0.24 to 0.70), and distance (OR 0.74, 95% CI 0.58 to 0.96) as barriers to walking/walking more. For cycling, lack of access to a bicycle (OR 2.74, 95% CI 2.15 to 3.48), and insufficient skills (OR 2.9, 95% CI 2.1 to 3.99) are key issues for older adults, while sociocultural and built environment barriers are again perceived as less of a barrier. Practical issues (distance, transport availability, skills development), personal limitations, and potentially the nature/purpose of travel are key factors associated with active travel among older adults in Sydney. Policymakers need to ensure sociocultural and built environment barriers are lowered to ensure those already walking and cycling maintain this into old age. Mon, 18 Aug 2025 00:00:00 GMT https://hdl.handle.net/2123/34231 2025-08-18T00:00:00Z https://hdl.handle.net/2123/34191 A habit persistence model of multiple discrete/continuous demand for evaluating charging behaviour of Australian electric vehicle owners Pellegrini, Andrea; Rose, John M. This paper introduces a novel habit persistence model of discrete/continuous demand that allows the joint evaluation of the spatial (i.e., location) and temporal (i.e., time of day) dimensions of the charging decision-making process. The model’s habit persistence structure further captures established recharging routines that influence both when and where charging occurs. The proposed model is applied to data capturing weekly charging activities collected using an online survey disseminated to a sample of EV owners recruited from across Australia between February and March 2024. Results show that charging at home is the most prevalent behaviour, with a strong tendency towards daytime charging largely driven by households with access to residential solar panels. Workplace charging emerges as a viable alternative to home charging when employers provide free charging and commuting frequency is high. The model also reveals the presence of state dependencies in charging behaviour, indicating that past choices are likely to influence current charging patterns. The empirical findings are subsequently used to demonstrate how changes in electricity prices can shift charging demand and impact grid load, corroborating the importance of targeted policy interventions to manage the growing energy demand for EVs. Tue, 05 Aug 2025 00:00:00 GMT https://hdl.handle.net/2123/34191 2025-08-05T00:00:00Z https://hdl.handle.net/2123/34154 Windows of change as precursors to changing travel behaviour aligned with sustainable mobility Hensher, David A.; Nelson, John D.; Wei, Edward; Kandanaarachchi, Thiranjaya; Balbontin, Camila; Ho, Chinh; Mulley, Corinne; Liu, Wen There is increasingly a greater focus on ways in which we can achieve behavioural change associated with improved sustainability outcomes in the transport sector. In societies where the car is the dominant passenger transport mode with all of its associated interpretations of convenience, we continue to search for ways to change travel habits that result in a switch out of the car in favour of public transport and active modes. The focus of this paper is on identifying windows of change (WoC) that have subsequently had an influence on the travel mobility preferences of individuals, hopefully in ways that support sustainability outcomes. We categorise the WoCs into four broad areas: lifestyle and household changes (e.g., changes in living arrangements, family structure, or personal habits), work and commuting-related changes (e.g., changes in employment, workplace incentives or commuting patterns), transport and mobility changes (e.g., changes in vehicle ownership, public transport use or travel habits), and social and environmental considerations (including awareness and influence of others). A series of negative binomial count models are estimated to identify the relationship between the WoCs and modal one-way trip frequency in a typical week, after controlling for various socioeconomic effects and country dummy variables. Data is collected from over 4,000 respondents spread across Australia, Finland, New Zealand, the United States, the United Kingdom, Singapore, and Sweden, investigating respondents’ WoC over the period 2023–2025 and their most recent weekly travel patterns. The findings provide a rich array of policy advice on what key WoC influences suggest actionable ways to support the switch to more sustainable modes, and what remain as clear barriers to achieving such an outcome. Tue, 29 Jul 2025 00:00:00 GMT https://hdl.handle.net/2123/34154 2025-07-29T00:00:00Z https://hdl.handle.net/2123/33604.2 A spatial-temporal dynamic attention based Mamba model for multi-type passenger demand prediction in multimodal public transit systems Shao, Zhiqi; Xi, Haoning; Hensher, David A.; Wang, Ze; Gong, Xiaolin; Gao, Junbin Predicting multi-type passenger demand, such as for adults, seniors, pensioners, and students, is essential for improving the operational efficiency, equity, and sustainability of multimodal public transit (PT) systems. However, traditional demand prediction models often struggle to capture the complex spatial-temporal variability inherent in diverse socio-demographic groups. To address this gap, we propose a novel spatial-temporal dynamic attention-based state-space model, i.e., STDAtt-Mamba, tailored for multi-type passenger demand prediction in multimodal PT systems. The STDAtt-Mamba model comprises three key components: an adaptive embedding layer that integrates station-level, passenger-type-specific, and temporal embeddings into a unified representation for efficient data processing; a spatial-temporal dynamic attention (STDAtt) module that employs sparse attention mechanisms to selectively capture crucial global spatial-temporal dynamics; and a spatial-temporal dynamic Mamba (STDMamba) module that extends state-space modeling to fuse spatial and temporal dependencies dynamically. We reformulate STDAtt-Mamba as a spatial-temporal dual-path attention mechanism and theoretically prove the complementarity of STDMamba and STDAtt in capturing local and global dependencies, thereby improving the interpretability of the STDAtt-Mamba. We conduct extensive experiments on a large-scale multimodal dataset of over 1.58 million smart card users of 9 passenger types from Queensland, Australia, from 01/2021 to 01/2023. Experimental results demonstrate that STDAtt-Mamba outperforms state-of-the-art baseline models regarding the prediction accuracy across all passenger types and travel modes. By addressing the challenges of heterogeneity in spatial-temporal travel patterns and socio-demographic groups, this study offers an adaptive, robust, scalable, and data-driven tool for managing the heterogeneous passenger demand in multimodal PT systems. Wed, 01 Jan 2025 00:00:00 GMT https://hdl.handle.net/2123/33604.2 2025-01-01T00:00:00Z https://hdl.handle.net/2123/33703.2 A multi-task Transformer with mixture-of-experts for personalized periodic predictions of individual travel behavior in multimodal public transport Xi, Haoning; Shao, Zhiqi; Hensher, David A; Nelson, John D; Chen, Huaming; Wijayaratna, Kasun Mobility-as-a-Service (MaaS) platforms are reshaping urban mobility by integrating multiple travel modes into seamless, user-centric systems. However, designing dynamic MaaS bundles that adapt to user-specific preferences, evolving over time in response to changing travel behaviors and shifting needs, remains a significant challenge. The rise of big data and artificial intelligence (AI) has unlocked new opportunities for data-driven personalized MaaS bundle solutions. In this study, we introduce an innovative MaaSformer-MMoE framework to customize user-specific monthly MaaS bundles by predicting each user’s mode-specific usage frequency class (classification tasks) and travel fare (regression task) for the upcoming month based on the user’s previous travel records. Within the multi-gate mixture-of-expert (MMoE) framework, each expert network is a MaaSformer, and each gate determines the weighted contributions of expert outputs relevant to a specific task tower. MaaSformer integrates two key modules: 1) Multi-mode Transformer processes continuous time-series features (e.g., monthly travel time, distance, and fare) employing a multi-feature self-attention mechanism; 2) OD Transformer processes origin-destination (OD)-specific travel features (i.e., journey frequency) using a multi-OD self-attention mechanism. Evaluated on a multimodal (i.e., bus, rail, ferry, and tram) dataset of over 1.5822 million users in Queensland, Australia, from 01/2021 to 01/2023, the proposed MaaSformer-MMoE demonstrates state-of-the-art performance in predicting mode usage frequency class and travel fare compared with 9 baseline models, significantly improving user satisfaction, adoption and retention for MaaS platforms. Wed, 01 Jan 2025 00:00:00 GMT https://hdl.handle.net/2123/33703.2 2025-01-01T00:00:00Z https://hdl.handle.net/2123/34143 Combining Participatory Budget and Cost Benefit Analysis: A hybrid project evaluation framework Rose, John M.; Pellegrini, Andrea This paper introduces a novel hybrid methodology proposes integrating Cost-Benefit Analysis (CBA) with Participatory Budgeting (PB) to enhance public sector decision-making. To highlight the approach, we assume that CBA has been conducted to evaluate twelve independent infrastructure and service projects, establishing their economic viability. Subsequently, PB is employed to elicit community preferences regarding the same projects, ensuring alignment with public values. The combined framework aims to reconcile technical efficiency with democratic legitimacy, promoting government outcomes that reflect both expert analysis and citizen priorities. Our findings reveal a strong community preference for projects that improve health outcomes and utility infrastructure, while initiatives focused on transport electrification received comparatively low support. These results underscore the importance of incorporating public sentiment into investment decisions, particularly in sectors where societal benefits may be perceived differently than economic returns. Wed, 23 Jul 2025 00:00:00 GMT https://hdl.handle.net/2123/34143 2025-07-23T00:00:00Z https://hdl.handle.net/2123/34069 Exploring community public budget preferences for transport electrification: Evidence from a contingent budget allocation study in New South Wales, Australia Pellegrini, Andrea; Rose, John M.; Hensher, David A. The allocation of funds to different functions of government reflets political priorities that often-run counter to public expectations. In this paper, we adopt a contingent allocation method survey task that requires respondents to distribute a fixed budget across 12 different potential project types. The main goal is to elicit community preferences for the allocation of public funds across a broad array of government functions, with a particular focus on transport electrification projects. Based on a sample of 727 residents from the state of New South Wales, Australia, our findings suggest strong community support for funding healthcare, utility related projects, as well as for funding roads and education. The research goal of the study was, however, to explore support for the electrification of the transport sector, for which, unfortunately, we found little support amongst the community. Fri, 04 Jul 2025 00:00:00 GMT https://hdl.handle.net/2123/34069 2025-07-04T00:00:00Z https://hdl.handle.net/2123/33950 How poor land use planning has created an unfixable problem for transport: a case study of the City of Johannesburg Pisa, Noleen; Ho, Chinh Q.; Hensher, David A.; Luke, Rose; Heyns, Gert; Mageto, Joash; Chakamera, Chengete Rapid urbanisation and apartheid‐era land-use legacies leave many South Africans captive to long, costly, and unsafe commutes. Yet rigorous evidence on how township residents value transport attributes is scarce. This study addresses that gap with the first high-quality stated-preference dataset for commuting in South Africa. Using an efficient best-worst design, 201 face-to-face interviews were conducted in Soweto, eliciting dual responses on cost, in-vehicle time, first/last-mile effort, comfort and safety for both public and private transport options. Mixed-logit best-worst models capture unobserved taste heterogeneity and deliver the country’s first mode-specific elasticities and willingness-to-pay measures. Results show no systematic behavioural differences between workers and adult students. Instead, attribute valuations are dominated by safety concerns. The willingness to pay for a “very safe” service is over four times that for a one-hour reduction in travel time. Elasticities confirm that safety improvements have the greatest potential to shift demand, whereas marginal fare increases sharply deter low-income users. The findings stress that enhancing perceived and actual safety is a prerequisite for sustainable mode shift in Gauteng. They also provide policy-ready parameters for appraisal of bus, rail and minibus-taxi upgrades in similarly segregated African cities. Fri, 30 May 2025 00:00:00 GMT https://hdl.handle.net/2123/33950 2025-05-30T00:00:00Z https://hdl.handle.net/2123/33947 Low Cost Flat Public Fare Policy: Induced Demand, Mode Switching and Policy Beneficiaries Rose, John M.; Pellegrini, Andrea; Hensher, David A.; Beck, Matthew J. This study analyses six waves of cross-sectional survey data collected both before and after the introduction of a $0.50 flat fare structure across all public transport modes operating within Queensland Australia. The frequency of public transport trips is reported from 650 to 700 respondents per wave across each of the six waves of data collection, including information on trips that are reported as being trips that would have occurred irrespective of the low fare structure, trips that occurred solely as a result of the low flat fare structuring being introduced, and public transport trips that involve switching to public transport modes from some other mode of transport. Our findings suggest that the low fare structure led to increased public transport trips due to induced demand, with much less scope for mode switching behaviour. Further, the primary beneficiaries of the fare policy appear to be younger lower income individuals and/or those who are already regular public transport users. As such, consistent with the introduction of low or zero fare policies in other jurisdictions, the introduction of a flat $0.50 fare in Queensland has resulted in increased public transport patronage for some groups, while only limited mode switching behaviour is observed to have occurred. Thu, 29 May 2025 00:00:00 GMT https://hdl.handle.net/2123/33947 2025-05-29T00:00:00Z https://hdl.handle.net/2123/33941 A comparative analysis of the drivers and outcomes of work, location and commuting choices of the office only, hybrid, and home/other location only workers Wei, Edward; Hensher, David A. Hybrid work in an office and non-office locations on the same or different days, has become a mainstream work pattern in addition to only working in the office or working from home (WFH). This paper compares the three work groups within a framework covering drivers and outcomes for interconnected work patterns, location and commuting choices, using survey data of 981 randomly sampled employees in Australia. The research goes beyond the socioeconomic characteristics of employees to examine other reasons why the three groups choose the way they work and commute, and their work-related motivation, performance and wellbeing. The research reveals the following key findings: 1) Having the highest level of motivation drives hybrid workers to work hard with more working hours than other groups. The long working hours, however, have a detrimental effect on their wellbeing and job performance, despite the highest level of job satisfaction. However, they perform best in terms of contextual performance when more responsibilities and challenges are present. 2) The WFH/other only group has the healthiest wellbeing and the least counterproductive work behaviour on job performance. This suggests that work location is not the key reason for poor job performance and hence productivity. 3) The office-only workers have the best task performance as well as the second-best performance for contextual performance where more responsibilities and challenges are required. 4) A discrete choice model for the three groups suggests that commuting and work patterns for each day of the week (DoW) and time of the day (ToD), together with roles in the organisation, enable us to predict whether employees are likely to belong to one of three work-location alternatives. These findings suggest a need to shift the focus of work and transport policy from the predominate focus on location to other work-related issues, such as work-related wellbeing, and to consider ways to recognise better work arrangements as a significant contributor to improved workforce performance. Tue, 27 May 2025 00:00:00 GMT https://hdl.handle.net/2123/33941 2025-05-27T00:00:00Z https://hdl.handle.net/2123/33870 Introducing the Time Factor into the Economic Framework of a Static General Equilibrium Model Truong, Truong P.; Stone, Alastair; Beck, Maris Time is an important ‘factor’ or ‘input’ into many economic activities, but up to now, the issue of time valuation has been considered mostly in a partial equilibrium framework such as in the context of travel time savings valuation. This does not allow for a more general consideration of the issue of time valuation especially in the wider context of an economy where almost any economic activity ‘takes time’. In a general equilibrium framework, however, the issue of time valuation seems to be neglected. This is because despite the fact that both production as well as consumption activities ‘take time’, production time is often considered only implicitly via the representation of the labour input: as a flow of labour service through time. Capital-time or machine-time, on the other hand, is ignored or masked under the representation of this input in the form of a stock rather than a flow (of capital services). Flow requires time, whereas stock is ‘timeless’. Therefore, it can be said that time is almost ‘absent’ in a (static) general equilibrium framework where, not only with regard to the issue about capital stock versus capital service flow (or utilization rate), in the long run as well as in the short run, but also with regard to the consideration of other so-called ‘fixed’ input, such land, natural or environmental resource stocks. These stocks are often taken into consideration but only with regard to the measurement of the (static) wealth of an individual or of a nation, but not with regard to the flow of the income which is derived from the activities of the individual or the nation (activities take time). In this paper, we consider the time factor in the framework of a ‘comparative static’ general equilibrium economic model because even here the operation of the time factor is still present and important and can affect the valuation (or costing) of many economic activities albeit in an implicit and subtle way. Tue, 06 May 2025 00:00:00 GMT https://hdl.handle.net/2123/33870 2025-05-06T00:00:00Z https://hdl.handle.net/2123/33867 Profiling future passenger transport initiatives that garner community support as a guide to identify the growing role of active and micro-mobility modes: a MDCEV model Balbontin, Camila; Hensher, David A.; Wei, Edward; Liu, Wen This paper examines the factors influencing the adoption and frequency of use of sustainable transport modes including walking, cycling, electric bicycles, electric vehicles, and public transport, for different trip purposes. Using a two-stage stated preference experiment in metropolitan Australia, we use a mixed multinomial logit model (MML) model to estimate the probability of adopting door-to-door travel alternatives, followed by a multiple discrete-continuous extreme value (MDCEV) model to capture the number of weekly trips taken by mode and purpose. Results show that trip purpose plays a significant role in mode selection, with commuting trips associated with greater willingness to shift to active and electric modes, especially when infrastructure quality is high. In contrast, shopping and personal business trips are more sensitive to access mode and mode experience. E-bikes emerge as a flexible option for both commuting and recreational trips, while walking is mainly preferred for short, non-commute travel. The findings underscore the importance of purpose-specific strategies and high-quality infrastructure in promoting sustainable and integrated mobility futures. Mon, 05 May 2025 00:00:00 GMT https://hdl.handle.net/2123/33867 2025-05-05T00:00:00Z https://hdl.handle.net/2123/33407.2 Estimating gasoline demand under electric vehicle adoption: A spatial model for Brazil Prolo, Sergio; Pellegrini, Andrea; Junior, Werner Kraus; Coelhoc, Alexandre Hering; Rose, John We investigate gasoline demand growth in Brazil over a 16-year period, assessing its response to electric vehicle (EV) adoption and taxation measures. Using a spatial-based econometric model with data from 2006 to 2021 across all Brazilian states, we observe that annual gasoline sales nearly doubled from 2006 to 2014, reaching 0.22 m³ per capita, and then stabilized. Our model reveals that the EV motorization rate negatively impacts gasoline demand, with an elasticity of -0.126, compared to 0.609 for internal combustion engine vehicles. The results show that aggressive fuel taxation alone is insufficient to achieve long-term reductions in demand. However, fleet electrification is more effective, potentially reducing per capita gasoline consumption by 90% between 2021 and 2034. A combined approach integrating taxation and electrification offers the most efficient pathway for reducing demand while generating revenue for public investment in Brazil’s transition to a carbonfree transportation sector. Mon, 01 Jan 2024 00:00:00 GMT https://hdl.handle.net/2123/33407.2 2024-01-01T00:00:00Z https://hdl.handle.net/2123/33842 Managing Paradoxical Trade-Offs: Sustainability and Diversification Strategies of Supply Managers Fahimnia, Ben; Collins, Andrew; Moritz, Brent This paper investigates how practicing supply managers evaluate the paradoxical trade-offs of environmental and social sustainability relative to cost and supply diversification. Although sustainable business practices are important, firms often struggle to translate these goals into actions. As sourcing decisions are key to sustainable supply chains, we investigate how managers make trade-offs in supplier selection. We completed a discrete choice experiment with 217 experienced professionals, with realistic levels based on observed supplier evaluations. We show how these practicing supply managers value and trade-off between location diversification, environmental sustainability, and social sustainability. We found that managers resisted selecting new suppliers with worse sustainability profiles and were willing to incur slightly higher costs for suppliers with better environmental and social performance. These results were stronger for managers at lower levels of the firm. Managers also valued environmental performance more than social performance, and lower-level managers were more likely to view these as substitutes. Specific to risk management, supply managers were willing to pay more for increased geographic diversification of the suppliers, even if adding diversification resulted in poorer environmental performance. However, they were reluctant to add new suppliers within the same country unless doing so also improved environmental performance. Understanding how practicing supply chain professionals value and trade-off competing priorities when selecting suppliers can help companies manage risk and improve environmental and social sustainability. Mon, 28 Apr 2025 00:00:00 GMT https://hdl.handle.net/2123/33842 2025-04-28T00:00:00Z https://hdl.handle.net/2123/33631.2 Nothing gained from overcrowding: a general population equilibrium Day, Christopher Following two centuries of rapid population growth, fertility rates in developed economies have declined below replacement levels. This raises an important demographic question concerning the drivers of future fertility rates in post demographic transition societies. I propose a general population equilibrium framework which argues that the decline in fertility rates below replacement levels in wealthy economies is in response to a range of pressures associated with a growing and affluent population. The lag between declining mortality rates and birth rates caused the population to overshoot what I term its “general equilibrium”. In consequence, cost of living pressures, environmental degradation and employment market competition intensified within developed economies. These forces are inconducive to child rearing. In response, the population declines until the general population equilibrium is attained. The equilibrium point is identified as the population size at which a society chooses, on aggregate, to achieve replacement level fertility given the resources and technology available. Significant policy implications emerge from this interpretation. Population policies aimed at countering an ageing demographic structure, such as through promoting inbound net migration or higher fertility rates, may only delay a return to an equilibrium population and resource profile. Wed, 01 Jan 2025 00:00:00 GMT https://hdl.handle.net/2123/33631.2 2025-01-01T00:00:00Z https://hdl.handle.net/2123/33702 Are users ready to accept fully flexible walking in on-demand mobility? Pellegrini, Andrea; Fielbaum, Andres On-demand ride pooling benefits from updating its routing decisions in real-time as new information becomes available, as well as from optimising the pickup and drop off (PUDO) points to avoid long detours. Both features indicate that it could be plausible to implement flexible walking, i.e., deciding the PUDO points dynamically, as opposed to informing users upfront. However, this could reduce the reliability of ride pooling thereby influencing the user experience. In this paper, we analyse data extracted from a labelled discrete choice experiment, consisting of three distinct ride pooling alternatives: door-to-door, fixed walking where walking time is informed upfront, and flexible walking where walking time is expressed as a time interval. Each alternative is further described by the following battery of attributes: price, in vehicle and waiting times, and emission savings compared to conventional petrol vehicles. The empirical analysis is performed via the density de-compositional version of the non parametric random effects Logit Mixed Logit model. Our main findings are as follows: i) There is a discontinuous zero-walk effect: passengers strongly prefer door-to-door services to walking even a minimal distance; ii) Users prefer to know their walking direction, as the willingness to pay to reduce walking time is significantly higher when the PUDO point is not fixed in advance; iii) The so-called reliability ratio, which compares the value of reliability to the value of time, is approximately 0.68 for walking time — significantly greater than previous values obtained for either waiting or in-vehicle time indicating that reliability is relatively more important for walking. All of this implies that flexible walking would be desirable only if the operational benefits are very large. On the other hand, those three findings reflect the average, but we do identify a percentage of the population willing to embrace flexible walking, suggesting that offering both fixed and flexible times to the users can be the best option. Fri, 14 Mar 2025 00:00:00 GMT https://hdl.handle.net/2123/33702 2025-03-14T00:00:00Z https://hdl.handle.net/2123/33603 The MaaS Blueprint for Regional Towns and Rural Hinterlands Nelson, John D.; Mulley, Corinne; Hensher, David A.; Ho, Chinh; Xi, Haoning; Balbontin, Camila This Blueprint document presents a vision for how transport services in rural and regional areas in the NSW context could be better organised to meet the needs of residents and visitors. The Blueprint features a mobility framework for Rural and Regional MaaS which is multi-modal (including all modes available, including the private car) and multi-service (e.g., non-mobility services such as parcel deliveries, library services, food and medicine distribution, media streaming). The Blueprint also provides a focus on decarbonising transport and combatting social exclusion. Fri, 07 Feb 2025 00:00:00 GMT https://hdl.handle.net/2123/33603 2025-02-07T00:00:00Z https://hdl.handle.net/2123/33602 The influence of flexi-time and flexi-place work on online ordering expenditure Hensher, David A.; Pellegrini, Andrea; Wei, Edward In recent years we have seen a tsunami of change in both the way in which work is performed by location, when, and the quantum of hours, which is now seen as flexi-place and flexitime, together with the growth annually in online shopping. These two phenomena may be related to working from home all day and/or a blended or hybrid workday (part in the main office and part elsewhere) may have contributed to boosting online ordering. In this paper, we estimate a Tobit regression model with a zero-corner solution to explore the interplay between the amount of money spent on online shopping and whether the hours working from home and/or hybrid work results in an increase in expenditure on online ordering. There appears to be little evidence in the research literature given to this relationship. We draw on a March 2024 survey for Australia to investigate the presence of a link, and we find that there are systematic differences, with a higher incidence of online expenditure associated with a higher probability of working from home all day or on a blended workday. Partial effects estimates suggest a statistically significant difference, and as the mix of flexitime and flexi-place changes over time, we can expect a noticeable response in the quantum of online shopping expenditure. Wed, 01 Jan 2025 00:00:00 GMT https://hdl.handle.net/2123/33602 2025-01-01T00:00:00Z https://hdl.handle.net/2123/33548 Systematic assessment of push and pull initiatives in behavioural responses associated with public transport fares, service frequency, car-related tolls, distance-based road user charges, and parking charges Hensher, David A.; Wei, Edward; Liu, Wen There has been a constant flow of empirical evidence suggesting the likely modal trip impact that stand-alone policy initiatives such as public transport fares or service frequency and road pricing reforms (be it tolls or distance-based charging) have on the change in travel behaviour. While the evidence, typically converted to mean direct elasticity and cross elasticity modal estimates, is informative, there is a dearth of empirical evidence on elasticities associated with policy initiatives that combine policies such as a public transport fare or service frequency change and a car-related toll and /or distance-based charge and/or parking charges. This paper investigates the one-way trip and arc elasticity impacts of stand-alone policy initiatives and compares the two elasticity effects when push and pull policy initiatives are at play. We find not only that there are asymmetric effects according to whether the policy involves an increase or a decrease, but that the combined policy initiatives suggest very different mean arc elasticity impacts, opening up opportunities for behavioural changes that are not obtained to the same extent from a stand-alone policy initiative. Each policy by itself generally, although not always, has a lower relative elasticity compared to when it is combined with another policy. We use the advanced Metroscan integrated transport and land use strategic model system to obtain the evidence for 2024 in the Sydney Metropolitan Area. Fri, 24 Jan 2025 00:00:00 GMT https://hdl.handle.net/2123/33548 2025-01-24T00:00:00Z https://hdl.handle.net/2123/33488 Measuring Public Transport Accessibility – A Review and Future Directions Perera, Supun S.; Zareh Andaryan, Sam; Bell, Michael G.H.; McCabe, Graham Achieving sustainable transport targets in the context of population growth requires a significant shift from private vehicle use to public transport (PT). To enable this transition, PT services must provide accessible and efficient connections between passengers' origins and desired destinations, particularly for recurring, peak-period commuting trips. This study reviews existing methods for measuring PT accessibility, highlighting the strengths and limitations of various accessibility metrics. This work emphasises the need for a comprehensive PT accessibility metric that accounts for both supply and demand dynamics. Finally, in light of Sydney's newly announced Transport-Oriented Development (TOD) precincts, we discuss how a refined PT accessibility metric can guide practitioners and policymakers in addressing PT supply-demand imbalances. Wed, 18 Dec 2024 00:00:00 GMT https://hdl.handle.net/2123/33488 2024-12-18T00:00:00Z https://hdl.handle.net/2123/33347 Factor-Analytic Specifications of Mixed Logit Coote, Leonard V.; Magor, Thomas J.; Marley, A. A. J.; Wei, Edward Factor-analytic specifications of mixed logit are especially useful in representing patterns of preference heterogeneity. The latent variables of factor-analytic specifications represent unobserved sources of heterogeneity in the effects of the explanators of the mixed logit model. One such application is market structure analysis – an important topic within the marketing literature on brand choice. This paper reports an analysis of brand preferences measured using best-worst Type I (the object case) and paired-comparison methods. The analysis leverages the within-subjects design – the same respondents complete both methods. The paper makes an empirical contribution based on the specification and testing of the theoretical model of interest – a multitrait-multimethod (MT-MM) specification of mixed logit (a type of factor-analytic specification). The MT-MM model partitions the heterogeneity into structural, trait, and method components and is compared to three rival specifications. The MT-MM model is more parsimonious, offers better fit (based on measures of absolute and comparative fit), and has better interpretations than the competing models. We suggest future applications of the MT-MM model that should be of interest to choice modellers in a range of fields. The factor-analytic approach opens a new pathway for developing and testing theory of preference heterogeneity in a systematic way. Mon, 02 Dec 2024 00:00:00 GMT https://hdl.handle.net/2123/33347 2024-12-02T00:00:00Z