Edited by
Giorgio Ragazzi, Universita di Bergamo, Italy
Werner Rothengatter, Universitat Karlsruhe, Germany
Description
This volume raises many challenging and controversial issues surrounding motorway procurement and finance in Europe. A somewhat surprising
outcome is that a general appraisal bias can be identified in the following sense: Experts from countries which have introduced concession
schemes for managing and financing of their motorways are very critical of these schemes, stressing their shortcomings and caveats. Some
even conclude that public management under a regime of welfare maximisation would be desirable as a sustainable option. Experts from
countries which have been sticking to public procurement and tax finance of motorways strongly attack the inefficiency of public planning
regimes and the general tendency to allocate the revenues from special transport related taxes to the public budget, eventually spending
them on other purposes rather than transport. A typical feature of the latter regime seems to be the chronic lack of funds for infrastructure
investment.
Although a single ideal country concept for motorway procurement and finance obviously cannot be identified, every
paper gives some insights into possible future improvements. Therefore, beyond the rich documentation of national solutions it is the
perspective on workable future concepts which makes the book a valuable guide through the jungle of manifold options for public/private
partnerships.
This book is a selection of papers presented to the international conference "Highways: Costs and Regulation in Europe",
held in Bergamo on the 26th - 27th of November 2004. The Conference was organised by the University of Bergamo, and sponsored by the
European Investment Bank.
Included in series
Research in Transportation Economics
