Author(s)

Ž. Bazaras, A. Česnulevičius, D. Micevičienė, O. Purvinis & A. Tautkus

Abstract

This paper reviews the theoretical and empirical issues on the measurement of the impacts of the performance generated by improved highway infrastructure. Raising the issues of validity of the intervention of governments into economics in terms of social justice, the concept of public alternative costs is discussed. Stressing that the inadequate usage of public resources for the formation and development of highway infrastructure may have negative consequences on the dynamics and tendencies of the development of other economic sectors, the question of an adequate, socially and economically reasonable assessment of development is raised. Taking into account the complexity of the problem discussed, the present research of the authors is narrowed and concentrates on the improvement of the simplified general equilibrium model which focuses on the price effects of direct changes in transport costs and their measurement. Other aspects are going to be excluded from this initial investigation and presented for the wide public in the nearest future. In the Introduction, the topic relevance, scientific problem and level of its analysis, object and tasks of the research are presented. The methods of the research, scientific novelty and significance of the work are introduced there as well. The second part is dedicated to the analysis of the methodological framework of the application of general equilibrium models in evaluation of the performance of improved transport systems. The possible extension of the model and its application issues are presented in the third section. The last section is dedicated to the employment of intelligent technologies in evaluating travel cost change as a result of transport infrastructure improvement.

Keywords

highway, infrastructure, costs, consumers, producers, surplus.