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Size of Cities and Transport Costs in African Countries of the CFA Franc Zone

Received: 10 February 2022    Accepted: 2 March 2022    Published: 9 March 2022
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Abstract

The results presented here want to make a contribution in the field of transport. Our purpose is to shed light on the evolution of public transport costs as the size of the city increases. We also try to highlight the role of certain factors that are characteristic of the supply: level of service, vehicle capacity, spatial extension, frequencies, etc. In this article, we show, from a sample of 25 African cities, that it is doubtful that economies will emerge in the operation of urban public transport when the size of cities grows. The growth in operating expenses, more than proportional to the size of the cities, can be explained by both a growth in the unit cost (at the place-kilometer-offered) and the offer to the inhabitant. Large cities (in terms of population) escape the drift of unit charges, but not per capita charges because of a particularly strong supply. The comparison between large cities and small towns suggests that the capacity of the buses in circulation can be a decisive factor in the improvement of productivity. Capacity growth, however, appears to be occurring in very large cities, such as Abidjan or Bamako, whose counterpart may well be @ the lengthening of travel times and distances. These results then raise the question of a divergence between the performance of urban services and the economic efficiency of spaces.

Published in International Journal of Economics, Finance and Management Sciences (Volume 10, Issue 2)
DOI 10.11648/j.ijefm.20221002.12
Page(s) 45-53
Creative Commons

This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, provided the original work is properly cited.

Copyright

Copyright © The Author(s), 2024. Published by Science Publishing Group

Keywords

Transport Costs, Size of Cities, Africain Countries, CFA Franc Zone

References
[1] ABDEL-RAHMAN, H. M. AND M. FUJITA (2015). Product variety, Marhallian externalities, and city sizes. Journal of Regional Science 30: 165-183.
[2] BAIROCH P. (2007), Taille des villes, conditions de vie et croissance économique, Paris: Editions de l'Ecole des hautes études en sciences sociales, 421 p.
[3] BARRET, P. (2013). The Automobile and Urban Transit: The Formation of Public Policy in Chicago 1900-1930. Philadelphia.
[4] BONNAFOUS A. (2012), "Exploitation d'entreprises de transport urbain dans les villes de taille moyenne", Les Cahiers Scientifiques du Transport, n° 17-18, pp. 67-87.
[5] EGAL D. (2011), "Are there returns to scale in city size?", Review of economics and statistics, pp. 339-350.
[6] FAUDRY D. (1972), Les coûts de l'urbanisation: critique d'un concept et éléments d'une nouvelle problématique, Grenoble: Université des sciences sociales - CERER - IREP, Action concertée de recherche urbaine, 39 p.
[7] FUJITA M. (2014), Urban economic theory, land use and city size, Cambridge (Mass): Cambridge University Press, 366 p.
[8] HENDERSON J. V. (1988), Urban development, theory, fact and illusion, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 242 p.
[9] ISARD W. (1956), Location and space economy, Cambridge (Mass): MIT Press, 350 p.
[10] KAUSKAS L. (2010), "The productivity of cities", Quaterly Journal of Economics, pp. 393-413.
[11] LESOURNE J. (1968), "Le coût du développement urbain", Développement urbain et analyse économique, Compte rendu du colloque international tenu à Québec du 8 au 11 septembre 1968, Société canadienne de science économique, pp. 269-315.
[12] PRUD'HOMME R., ROUSSEAU M. P. (2012), Les bénéfices de la concentration parisienne, Paris: OEIL, 21 p.
[13] RICHARDSON H. (1971), Urban economics, Londres: Penguin modern economics texts, 208 p.
[14] SSATP, (2003), Analyse des coûts de déplacement: élaboration d'une méthodologie dans le cadre d'un compte transport de voyageurs, Washington: 4 volumes.
[15] TOUNKARA A. (2015), Principales tendances de 1984 à 2010 pour 20 des 101 réseaux de province, Lyon: LET, 90 p.
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  • APA Style

    Gnanderman Sirpe. (2022). Size of Cities and Transport Costs in African Countries of the CFA Franc Zone. International Journal of Economics, Finance and Management Sciences, 10(2), 45-53. https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ijefm.20221002.12

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    ACS Style

    Gnanderman Sirpe. Size of Cities and Transport Costs in African Countries of the CFA Franc Zone. Int. J. Econ. Finance Manag. Sci. 2022, 10(2), 45-53. doi: 10.11648/j.ijefm.20221002.12

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    AMA Style

    Gnanderman Sirpe. Size of Cities and Transport Costs in African Countries of the CFA Franc Zone. Int J Econ Finance Manag Sci. 2022;10(2):45-53. doi: 10.11648/j.ijefm.20221002.12

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  • @article{10.11648/j.ijefm.20221002.12,
      author = {Gnanderman Sirpe},
      title = {Size of Cities and Transport Costs in African Countries of the CFA Franc Zone},
      journal = {International Journal of Economics, Finance and Management Sciences},
      volume = {10},
      number = {2},
      pages = {45-53},
      doi = {10.11648/j.ijefm.20221002.12},
      url = {https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ijefm.20221002.12},
      eprint = {https://article.sciencepublishinggroup.com/pdf/10.11648.j.ijefm.20221002.12},
      abstract = {The results presented here want to make a contribution in the field of transport. Our purpose is to shed light on the evolution of public transport costs as the size of the city increases. We also try to highlight the role of certain factors that are characteristic of the supply: level of service, vehicle capacity, spatial extension, frequencies, etc. In this article, we show, from a sample of 25 African cities, that it is doubtful that economies will emerge in the operation of urban public transport when the size of cities grows. The growth in operating expenses, more than proportional to the size of the cities, can be explained by both a growth in the unit cost (at the place-kilometer-offered) and the offer to the inhabitant. Large cities (in terms of population) escape the drift of unit charges, but not per capita charges because of a particularly strong supply. The comparison between large cities and small towns suggests that the capacity of the buses in circulation can be a decisive factor in the improvement of productivity. Capacity growth, however, appears to be occurring in very large cities, such as Abidjan or Bamako, whose counterpart may well be @ the lengthening of travel times and distances. These results then raise the question of a divergence between the performance of urban services and the economic efficiency of spaces.},
     year = {2022}
    }
    

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    T2  - International Journal of Economics, Finance and Management Sciences
    JF  - International Journal of Economics, Finance and Management Sciences
    JO  - International Journal of Economics, Finance and Management Sciences
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    AB  - The results presented here want to make a contribution in the field of transport. Our purpose is to shed light on the evolution of public transport costs as the size of the city increases. We also try to highlight the role of certain factors that are characteristic of the supply: level of service, vehicle capacity, spatial extension, frequencies, etc. In this article, we show, from a sample of 25 African cities, that it is doubtful that economies will emerge in the operation of urban public transport when the size of cities grows. The growth in operating expenses, more than proportional to the size of the cities, can be explained by both a growth in the unit cost (at the place-kilometer-offered) and the offer to the inhabitant. Large cities (in terms of population) escape the drift of unit charges, but not per capita charges because of a particularly strong supply. The comparison between large cities and small towns suggests that the capacity of the buses in circulation can be a decisive factor in the improvement of productivity. Capacity growth, however, appears to be occurring in very large cities, such as Abidjan or Bamako, whose counterpart may well be @ the lengthening of travel times and distances. These results then raise the question of a divergence between the performance of urban services and the economic efficiency of spaces.
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Author Information
  • Faculty of Economics, Université Aube Nouvelle, Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso

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