Essays on Applied Microeconomics

Timur Dincer

doi:10.7273/000005118

My dissertation comprises three essays on applications of microeconomics in contemporary issues of agricultural freight transportation. The first chapter is an analysis of competition between rail and truck transportation modes in agricultural freight shipment markets in the U.S. The second chapter is an application of game theory on tort litigation that has a vital role in the compensation of externalities. The third chapter centers on the analysis of the agricultural truck freight safety including the effect of the statutory exemptions granted to agricultural truck freight carriers. The first chapter adopts a derived demand model to estimate shipping demand price elasticities for agricultural freight ensuing with an analysis of competition for different market segments. Results indicate that the mode dominance is largely determined by lane distance for grain shipping: the average distance of truck dominant lanes is 183 miles (short hauls), the average distance of rail-dominated lanes is 1,658 miles (long hauls), and the average distance of competitive lanes is 657 (medium hauls). For frozen goods shipping, the majority of the frozen freight lanes are truck dominated. The second chapter models tort litigation as a two-stage game-inducing settlement on the true value of the case. We provide conditions as to trial costs under which tort litigation serves as a subgame perfect implementation. We also provide a guideline for the discussions over limiting the punitive damage awards, a policy change that has been advocated by tort reform initiatives. Results indicate that the authorities should take the split-recovery rules into consideration when capping on punitive damages. We also find that a partial cost shifting as opposed to the American payment rule may remedy for tort litigation inefficiency. The third chapter analyzes the safety of agricultural truck freight transportation including the effects of statutory exemptions using GLM models. Results indicate that the statutory exemptions had no impact on crash riskiness for the period 2008-2018. Other key findings suggest that agricultural carriers are less likely to be involved in an accident than non-agricultural carriers, however once they are involved in accidents, they are more likely to cause injury or loss to human life.

Essays on Applied Microeconomics

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