Transport Economics

Australia’s transport sector is complex and rapidly changing. Change and uncertainty drive the need for innovative, evidence-based decision-making informed by rigorous economic analysis.

NineSquared tackle important and complex problems facing clients in the transport sector, providing them with insightful economic analysis to make strong, evidence-based decisions.

Why is transport economics important?

The Australian transport sector is undergoing significant change with:

The de-carbonisation of the transport system and the introduction of EVs
The move towards autonomous and connected vehicles
The introduction of shared / on-demand services
Mobility as a service
Micro-mobility and shared micro-mobility

Evaluating and assessing the impacts of these changes on organisations in the transport sector is critical to their future prosperity.

Transport economics expertise

Combining expertise in transport economics with a strong commercial focus and data led inquiry, we can assist private and public organisations on a range of matters, including:

Valuing non-market goods – Measuring the economic value of time, safety emissions and other community impacts that are not priced in a market place
Stated and revealed preference modelling – Providing clients with a richer understanding of the potential value they are creating through their policies and projects as well as understanding demand and willingness to pay for new initiatives and infrastructure
Economic modelling – Our innovative modelling turns thinking into actionable answers, tailored to the needs of our clients.
Transport policy development – We can provide advice on measuring the efficacy of transport policies or how best to structure a policy position.
Pricing and fares – We can help develop and analyse pricing issues and fares proposals, benchmarking against national and international practice and assess the impact of pricing and fares proposals across the community.
Regulatory arrangements – We can assist in the development of regulatory frameworks for access to regulated assets including economic analysis of access and pricing arrangements.

Benefits of our transport economics services

Reduce uncertainty

NineSquared can provide a rigorous understanding of the potential impacts of change, and the constraints that a firm might face in the future. Our economists apply analysis to determine the value of future uncertain events today to understand whether project or policy decisions will create a desirable result.

Resource optimisation

As the Australian population increases, the demand for investment in transport infrastructure and services also increases. Funding pressures are also increasing and making the best use of existing assets and the introduction of new technologies to get more out of existing investments will continue to be important. Ensuring that these investments make the best use of limited funds will create stronger outcomes in the future.

Improve productivity

While commercial decisions are made on the basis of the relative financial costs of options, an economic analysis attempts to capture the true cost of an activity to society. It can strip away the impact of implicit and explicit subsidies and in doing so allow decisions to be made which will improve the productivity of the economy in the long term.

Inform policy

Policy development in the transport sector can benefit from the rigorous analytical frameworks and tools used by transport economists. In particular, we can assist in analysing incentive structures and costs and benefits of proposed policies, help in the design of markets, and provide advice about pricing and fare setting in the transport context.