The following text(s) provide a good background to the subject matter that you will come across in your compulsory modules which you may benefit from examining over the summer period.

Welfare Economics and Cost Benefit Analysis

The basic text for this module will be:

P O Johansson: An Introduction to Modern Welfare Economics (Cambridge University Press, 1991)

At a more advanced level, two useful texts are

Y K Ng: Welfare Economics – Introduction and Development of Basic Concepts (Macmillan, 1979)

R W Boadway and Neil Bruce: Welfare Economics (Basil Blackwell, 1984)

If you look at Johansson and find it difficult, I recommend that you either

a)work though an easier text e.g. P Bohm: Social Efficiency – a concise introduction to welfare economics (MacMillan, 2nd edition) or

b)look at the welfare economics section of an intermediate micro economics text e.g.H.R Varian: Intermediate Microeconomics (Norton 2nd edition) Ch 29-31

Anyone not familiar with intermediate microeconomics could also usefully work through the entire text, especially the sections on consumer theory and the theory of the firm.

Principles of Transport Economics

There is no single text which covers this module, however a good introduction to the whole subject is given by

K J Button, Transport Economics (Edward Elgar, 2010).

P McCarthy, Transportation Economics (Blackwell, 2001).

DA Hensher and A Brewer, Transport: an economics and management perspective (Oxford, 2001)

The classic text, now out of print but worth buying if you can find it second hand, is

S Glaister, Fundamentals of Transport Eocnomics (Blackwell, 1981)

I will expect people to be comfortable with intermediate microeconomics, so work through something like Varian or Nicholson if you are not. I will also expect you to be comfortable with simple differential calculus as used by economists; refer to something like J Black and J Bradley, Essential Mathematics for Economistsor I Jacques, Mathematics for Economics and Business if you are not. If you feel adventurous, you could look at A Chiang, Fundamental Methods of Mathematical Economics…but I don’t want to put you off!

Economics of Transport Regulation

Specific readings will be provided for each lecture. The following general texts are recommended as good introductory reading:

W Viscusi, John Vernon and Joseph Harrington, Jr. (2005), Economics of Regulation and Antitrust.

Ray Rees (1984), Public Enterprise Economics, second edition.

Baldwin, R. and Cave, M. (1999), Understanding Regulation.
Matthew Bishop, John Kay and Colin Mayer (1995), Privatization & Economic Performance.

Matthew Bishop, John Kay and Colin Mayer (1995), The Regulatory Challenge.

Of course there is some overlap between the above texts; however, it is useful to get different perspectives on the same issues.

Transport Econometrics

The main text for this module is shown below.

A. H. Studenmund: Using econometrics : a practical guide, 5th edition, Pearson International Edition, Addison-Wesley ISBN: 0-321-31155-8

Principles of Transport Modelling

Ortuzar, J.D., and Willumsen, L.G. (2001). Modelling Transport, 3rd edition, Wiley.

Wright, P.H. & Dixon, K.K. (2004). Highway Engineering, 7th edition, Wiley. ISBN 0471452580

O’Flaherty, C.A. (2005) Transport Planning and Traffic Engineering, Chapter 5, Oxford: Elsevier Butterworth – Heinemann. ISBN 0340662794

For students wishing to keep an eye on the current debates in UK transport policy Landor produces a fortnightly publication Local Transport Today which contains summaries of issues and some more extended articles. You can subscribe through their website. Other good sources of information with a more engineering focus include New Civil Engineer (affiliated to the Institution of Civil Engineers and Transportation Professional - affiliated to the Institution of Highways and Transportation.

The following are texts which introduce the material taught in all programmes in semester one:

Ortuzar, J.D., and Willumsen, L.G. (2001). Modelling Transport, 3rd edition, Wiley.

(Useful for TRAN5020M Principles of Transport Modelling, as well as TRAN5031M Transport Data Collection and Analysis.)

Walsh, I. (2011) ICE manual of highway design and management. Institution of Civil Engineers, April 2011. Hardbound ISBN: 978-0-7277-4111-0, Ebook ISBN: 978-0-7277-4167-7, DOI: 10.1680/mohd.41110

(Useful for the MSc (Eng) Transport Planning and Engineering programme, as well as TRAN5020M Principles of Transport Modelling, TRAN5031M Transport Data Collection and Analysis, TRAN5043M Transport Planning and Policy, and TRAN5072M Principles of Transport Engineering.)

Button, K.J. (2010) Transport Economics, 3rd edition, London: Edward Elgar.

(Useful for the MA Transport Economics programme, as well as TRAN5043M Transport Planning and Policy

Fundamental Skills: Mathematics, Statistics, Economics, Academic Writing

For several of your courses you will need an understanding of quantitative methods and mathematical foundations. Hence, it is highly advisable to brush up on these skills! The following material can be helpful. These sources are also useful if English isn’t your first language and you would like to learn the English terms.

  • Maths:
  • Basic skills that are required are numeracy, algebra and calculus
  • Statistics:
  • Basics are introduction to data, variables, scales and descriptive statistics;

In addition, you will be required to review and analyse literature and write several essays as coursework assignments. Although there will be specific requirements, the following link provides useful advice and general guidelines on how to write an academic piece of work.

  • Academic Writing: