Cost Distribution and the Acceptability of Road Pricing: Evidence from Milan's Referendum. (1st January 2017) - Percoco, Marco
Road pricing schemes are increasingly adopted by local governments to curb pollution and congestion. Several factors may influence the acceptance of such schemes by road users: voter expectations, awareness of the policy's relevance, familiarity with the road pricing debate, perceived fairness, environmental concerns, car dependence, and the value of a trial. We argue that skewness in the distribution of costs related to the policy is an important factor for user acceptance. Using data from the 2011 referendum on Milan road pricing, we found support for the relevance of cost heterogeneity in explaining the share of road users supporting the tax.