Transport

Costs and Pricing

NERA has extensive experience in advising on costs and pricing policies across the transport sector. Our work has utilized sophisticated econometric analysis, forecasts and simulations, and detailed spreadsheet modeling.

NERA's experience in assessing costs and pricing in the transport sector is wide-ranging:

• Efficient pricing. We help to develop fair and efficient pricing structures for individual airports, and have worked very extensively on the principles and practice of track access charging.
• Cost analysis and benchmarking. NERA carries out detailed analysis of cost structures and efficiency, and has helped regulated firms challenge benchmarking studies and the lessons that regulators draw from them. We also analyze cost causality and help firms establish cost-reflective charging structures.
• Road pricing. NERA provides world-class expertise on the design, implementation, and monitoring of road pricing schemes. Our expertise includes both the principles of road pricing and detailed modeling of the likely impact of different schemes.
• Profitability. The return on capital is an important part of a firm’s costs. NERA is a leading advisor on both the cost of capital and the determination of the regulatory asset base.
• Cost projections. NERA provides independent advice to transport clients on future input price changes and long-term efficiency trends.
• Environmental impacts and other externalities. We provide robust estimates of external costs and benefits, either as the main focus of a study or as an input into a wider project, such as a cost-benefit study. We have also carried out projects on the valuation of injury and health risks, and on the appropriate treatment on non-monetized impacts.