Some Conceptual and Methodological Issues in the Analysis of the Social Cost of Motor-Vehicle Use: Report #2 in the Series: The Annualized Social Cost of Motor-Vehicle Use in the United States, based on 1990-1991 Data

This report is one in a series that documents an analysis of the full social cost of motor-vehicle use in the United States. The author chooses to estimate the annualized cost of motor-vehicle use on the basis of activity, annual expenditures, and the value of capital stock in a particular year. He notes that the yearly social cost of motor vehicle use, as he estimates it, is the yearly cost stream of the entire motor-vehicle system analyzed as if it is one large transportation alternative among several. Among various aspects, he examines: price times quantity versus the area under a supply curve; the classification and interpretation of personal no-market costs, the social discount rate; general taxes; the lag between change in demand and change in supply, and actual social cost versus optimal social cost