Tolls, Exchange Rates, and Borderplex International Bridge Traffic

Abstract

Many governments are being forced by budget constraints to consider implementing tolls as a means of bridge and road expenditure financing. It is possible to analyze the impacts of international business cycle fluctuations and toll variations on cross border bridge traffic between El Paso and Ciudad Juarez because of newly available time series data. A linear transfer function ARIMA methodology is used to carry out parameter estimation. Out-of-sample forecasting results are mixed, but price elasticities of demand are similar to those reported for other region economies.