Modeling politicians' preferences for road pricing policies: A regret-based and utilitarian perspective

This paper presents the results of a stated choice-study among Dutch local politicians in the context of road pricing policies. Politicians were asked to express their preferences for policy-options that differed in terms of (i) emissions reduction, (ii) congestion reduction, (iii) operational costs, (iv) acceptability among the general public and (v) acceptability among retailers. Utility-maximization-based and regret-minimization-based discrete choice models were estimated, and their results compared, on 238 stated choices made by members of Dutch city-councils. The estimated models allow for the evaluation of the popularity of different road pricing scenarios among Dutch local politicians, as a function of their performance in terms of the above-mentioned criteria.

► Stated choice-experiment among politicians to identify preferences for road pricing. ► Options varied in terms of emissions and congestion reduction, costs and acceptability. ► Both utility- and regret-based choice models are estimated. ► Differences in model fit between regret- and utility-based models are small. ► Parameter interpretation and policy-implications differ more substantially.