Using the Logsum as an Evaluation Measure

Literature and Case Study

by Gerard de Jong, Marits Pieters, Andrew Daly, Irma Graafland-Essers, Eric Kroes, Carl Koopmans

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The logsum is a measure of consumer surplus in the context of logit choice models. In spite of the abundant use of logit models in transport, project assessment is only rarely done using logsums. Instead in project evaluation or appraisal, changes in transport costs and time (borrowing values of time from some source) are commonly used to get the traveller benefits. This report contains a review of the theoretical and applied literature on the use of logsums as a measure of consumer surplus change in project appraisal and evaluation. It then goes on to describe a case study with the Dutch National Model System (LMS) for transport in which the logsum method and the commonly used value of time method are compared for a specific project (high speed trains that would connect the four main cities in the Randstad: Amsterdam, The Hague, Rotterdam and Utrecht).

Table of Contents

  • Chapter One

    Introduction

  • Chapter Two

    Introduction to the main concepts

  • Chapter Three

    Review of papers on the theory of the logsum as an evaluation measure

  • Chapter Four

    Review of papers on the application of the logsum as an evaluation measure

  • Chapter Five

    Outcomes from the LMS case study

  • Chapter Six

    Summary, conclusions and recommendations

Research conducted by

The research described in this report was conducted by RAND Europe for the Transport Research Centre (AVV) of the Dutch Ministry of Transport, Public Works and Water Management.

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