Smart-grid technology has made it easier to implement time-of-use pricing for utility infrastructure, including charging users different rates depending on demand fluctuations throughout the day.
Which one of the following would be the most likely outcome if a regional authority introduced dynamic, time-of-use toll charges for vehicles using major bridge and tunnel crossings into a city centre?
Fewer commuting workers will choose to use public transport networks.
More private vehicles will use the crossings during peak commuting hours.
The bridge and tunnel crossings will become non-excludable public goods.
The operating costs of many local delivery and transport firms will increase.
378 exam-style questions on AQA A Level Economics 1.8 The market mechanism, market failure and government intervention in markets, covering 1.8.1 How markets and prices allocate resources, 1.8.2 The meaning of market failure, 1.8.3 Public goods, private goods and quasi-public goods, 1.8.4 Positive and negative externalities in consumption and production, 1.8.5 Merit and demerit goods, 1.8.6 Market imperfections, 1.8.7 Competition policy (A-level only), 1.8.8 Public ownership, privatisation, regulation and deregulation of markets (A-level only), 1.8.9 Government intervention in markets, and 1.8.10 Government failure. Each one has a worked solution and a mark scheme showing where the marks go.