THE DEMAND FOR TRANSPORT AND COMMUNICATION IN THE UNITED-KINGDOM AND AUSTRALIA

This paper investigates the substitution/complementarity relationship among the demands for private transport, public transport and communic ation in the United Kingdom and Australia for the period 1960-1986. We use the Rotterdam Demand System for the analysis. The results identif y major similarities and some important differences in consumption of these goods in the two countries. Further, they show that in both coun tries (a) private transport is a luxury and public transport is a nece ssity; (b) the demand for all three goods are price inelastic and (c) public transport, private transport and communications are pair-wise s ubstitutes.