Karl W. Steininger


Karl W. Steininger is Professor of Economics at the University of Graz, Austria. Professor Steininger was a Fulbright scholar at UC Berkeley, a Visiting Fellow at the University of Maryland, UC Berkeley and the World Bank, and has taught international economics and environmental and resource economics in various European countries as a guest professor. He has authored books and articles on international trade, global environmental change, sustainable mobility, renewable energy, and institutional issues in resource use. His most recent transport-related publications include “Economics of Sustainable Development: International Perspectives” (with M. Cogoy, invited for the Encyclopedia of Life Support Systems), International Trade and Transport (Edward Elgar, 2001), “The Foreign Trade and Sectoral Impact of Truck Road Pricing for Cross-Border Trade” (Environmental and Resource Economics, forthcoming), “Environmentally Sustainable Transport” (Empirica, forthcoming), “From Ownership to Service Use Lifestyle: The Potential of Car Sharing” (Ecological Economics, 1999).




Papers Published in World Economics:


Transport, Access and Economic Growth

Transport and gross domestic product have grown at roughly a one-to-one relationship in the past. Many decision-makers consider the supply of transport infrastructure an important ingredient in fostering productivity and economic growth; some even consider it a prerequisite. This article analyses the various causal links from transport to economic growth and puts their empirical significance in perspective. The more important challenge for current transport policy, however, is found to be that concerning the reverse linkage, i.e.—given a growing economy—how can we develop a transport system that does not then erode the benefits it created in the first place? Finally, and to that end, a possible future system of sustainable access and mobility service is characterized and policy conclusions are drawn.

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