Could Subsidies for Maritime Freight Transportation Achieve Social and Environmental Benefits?

The Ecobonus financial incentive was launched by the Italian government to enhance the shift of freight from road to maritime transportation, specifically to Motorways of the Sea, established by the European Union. Ecobonus is a financial scheme for trucks that allocates a subsidy directly to operators that use combined road and maritime transportation services, instead of the increasingly congested road network. An innovative way to incentivize intermodality in line with free-market rules, the scheme provides a direct means for financially internalizing nonuser benefits for several sea routes identified as eligible. Positive results were achieved following its implementation in 2007 to 2009, and so it merits further attention. In the absence of related research, the paper develops a methodology whose main objective is to examine whether the introduction of Ecobonus on a particular intermodal road–maritime route is worthy of the required public subsidy, while quantifying the national income that it generates and its other benefits to society's welfare. The proposed approach sets up a forecasting model to estimate the potential modal shift generated. A socioeconomic appraisal of the subsidy follows, with emphasis on the appropriate estimation of related user and nonuser benefits. The proposed methodology is a valuable guiding tool for determining the viability of the incentive and its related benefits to intermodal routes of choice and for investigating the effect of similar national policy interventions through financial subsidies.