Work

Zero Fare, Cleaner Air? The Causal Effect of Luxembourg’s Free Public Transportation Policy on Transport Emissions

Year: 2026

Type: article

Abstract: In March 2020, Luxembourg became the first country to make public transport free. We use this unique setting to evaluate the policy’s impact on transport emissions using a synthetic difference-in-differences framework. We use spatial emissions data to construct a panel of NUTS 2 regions in the EU from 2016 to 2022. We estimate an average reduction of 5.9% in road transport CO 2 and overall road transport GHG emissions, with larger effects for NO x . These findings are robust against confounding shifts in working from home and commuting patterns, vehicle fleet electrification, and the localized effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. Complementary event-study evidence from automatic traffic counters and air quality stations through 2023 corroborates our findings and suggests larger effects on weekends.

Source: Environmental and Resource Economics

DOI: 10.1007/s10640-026-01090-5

Authors: Tobias Eibinger, Sachintha Fernando

Institutions: University of Graz, Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg

Language: English

Topic: Transportation Planning and Optimization

Subfield: Transportation

Field: Social Sciences

Domain: Social Sciences

SDGs: Climate action, Sustainable cities and communities, Industry, innovation and infrastructure

Open Access status: hybrid

Estimated APC paid: $2,390