A meta-analytic comparison of determinants of public transport use: Methodology and application

Our aim in this paper is to apply principles from modern meta-analysis to identify differences and commonalities in patterns of explanatory variables for varying price elasticities for public transport in different countries. In addition to the synthesis and analysis of empirical data on these elasticity values with a view to selection of the main determinants of significant cross-national differences, a series of different analytical methods (notably rough set analysis, cluster analysis, and discriminant analysis) are applied in order to test not only the robustness of the results, but also - by way of a 'meta-meta-analytic' experiment-the variations in research findings caused by the use of different methods.