Research and Policy Work

1) If You Can’t Beat Them Join Them: Empirical Assessment into How Integrating Conventional Taxis on the Uber App Impacts Conventional Taxi Ridership

Abstract:

Since the emergence of car-hailing platforms like Uber, conventional taxi ridership has taken a severe hit. Taxi-hailing apps like Curb and Arro have allowed conventional taxis to jump on the platform economy bandwagon and offer services similar to car-hailing platforms. Despite the emergence of these taxi-hailing apps, high switching costs of popular car-hailing platforms (Uber, Lyft, etc) restrict the ridership volumes of conventional taxis. Recently, the car-hailing platform, Uber has started to add conventional taxis on its app under increasing pressure from Cities and conventional taxi associations. Such integrations have the potential to increase conventional taxi ridership by providing Uber users with information about an additional travel option. In this paper, I investigate the impacts of conventional taxi integration on the Uber app in New York City and Chicago using a Differences-in-Differences approach. Results show that the integration of conventional taxis to the Uber app led to a statistically significant increase in conventional taxi ridership in both cities. The paper provides insights into how Cities can regulate car-hailing platforms and tackle their high switching costs which make them anti-competitive, and hence enable conventional taxis to compete with these car-hailing platforms more efficiently.

2) Tolling the Streets, Pedaling the Lanes: The Impact of NYC’s Congestion Tax on Bike-Share Ridership in the City

Abstract:

Cities around the world face environmental and congestion externalities associated with motorized vehicle use (cars, motorcycles, etc). Along with generally being unsustainable and usually entailing congestion externalities, these vehicles are also inactive modes of transport (i.e. they require no physical exercise). In this paper, I empirically investigate whether New York City's recent congestion tax on motorized vehicles entering Midtown and Lower Manhattan has led to increased usage of the Citi Bike bike-sharing system using a Differences-in-Differences (DiD) approach. The results indicate that there is indeed an increase in Citi Bike ridership post-intervention, implying that such interventions can lead to increased usage of sustainable and active transport modes involving low congestion externalities. I also test the possibility of various mechanisms that could be driving the change and show that substitution from motorized vehicles is the cause of the increase, proving that the intervention led to a shift from unsustainable and inactive travel modes to an active and sustainable transport mode.

3) How Does Price Recommendation Shape Drivers Behavior in

the Carpooling Market (With Vladimir Avetian, Surjasama Lahiri and Dianzhuo Zhu)

Abstract:

The emergence of digital sharing economy platforms has enabled individuals to share access to their assets with strangers without being professional service providers, showing great potential for better exploiting idle resources. However, the lack of market knowledge among suppliers may hamper their pricing ability. A non-binding price recommendation mechanism may provide imperfect but effective information to shape the market. We benefit from empirical data of an exogenous recommended price increase of BlaBlaCar, Europe's largest inter-city carpooling company. Results indicate that drivers do follow recommendations in general, but experienced drivers deviate more often. However, the deviation tendency gap shrank after the reform. Moreover, an increased overall supplied price after the reform led to more supplied rides, both at the extensive and the intensive margin. Total transactions also increased, suggesting a right shift of the demand curve. We discuss potential welfare implications and outline future steps.