IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/juecon/v131y2022ics0094119022000651.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Taxi service with heterogeneous drivers and a competitive medallion market

Author

Listed:
  • Lehe, Lewis
  • Pandey, Ayush

Abstract

This paper incorporates two novelties into steady-state, macroscopic models of street-hail taxi service: (i) heterogeneous drivers; (ii) explicit treatment of a competitive rental market for medallions (the rights to cruise for passengers). When drivers vary only by reservation wage, issuing medallions raises every driver’s take-home pay, and the social optimum requires subsidy. When drivers vary only by marginal cost, issuing medallions may hurt drivers with low-enough marginal costs. Also, when quality declines with marginal cost, the social optimum may require a binding medallion quota or tax.

Suggested Citation

  • Lehe, Lewis & Pandey, Ayush, 2022. "Taxi service with heterogeneous drivers and a competitive medallion market," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 131(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:juecon:v:131:y:2022:i:c:s0094119022000651
    DOI: 10.1016/j.jue.2022.103488
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0094119022000651
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.jue.2022.103488?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Colin Camerer & Linda Babcock & George Loewenstein & Richard Thaler, 1997. "Labor Supply of New York City Cabdrivers: One Day at a Time," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 112(2), pages 407-441.
    2. De Vany, Arthur S, 1975. "Capacity Utilization under Alternative Regulatory Restraints: An Analysis of Taxi Markets," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 83(1), pages 83-94, February.
    3. John R. Schroeter, 1983. "A Model of Taxi Service under Fare Structure and Fleet Size Regulation," Bell Journal of Economics, The RAND Corporation, vol. 14(1), pages 81-96, Spring.
    4. Stiglitz, Joseph E, 1987. "The Causes and Consequences of the Dependence of Quality on Price," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 25(1), pages 1-48, March.
    5. Ricardo Lagos, 2003. "An Analysis of the Market for Taxicab Rides in New York City," International Economic Review, Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania and Osaka University Institute of Social and Economic Research Association, vol. 44(2), pages 423-434, May.
    6. Nicholas Buchholz, 2022. "Spatial Equilibrium, Search Frictions, and Dynamic Efficiency in the Taxi Industry [Search frictions and market power in negotiated-price markets]," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 89(2), pages 556-591.
    7. Leland, Hayne E, 1979. "Quacks, Lemons, and Licensing: A Theory of Minimum Quality Standards," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 87(6), pages 1328-1346, December.
    8. Henry S. Farber, 2015. "Why you Can’t Find a Taxi in the Rain and Other Labor Supply Lessons from Cab Drivers," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 130(4), pages 1975-2026.
    9. Cetin, Tamer & Deakin, Elizabeth, 2019. "Regulation of taxis and the rise of ridesharing," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 76(C), pages 149-158.
    10. Schaller, Bruce, 2007. "Entry controls in taxi regulation: Implications of US and Canadian experience for taxi regulation and deregulation," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 14(6), pages 490-506, November.
    11. Beesley, Michael E & Glaister, Stephen G, 1983. "Information for Regulating: The Case of Taxis," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 93(371), pages 594-615, September.
    12. George A. Akerlof, 1970. "The Market for "Lemons": Quality Uncertainty and the Market Mechanism," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 84(3), pages 488-500.
    13. Arnott, Richard, 1996. "Taxi Travel Should Be Subsidized," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 40(3), pages 316-333, November.
    14. Guillaume R. Fréchette & Alessandro Lizzeri & Tobias Salz, 2019. "Frictions in a Competitive, Regulated Market: Evidence from Taxis," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 109(8), pages 2954-2992, August.
    15. Neil Thakral & Linh T. Tô, 2021. "Daily Labor Supply and Adaptive Reference Points," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 111(8), pages 2417-2443, August.
    16. Cairns, Robert D. & Liston-Heyes, Catherine, 1996. "Competition and regulation in the taxi industry," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 59(1), pages 1-15, January.
    17. Cody Cook & Rebecca Diamond & Jonathan V Hall & John A List & Paul Oyer, 2021. "The Gender Earnings Gap in the Gig Economy: Evidence from over a Million Rideshare Drivers [Measuring the Gig Economy: Current Knowledge and Open Issues]," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 88(5), pages 2210-2238.
    18. Joshua D. Angrist & Sydnee Caldwell & Jonathan V. Hall, 2017. "Uber vs. Taxi: A Driver’s Eye View," NBER Working Papers 23891, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Yang, Hai & Leung, Cowina W.Y. & Wong, S.C. & Bell, Michael G.H., 2010. "Equilibria of bilateral taxi-customer searching and meeting on networks," Transportation Research Part B: Methodological, Elsevier, vol. 44(8-9), pages 1067-1083, September.
    2. Li, Baicheng & Szeto, W.Y., 2021. "Modeling and analyzing a taxi market with a monopsony taxi owner and multiple rentee-drivers," Transportation Research Part B: Methodological, Elsevier, vol. 143(C), pages 1-22.
    3. Yang, Hai & Yang, Teng, 2011. "Equilibrium properties of taxi markets with search frictions," Transportation Research Part B: Methodological, Elsevier, vol. 45(4), pages 696-713, May.
    4. Zhang, Kenan & Nie, Yu (Marco), 2021. "To pool or not to pool: Equilibrium, pricing and regulation," Transportation Research Part B: Methodological, Elsevier, vol. 151(C), pages 59-90.
    5. Wong, K.I. & Wong, S.C. & Yang, Hai & Wu, J.H., 2008. "Modeling urban taxi services with multiple user classes and vehicle modes," Transportation Research Part B: Methodological, Elsevier, vol. 42(10), pages 985-1007, December.
    6. Yang, Hai & Wong, S. C., 1998. "A network model of urban taxi services," Transportation Research Part B: Methodological, Elsevier, vol. 32(4), pages 235-246, May.
    7. Tang, Johnny Jiahao, 2020. "Individual heterogeneity and cultural attitudes in credence goods provision," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 126(C).
    8. Szeto, W.Y. & Wong, R.C.P. & Yang, W.H., 2019. "Guiding vacant taxi drivers to demand locations by taxi-calling signals: A sequential binary logistic regression modeling approach and policy implications," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 76(C), pages 100-110.
    9. Qian, Xinwu & Ukkusuri, Satish V., 2017. "Taxi market equilibrium with third-party hailing service," Transportation Research Part B: Methodological, Elsevier, vol. 100(C), pages 43-63.
    10. Li, Baicheng & Szeto, W.Y., 2019. "Taxi service area design: Formulation and analysis," Transportation Research Part E: Logistics and Transportation Review, Elsevier, vol. 125(C), pages 308-333.
    11. Yang, Hai & Wong, S. C. & Wong, K. I., 2002. "Demand-supply equilibrium of taxi services in a network under competition and regulation," Transportation Research Part B: Methodological, Elsevier, vol. 36(9), pages 799-819, November.
    12. Zhang, Kenan & Nie, Yu (Marco), 2021. "Inter-platform competition in a regulated ride-hail market with pooling," Transportation Research Part E: Logistics and Transportation Review, Elsevier, vol. 151(C).
    13. Vignon, Daniel & Yin, Yafeng & Ke, Jintao, 2023. "Regulating the ride-hailing market in the age of uberization," Transportation Research Part E: Logistics and Transportation Review, Elsevier, vol. 169(C).
    14. Ting Wang & Yong Zhang & Meiye Li & Lei Liu, 2019. "How Do Passengers with Different Using Frequencies Choose between Traditional Taxi Service and Online Car-Hailing Service? A Case Study of Nanjing, China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(23), pages 1-18, November.
    15. Li, Baicheng & Szeto, W.Y. & Luo, Qin, 2021. "A peak-period taxi scheme design problem: Formulation and policy implications," Transportation Research Part E: Logistics and Transportation Review, Elsevier, vol. 146(C).
    16. Pueboobpaphan, Suthatip & Indra-Payoong, Nakorn & Opasanon, Sathaporn, 2019. "Experimental analysis of variable surcharge policy of taxi service auction," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 76(C), pages 134-148.
    17. Alessandro Saia, 2022. "Trouble Underground: Demand Shocks and the Labor Supply Behavior of New York City Taxi Drivers," Italian Economic Journal: A Continuation of Rivista Italiana degli Economisti and Giornale degli Economisti, Springer;Società Italiana degli Economisti (Italian Economic Association), vol. 8(1), pages 1-27, March.
    18. Daniel Flores-Guri, 2003. "An Economic Analysis of Regulated Taxicab Markets," Review of Industrial Organization, Springer;The Industrial Organization Society, vol. 23(3), pages 255-266, December.
    19. Wong, R.C.P. & Szeto, W.Y., 2022. "The effects of peak hour and congested area taxi surcharges on customers’ travel decisions: Empirical evidence and policy implications," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 121(C), pages 78-89.
    20. Seymour, David Thomas, 2018. "Free to cruise: Designing a market for tradable taxicab rights," Economics of Transportation, Elsevier, vol. 16(C), pages 1-20.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:juecon:v:131:y:2022:i:c:s0094119022000651. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/inca/622905 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.