IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/transb/v117y2018ipbp708-722.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Surge pricing and labor supply in the ride-sourcing market

Author

Listed:
  • Zha, Liteng
  • Yin, Yafeng
  • Du, Yuchuan

Abstract

This study proposes equilibrium models under different behavioral assumptions of labor supply in a ride-sourcing market and then investigates the performance of surge pricing. A time-expanded network is first proposed to delineate possible work schedules of drivers. Based on the proposed network, we provide formulations and algorithms for both neoclassical and income-targeting hypotheses to characterize the labor supply of ride-sourcing drivers, i.e., their choices of work hours. We then investigate the impact of surge pricing using a bi-level programming framework, with the lower-level problem capturing the equilibrium work hour choices while the upper-level one representing revenue-maximizing surge pricing. Compared to static pricing, the platform and drivers are found to generally enjoy higher revenue while customers may be made worse off during highly surged periods. Lastly, a simple regulation scheme to reduce market power is discussed.

Suggested Citation

  • Zha, Liteng & Yin, Yafeng & Du, Yuchuan, 2018. "Surge pricing and labor supply in the ride-sourcing market," Transportation Research Part B: Methodological, Elsevier, vol. 117(PB), pages 708-722.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:transb:v:117:y:2018:i:pb:p:708-722
    DOI: 10.1016/j.trb.2017.09.010
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0191261517307683
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.trb.2017.09.010?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. Vincent P. Crawford & Juanjuan Meng, 2011. "New York City Cab Drivers' Labor Supply Revisited: Reference-Dependent Preferences with Rational-Expectations Targets for Hours and Income," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 101(5), pages 1912-1932, August.
    3. Botond Kőszegi & Matthew Rabin, 2006. "A Model of Reference-Dependent Preferences," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 121(4), pages 1133-1165.
    4. 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.
    5. 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.
    6. 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.
    7. 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.
    8. Arnott, Richard, 1996. "Taxi Travel Should Be Subsidized," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 40(3), pages 316-333, November.
    9. Lo, Hong K. & Chen, Anthony, 2000. "Traffic equilibrium problem with route-specific costs: formulation and algorithms," Transportation Research Part B: Methodological, Elsevier, vol. 34(6), pages 493-513, August.
    10. Small, Kenneth A., 2012. "Valuation of travel time," Economics of Transportation, Elsevier, vol. 1(1), pages 2-14.
    11. Hai Yang & Min Ye & Wilson Hon-Chung Tang & Sze Chun Wong, 2005. "A Multiperiod Dynamic Model of Taxi Services with Endogenous Service Intensity," Operations Research, INFORMS, vol. 53(3), pages 501-515, June.
    12. Xu, Hongli & Lou, Yingyan & Yin, Yafeng & Zhou, Jing, 2011. "A prospect-based user equilibrium model with endogenous reference points and its application in congestion pricing," Transportation Research Part B: Methodological, Elsevier, vol. 45(2), pages 311-328, February.
    13. Jonathan V. Hall & Alan B. Krueger, 2015. "An Analysis of the Labor Market for Uber's Driver-Partners in the United States," Working Papers 587, Princeton University, Department of Economics, Industrial Relations Section..
    14. 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.
    15. Wang, Xiaolei & He, Fang & Yang, Hai & Oliver Gao, H., 2016. "Pricing strategies for a taxi-hailing platform," Transportation Research Part E: Logistics and Transportation Review, Elsevier, vol. 93(C), pages 212-231.
    16. Meng, Q. & Yang, H. & Bell, M. G. H., 2001. "An equivalent continuously differentiable model and a locally convergent algorithm for the continuous network design problem," Transportation Research Part B: Methodological, Elsevier, vol. 35(1), pages 83-105, January.
    17. Henry S. Farber, 2005. "Is Tomorrow Another Day? The Labor Supply of New York City Cabdrivers," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 113(1), pages 46-82, February.
    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. 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.
    2. 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).
    3. 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.
    4. Wang, Hai & Yang, Hai, 2019. "Ridesourcing systems: A framework and review," Transportation Research Part B: Methodological, Elsevier, vol. 129(C), pages 122-155.
    5. 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.
    6. Nourinejad, Mehdi & Ramezani, Mohsen, 2020. "Ride-Sourcing modeling and pricing in non-equilibrium two-sided markets," Transportation Research Part B: Methodological, Elsevier, vol. 132(C), pages 340-357.
    7. Ke, Jintao & Cen, Xuekai & Yang, Hai & Chen, Xiqun & Ye, Jieping, 2019. "Modelling drivers’ working and recharging schedules in a ride-sourcing market with electric vehicles and gasoline vehicles," Transportation Research Part E: Logistics and Transportation Review, Elsevier, vol. 125(C), pages 160-180.
    8. Brodeur, Abel & Nield, Kerry, 2018. "An empirical analysis of taxi, Lyft and Uber rides: Evidence from weather shocks in NYC," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 152(C), pages 1-16.
    9. Berger, Thor & Chen, Chinchih & Frey, Carl Benedikt, 2018. "Drivers of disruption? Estimating the Uber effect," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 110(C), pages 197-210.
    10. Martin, Vincent, 2017. "When to quit: Narrow bracketing and reference dependence in taxi drivers," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 144(C), pages 166-187.
    11. Sun, Hao & Wang, Hai & Wan, Zhixi, 2019. "Model and analysis of labor supply for ride-sharing platforms in the presence of sample self-selection and endogeneity," Transportation Research Part B: Methodological, Elsevier, vol. 125(C), pages 76-93.
    12. 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.
    13. Ke, Jintao & Li, Xinwei & Yang, Hai & Yin, Yafeng, 2021. "Pareto-efficient solutions and regulations of congested ride-sourcing markets with heterogeneous demand and supply," Transportation Research Part E: Logistics and Transportation Review, Elsevier, vol. 154(C).
    14. Heiko Karle & Dirk Engelmann & Martin Peitz, 2022. "Student performance and loss aversion," Scandinavian Journal of Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 124(2), pages 420-456, April.
    15. Timothy J. Richards, 2020. "Income Targeting and Farm Labor Supply," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 102(2), pages 419-438, March.
    16. Xu, Zhengtian & Yin, Yafeng & Zha, Liteng, 2017. "Optimal parking provision for ride-sourcing services," Transportation Research Part B: Methodological, Elsevier, vol. 105(C), pages 559-578.
    17. Zhang, Yufeng & Khani, Alireza, 2021. "Integrating transit systems with ride-sourcing services: A study on the system users’ stochastic equilibrium problem," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 150(C), pages 95-123.
    18. Eric J. Allen & Patricia M. Dechow & Devin G. Pope & George Wu, 2017. "Reference-Dependent Preferences: Evidence from Marathon Runners," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 63(6), pages 1657-1672, June.
    19. 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.
    20. Thorsten Heilker & Gernot Sieg, 2017. "A duopoly of transportation network companies and traditional radio-taxi dispatch service agencies," Working Papers 24, Institute of Transport Economics, University of Muenster.

    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:transb:v:117:y:2018:i:pb:p:708-722. 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/wps/find/journaldescription.cws_home/548/description#description .

    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.