Has Uber Made It Easier to Get a Ride in the Rain?

Abel Brodeur and Kerry Nield ()
Additional contact information
Kerry Nield: Carleton University

No 9986, IZA Discussion Papers from Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)

Abstract: In New York City (NYC), it has been a common complaint that it is difficult to find a taxi in the rain. Using all Uber rides in NYC from April to September 2014 and January to June 2015, we show that the number of Uber rides is significantly correlated with whether it rained. The number of Uber rides per hour is about 25 percent higher when it is raining, suggesting that surge pricing encourages an increase in supply. During the same time period, the number of taxi rides per hour increases by only 4 percent in rainy hours. We then show that the number of taxi rides per hour decreased by approximately 8 percent after Uber entered the New York market in May 2011, confirming that Uber is depressing taxi demand. Last, we test whether the total (Uber plus taxi) number of rides in rainy hours increased since May 2011. Our estimates suggest that the total number of rides increased by approximately 9 percent since Uber entered the market and that it is relatively easier to get a ride in rainy than in non-rainy hours in post-Uber years.

Keywords: rain; Uber; taxi; dynamic pricing (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D01 D03 J22 L92 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 30 pages
Date: 2016-06
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-lma, nep-net and nep-pay
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (5)

Published - published as 'An Empirical Analysis of Taxi, Lyft and Uber Rides: Evidence from Weather Shocks in NYC' in: Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, 2018, 152, 1-16

Downloads: (external link)
https://docs.iza.org/dp9986.pdf (application/pdf)

Related works:
Journal Article: An empirical analysis of taxi, Lyft and Uber rides: Evidence from weather shocks in NYC (2018)
Working Paper: Has Uber Made It Easier to Get a Ride in the Rain? (2017)
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:iza:izadps:dp9986

Ordering information: This working paper can be ordered from
IZA, Margard Ody, P.O. Box 7240, D-53072 Bonn, Germany

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in IZA Discussion Papers from Institute of Labor Economics (IZA) IZA, P.O. Box 7240, D-53072 Bonn, Germany. Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Holger Hinte ().