Taxi Market Deregulation: Effects on Market Outcomes, Tax Evasion and Crime

Jarkko Harju, Ida Kankaanranta and Kaisa Kotakorpi

No 21777, CEPR Discussion Papers from Centre for Economic Policy Research

Abstract: We study the effects of taxi market deregulation in Finland, which removed price controls and lowered barriers to entry. The reform led to a surge in firm entry and a modest increase in exit, indicating substantial changes in market structure. Average taxi prices increased slightly according to price indices, while monthly firm-level reported sales and VAT declined by over 10 percent. Operating costs and mileage remained largely unchanged, suggesting limited demand responses. These findings point to increased tax evasion following deregulation. Consistent with this interpretation, we document a small rise in property crime, with no effects on other criminal offenses.

JEL-codes: H26 L52 L91 L98 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2026-07
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://cepr.org/publications/DP21777 (application/pdf)

Related works:
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:cpr:ceprdp:21777

Ordering information: This working paper can be ordered from
https://cepr.org/publications/DP21777

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in CEPR Discussion Papers from Centre for Economic Policy Research 33 Great Sutton Street, London EC1V 0DX, UK.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by CEPR ().