Abstract
We examine the effect of the introduction of ridehailing in US cities on fatal traffic accidents. The arrival of ridehailing is associated with an approximately 3% increase in the number of fatal accidents, for both vehicle occupants and pedestrians. Consistent with ridehailing increasing road usage, we find that its introduction is associated with increases in proxies for traffic congestion and with new car registrations. Consistent with a driver quality channel, accident increases are concentrated in ridehailing-eligible vehicles and those with passenger configurations suggestive of ridehailing. Back-of-the-envelope estimates of the annual cost in human lives range from $5.33B to $13.24B. We propose various operational and policy prescriptions for the regulation of ridehailing operations that may help limit such externalities.
| Original language | English (US) |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 823-855 |
| Number of pages | 33 |
| Journal | Journal of Operations Management |
| Volume | 69 |
| Issue number | 5 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - Jul 2023 |
Funding
We thank Manuel Adelino, Marianne Bertrand, Jonathan Bonham, Eric Budish, Erik Brynjolfsson, Hans Christensen, Will Cong, Rebecca Dizon‐Ross, Aaron Edlin, Michael Ewens, Mara Faccio, Austen Goolsbee, Shane Greenstein, Jonathan Hall, Sharique Hasan, Susan Helper (Discussant), Jessica Jeffers, Steve Kaplan, Emir Kamenica, Elisabeth Kempf, Ed Lazear, Christian Leuz, John List, Paul Oyer, David Robinson, Paola Sapienza, Rob Seamans, Scott Stern, Tom Wollmann, Luigi Zingales, and workshop participants at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business, Carnegie Mellon University Tepper School of Management, Duke University Innovation and Entrepreneurship Symposium, Rice University, UC Berkeley Law and Economics, and the NBER Entrepreneurship and Economics of Digitization Working Group meetings for helpful conversations, comments and suggestions. Parts of this research were conducted while Hochberg was visiting faculty at the University of Chicago. All errors are our own. Barrios gratefully acknowledges the support of the Stigler Center and the Centel Foundation/Robert P. Reuss Fund at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business. 1 We thank Manuel Adelino, Marianne Bertrand, Jonathan Bonham, Eric Budish, Erik Brynjolfsson, Hans Christensen, Will Cong, Rebecca Dizon-Ross, Aaron Edlin, Michael Ewens, Mara Faccio, Austen Goolsbee, Shane Greenstein, Jonathan Hall, Sharique Hasan, Susan Helper (Discussant), Jessica Jeffers, Steve Kaplan, Emir Kamenica, Elisabeth Kempf, Ed Lazear, Christian Leuz, John List, Paul Oyer, David Robinson, Paola Sapienza, Rob Seamans, Scott Stern, Tom Wollmann, Luigi Zingales, and workshop participants at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business, Carnegie Mellon University Tepper School of Management, Duke University Innovation and Entrepreneurship Symposium, Rice University, UC Berkeley Law and Economics, and the NBER Entrepreneurship and Economics of Digitization Working Group meetings for helpful conversations, comments and suggestions. Parts of this research were conducted while Hochberg was visiting faculty at the University of Chicago. All errors are our own. Barrios gratefully acknowledges the support of the Stigler Center and the Centel Foundation/Robert P. Reuss Fund at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business.
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Strategy and Management
- Management Science and Operations Research
- Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering
