Letting car services such as Uber or Lyft compete with taxi firms on equal footing regarding genuine safety and insurance requirements, but without restrictions on prices or routes, raises consumer welfare.
Responses
Responses weighted by each expert's confidence
| Participant | University | Vote | Confidence | Bio/Vote History |
|---|---|---|---|---|
 Daron Acemoglu |
MIT | Bio/Vote History | ||
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 Alberto Alesina |
Harvard | Did Not Answer | Bio/Vote History | |
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 Joseph Altonji |
Yale | Bio/Vote History | ||
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 Alan Auerbach |
Berkeley | Bio/Vote History | ||
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 David Autor |
MIT | Bio/Vote History | ||
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 Katherine Baicker |
University of Chicago | Bio/Vote History | ||
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 Abhijit Banerjee |
MIT | Bio/Vote History | ||
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 Marianne Bertrand |
Chicago | Bio/Vote History | ||
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 Markus Brunnermeier |
Princeton | Bio/Vote History | ||
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Ensuring competition between various providers like Uber, Lyft, etc. is essential besides insurance and background checks for drivers.
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 Raj Chetty |
Harvard | Did Not Answer | Bio/Vote History | |
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 Judith Chevalier |
Yale | Bio/Vote History | ||
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Pretty much the same as removing the cap on the number of medallions.
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 Janet Currie |
Princeton | Bio/Vote History | ||
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 David Cutler |
Harvard | Bio/Vote History | ||
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 Angus Deaton |
Princeton | Bio/Vote History | ||
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 Darrell Duffie |
Stanford | Bio/Vote History | ||
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Competition on quality and price helps consumers. We also have some evidence from revealed preference. Uber was popular right away.
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 Aaron Edlin |
Berkeley | Bio/Vote History | ||
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 Barry Eichengreen |
Berkeley | Bio/Vote History | ||
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 Liran Einav |
Stanford | Bio/Vote History | ||
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 Ray Fair |
Yale | Bio/Vote History | ||
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 Amy Finkelstein |
MIT | Bio/Vote History | ||
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 Pinelopi Goldberg |
Yale | Bio/Vote History | ||
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 Austan Goolsbee |
Chicago | Bio/Vote History | ||
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yes. yes. a thousand times yes.
Instead, try calling for a cab on Saturday night from the south side of Chicago and see what happens.
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 Michael Greenstone |
University of Chicago | Bio/Vote History | ||
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yes. part of the gain in consumer welfare though comes from undermining property rights of taxi medallion owners.
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 Robert Hall |
Stanford | Bio/Vote History | ||
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Disclosure: My economist son serves in Uber's economics department.
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 Oliver Hart |
Harvard | Bio/Vote History | ||
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I don't see any externalities. According to standard economics, competition enhances welfare and I believe that would be true here.
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 Bengt Holmström |
MIT | Bio/Vote History | ||
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Qualification: foreigners, who tend to assume fares are regulated, can be taken advantage of without any price caps. No problem with Uber.
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 Caroline Hoxby |
Stanford | Did Not Answer | Bio/Vote History | |
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 Hilary Hoynes |
Berkeley | Bio/Vote History | ||
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 Kenneth Judd |
Stanford | Bio/Vote History | ||
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 Steven Kaplan |
Chicago Booth | Bio/Vote History | ||
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New technology / information more than offset any net benefits of regulation.
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 Anil Kashyap |
Chicago Booth | Bio/Vote History | ||
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They innovate: e.g.knowing the rating of the driver who will come and haivng an easy way to find a lost phone after you take the ride.
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 Pete Klenow |
Stanford | Bio/Vote History | ||
 Jonathan Levin |
Stanford | Bio/Vote History | ||
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 Eric Maskin |
Harvard | Bio/Vote History | ||
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 William Nordhaus |
Yale | Bio/Vote History | ||
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 Emmanuel Saez |
Berkeley | Bio/Vote History | ||
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 Larry Samuelson |
Yale | Bio/Vote History | ||
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Consumer welfare may rise (though difficult to measure), but it will not be a Pareto improvement for consumers, making evaluation difficult.
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 José Scheinkman |
Columbia University | Bio/Vote History | ||
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 Richard Schmalensee |
MIT | Bio/Vote History | ||
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 Carl Shapiro |
Berkeley | Bio/Vote History | ||
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 Robert Shimer |
University of Chicago | Bio/Vote History | ||
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This is in comparison to banning these services or regulating their price to equal the price of taxis.
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 Richard Thaler |
Chicago Booth | Bio/Vote History | ||
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But Uber needs to be careful about surge pricing in emergencies, people care about fairness as much as efficiency.
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 Christopher Udry |
Northwestern | Bio/Vote History | ||
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One can imagine circumstances in which this would not be true, but this is a situation in which the simple economics are very persuasive.
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