Fare Structure and the Demand for Public Transit

时间：2023年3月17日（周五）10:00-11:30

地点：承泽园245教室

主持人：张丹丹、黄炜

参与老师：赵耀辉、李玲、刘国恩、雷晓燕、易君健

主讲人：谷一桢 （北京大学汇丰商学院）

摘要：Public transit fares are often designed to balance various efficiency and distributional goals. Whether these goals can be achieved depends crucially on how users respond to the often complex fare structure. This study examines the impacts of a fare adjustment implemented in the Beijing Subway, which replaced a flat rate with one that varies by distance, time, and month-to-date cumulative expenditure. The analysis utilizes the universe of trip-level data and exploits discontinuities in the new fare structure to causally estimate parameters gov- erning the demand for public transit. Results indicate that demand is inelastic, trip schedules are inflexible, and consumers are insensitive to frequent-user discounts. Regular commuters are found to be the most price sensitive among different user types. The fare adjustment led to significantly higher revenue, but that came at the cost of substantial efficiency loss, and the quantity discount was ineffective to cross-subsidize frequent transit users. Counterfac- tual simulations suggest that an alternative revenue-preserving flat rate may perform better if users do not rationally respond to the non-linear monthly budgets. Recommendations for improving the design of the fare structure are provided.

主讲人简介：Yizhen Gu is Associate Professor at Peking University HSBC Business School. His research interests include urban economics, transportation, and applied microeconomics. He received his Ph.D. in city and regional planning from the University of California, Berkeley in 2015.