IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/jeborg/v144y2017icp166-187.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

When to quit: Narrow bracketing and reference dependence in taxi drivers

Author

Listed:
  • Martin, Vincent

Abstract

Taxi drivers provide an ideal setting for testing various models of labor supply. Despite this, the literature studying driver behavior has produced mixed evidence of which labor supply model best applies to driver labor supply. Using a novel analysis and large datasets of taxi trips from two different cities, this paper provides a unifying analysis which reconciles previous inconsistencies in evidence for reference dependence in taxi drivers. By testing for a particular non-linear relationship between shift income and drivers’ hazard of stopping, I identify behavior that is consistent with Prospect theoretic (S-shaped) reference dependence as opposed to the more extensively examined loss aversion model of reference dependence. This particular model of reference dependence in this setting allows me to estimate individual driver reference points without an explicit functional form or ex-ante assumptions about the existence of a reference point.

Suggested Citation

  • Martin, Vincent, 2017. "When to quit: Narrow bracketing and reference dependence in taxi drivers," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 144(C), pages 166-187.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:jeborg:v:144:y:2017:i:c:p:166-187
    DOI: 10.1016/j.jebo.2017.09.024
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0167268117302731
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.jebo.2017.09.024?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Colin Camerer & Linda Babcock & George Loewenstein & Richard Thaler, 1997. "Labor Supply of New York City Cabdrivers: One Day at a Time," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 112(2), pages 407-441.
    2. Vincent P. Crawford & Juanjuan Meng, 2011. "New York City Cab Drivers' Labor Supply Revisited: Reference-Dependent Preferences with Rational-Expectations Targets for Hours and Income," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 101(5), pages 1912-1932, August.
    3. Martin Browning & Thomas F. Crossley, 2001. "The Life-Cycle Model of Consumption and Saving," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 15(3), pages 3-22, Summer.
    4. Botond Kőszegi & Matthew Rabin, 2006. "A Model of Reference-Dependent Preferences," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 121(4), pages 1133-1165.
    5. Eric J. Allen & Patricia M. Dechow & Devin G. Pope & George Wu, 2014. "Reference-Dependent Preferences: Evidence from Marathon Runners," NBER Working Papers 20343, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    6. Amos Tversky & Daniel Kahneman, 1991. "Loss Aversion in Riskless Choice: A Reference-Dependent Model," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 106(4), pages 1039-1061.
    7. Henry S. Farber, 2015. "Why you Can’t Find a Taxi in the Rain and Other Labor Supply Lessons from Cab Drivers," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 130(4), pages 1975-2026.
    8. Yuan K. Chou, 2002. "Testing Alternative Models Of Labour Supply: Evidence From Taxi Drivers In Singapore," The Singapore Economic Review (SER), World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., vol. 47(01), pages 17-47.
    9. Daniel Kahneman & Amos Tversky, 2013. "Prospect Theory: An Analysis of Decision Under Risk," World Scientific Book Chapters, in: Leonard C MacLean & William T Ziemba (ed.), HANDBOOK OF THE FUNDAMENTALS OF FINANCIAL DECISION MAKING Part I, chapter 6, pages 99-127, World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd..
    10. Ernst Fehr & Lorenz Goette, 2007. "Do Workers Work More if Wages Are High? Evidence from a Randomized Field Experiment," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 97(1), pages 298-317, March.
    11. Shefrin, Hersh & Statman, Meir, 1985. "The Disposition to Sell Winners Too Early and Ride Losers Too Long: Theory and Evidence," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 40(3), pages 777-790, July.
    12. Read, Daniel & Loewenstein, George & Rabin, Matthew, 1999. "Choice Bracketing," Journal of Risk and Uncertainty, Springer, vol. 19(1-3), pages 171-197, December.
    13. Gerald S. Oettinger, 1999. "An Empirical Analysis of the Daily Labor Supply of Stadium Vendors," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 107(2), pages 360-392, April.
    14. Tess M. Stafford, 2015. "What Do Fishermen Tell Us That Taxi Drivers Do Not? An Empirical Investigation of Labor Supply," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 33(3), pages 683-710.
    15. Lancaster, Tony, 2000. "The incidental parameter problem since 1948," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 95(2), pages 391-413, April.
    16. Henry S. Farber, 2008. "Reference-Dependent Preferences and Labor Supply: The Case of New York City Taxi Drivers," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 98(3), pages 1069-1082, June.
    17. Milton Friedman & L. J. Savage, 1948. "The Utility Analysis of Choices Involving Risk," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 56(4), pages 279-279.
    18. Henry S. Farber, 2005. "Is Tomorrow Another Day? The Labor Supply of New York City Cabdrivers," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 113(1), pages 46-82, February.
    19. George J. Borjas, 1980. "The Relationship between Wages and Weekly Hours of Work: The Role of Division Bias," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 15(3), pages 409-423.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Takahiko Kudo & Michael H Belzer, 2019. "Safe rates and unpaid labour: Non-driving pay and truck driver work hours," The Economic and Labour Relations Review, , vol. 30(4), pages 532-548, December.
    2. Brodeur, Abel & Nield, Kerry, 2018. "An empirical analysis of taxi, Lyft and Uber rides: Evidence from weather shocks in NYC," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 152(C), pages 1-16.
    3. Thanos Mergoupis & Robertas Zubrickas, 2024. "Work experience, information revelation, and study effort," Oxford Economic Papers, Oxford University Press, vol. 76(2), pages 495-513.
    4. Hai Long Duong & Junhong Chu & Dai Yao, 2023. "Taxi Drivers’ Response to Cancellations and No-Shows: New Evidence for Reference-Dependent Preferences," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 69(1), pages 179-199, January.
    5. Jan Schlüter & Manuel Frewer & Leif Sörensen & Justin Coetzee, 2020. "A stochastic prediction of minibus taxi driver behaviour in South Africa," Palgrave Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 7(1), pages 1-12, December.
    6. Chen, Junlin & Feng, Xiaojing & Kou, Gang & Mu, Mengting, 2023. "Multiproduct newsvendor with cross-selling and narrow-bracketing behavior using data mining methods," Transportation Research Part E: Logistics and Transportation Review, Elsevier, vol. 169(C).
    7. Timothy J. Richards, 2020. "Income Targeting and Farm Labor Supply," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 102(2), pages 419-438, March.
    8. Alessandro Saia, 2022. "Trouble Underground: Demand Shocks and the Labor Supply Behavior of New York City Taxi Drivers," Italian Economic Journal: A Continuation of Rivista Italiana degli Economisti and Giornale degli Economisti, Springer;Società Italiana degli Economisti (Italian Economic Association), vol. 8(1), pages 1-27, March.
    9. Yiyuan Ma & Ke Chen & Youzhi Xiao & Rong Fan, 2022. "Does Online Ride-Hailing Service Improve the Efficiency of Taxi Market? Evidence from Shanghai," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(14), pages 1-16, July.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Cadsby, C. Bram & Song, Fei & Zubanov, Nick, 2024. "Working more for more and working more for less: Labor supply in the gain and loss domains," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 88(C).
    2. Brodeur, Abel & Nield, Kerry, 2018. "An empirical analysis of taxi, Lyft and Uber rides: Evidence from weather shocks in NYC," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 152(C), pages 1-16.
    3. Timothy J. Richards, 2020. "Income Targeting and Farm Labor Supply," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 102(2), pages 419-438, March.
    4. Chang, Tom & Gross, Tal, 2014. "How many pears would a pear packer pack if a pear packer could pack pears at quasi-exogenously varying piece rates?," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 99(C), pages 1-17.
    5. Alex Markle & George Wu & Rebecca White & Aaron Sackett, 2018. "Goals as reference points in marathon running: A novel test of reference dependence," Journal of Risk and Uncertainty, Springer, vol. 56(1), pages 19-50, February.
    6. Barbos, Andrei & Kaisen, Joshua, 2022. "An Example of Negative Wage Elasticity for YouTube Content Creators," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 203(C), pages 382-400.
    7. Sun, Hao & Wang, Hai & Wan, Zhixi, 2019. "Model and analysis of labor supply for ride-sharing platforms in the presence of sample self-selection and endogeneity," Transportation Research Part B: Methodological, Elsevier, vol. 125(C), pages 76-93.
    8. Leong, Kaiwen & Li, Huailu & Xu, Haibo, 2019. "Effect of Enforcement Shock on Pushers' Activities: Evidence from an Asian Drug-Selling Gang," IZA Discussion Papers 12083, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    9. Eric J. Allen & Patricia M. Dechow & Devin G. Pope & George Wu, 2017. "Reference-Dependent Preferences: Evidence from Marathon Runners," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 63(6), pages 1657-1672, June.
    10. Dohmen, Thomas, 2014. "Behavioral labor economics: Advances and future directions," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 30(C), pages 71-85.
    11. Alessandro Saia, 2022. "Trouble Underground: Demand Shocks and the Labor Supply Behavior of New York City Taxi Drivers," Italian Economic Journal: A Continuation of Rivista Italiana degli Economisti and Giornale degli Economisti, Springer;Società Italiana degli Economisti (Italian Economic Association), vol. 8(1), pages 1-27, March.
    12. Hammarlund, Cecilia, 2018. "A trip to reach the target? – The labor supply of Swedish Baltic cod fishermen," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics (formerly The Journal of Socio-Economics), Elsevier, vol. 75(C), pages 1-11.
    13. Dupas, Pascaline & Robinson, Jonathan & Saavedra, Santiago, 2020. "The daily grind: Cash needs and labor supply," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 177(C), pages 399-414.
    14. Vincent P. Crawford & Juanjuan Meng, 2011. "New York City Cab Drivers' Labor Supply Revisited: Reference-Dependent Preferences with Rational-Expectations Targets for Hours and Income," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 101(5), pages 1912-1932, August.
    15. Committee, Nobel Prize, 2017. "Richard H. Thaler: Integrating Economics with Psychology," Nobel Prize in Economics documents 2017-1, Nobel Prize Committee.
    16. Zubrickas, Robertas, 2023. "The relative income effect and labor supply," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 209(C), pages 176-184.
    17. Christine L. Exley & Stephen J. Terry, 2019. "Wage Elasticities in Working and Volunteering: The Role of Reference Points in a Laboratory Study," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 65(1), pages 413-425, January.
    18. Tess M. Stafford, 2018. "Do workers work more when earnings are high?," IZA World of Labor, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA), pages 1-11, November.
    19. Cosaert, Sam & Lefebvre, Mathieu & Martin, Ludivine, 2022. "Are preferences for work reference dependent or time nonseparable? New experimental evidence," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 148(C).
    20. Giné, Xavier & Martinez-Bravo, Monica & Vidal-Fernández, Marian, 2017. "Are labor supply decisions consistent with neoclassical preferences? Evidence from Indian boat owners," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 142(C), pages 331-347.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:jeborg:v:144:y:2017:i:c:p:166-187. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/jebo .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.