Ride-hailing services, provided by Transportation Network Companies, have changed the way urbanites moving across the city in the past decade. Regardless of its prevalence in major cities around the world, micro-evidence linking ride-hailing services and economic activities beyond the transportation domain is however lacking. Leveraging a temporally and spatially varying taxation program on ride-hailing services implemented in the city of Chicago, this paper examines how consumers adjust their ride-hailing use, as well as its impact on consumer activities such as visiting restaurants and bars. I find that in contrast to ride-hailing trips for commuting purposes, consumption-oriented trips are less elastic to the increase in ride-hailing cost, implying a persistent demand for flexible mobility for off-work consumer activities.

Speaker: Binzhe Wang