Competing Platforms and Transport Equilibrium

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Rosaia, Nicola
• 署名单位: Columbia University
• 刊物名称: ECONOMETRICA
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0012-9682
• DOI: 10.3982/ECTA21773
• 发表日期: 2025
• 关键词: frictions; MARKET

摘要

I study whether platform competition in app-based transportation generates waste and whether consolidating competing networks would improve efficiency. I build a spatial model of a ride-hailing market where competing platforms set prices strategically and estimate it using detailed data from two major platforms in New York City. Comparing the status quo to simulated counterfactuals, I find that: (i) platform market power and the fragmentation of users across networks cause a $176 million annual loss in social welfare and waste 21% of driver-generated traffic; (ii) a platform merger would trade off gains from pooling all users into a single network against harms from greater market power, reducing traffic by 8% but lowering consumer surplus by $77 million per year due to a 4% price hike; and (iii) interoperability regulations would bring these gains without undermining competition, reducing wasteful traffic by 6% while raising consumer surplus by $63 million per year.