Tag: Uber

Must-Read: Judd Cramer and Alan B. Krueger: Disruptive Change in the Taxi Business: The Case of Uber

Posted on by Brad DeLong

Must-Read: Judd Cramer and Alan B. Krueger: Disruptive Change in the Taxi Business: The Case of Uber: “This paper… compar[es] the capacity utilization rate of UberX drivers…

…with that of traditional taxi drivers in five cities…. UberX drivers spend a significantly higher fraction of their time, and drive a substantially higher share of miles, with a passenger in their car than do taxi drivers…. 1) Uber’s more efficient driver-passenger matching technology; 2) the larger scale of Uber than taxi companies; 3) inefficient taxi regulations; and 4) Uber’s flexible labor supply model and surge pricing more closely match supply with demand throughout the day.

Must-read: Marshall Steinbaum: “Uber’s Antitrust Problem”

Posted on by Brad DeLong

Must-Read: Are Uber and companies like it anti-rent seeking plays? Yes. Are they regulatory arbitrage plays? Yes. Are they behavioral economics plays–exploiting their workers who don’t properly calculate depreciation? Plausibly. What’s the proper balance? Allowing Uber to claim that its workers are in no sense its employees is surely wrong. Shielding existing rent-seeking monopolies created by regulatory capture from competition from Uber and its ilk is also surely wrong:

Marshall Steinbaum: Uber’s Antitrust Problem: “The Uber lawsuit captures the key question facing policymakers struggling to regulate the ‘gig’ and ‘platform’ economies…

…Are the new behemoths of the tech sector innovators that make the economy more efficient by ‘disrupting’ antiquated business models? Or are they just the trusts of a second Gilded Age, their new-fangled apps the equivalent of the railroad networks that monopolized commerce and access to markets 126 years ago, when the Sherman Act first took effect?

Until now, Uber and its fellow tech giants have managed to mystify policymakers and judges with double-speak regarding their relationship with employees. But in his decision allowing the case to move forward, Judge Rakoff wrote: ‘The advancement of technological means for the orchestration of large-scale price-fixing conspiracies need not leave antitrust law behind.’ Now one court has the chance to decide whether Uber can continue to have it both ways.

Must-Read: Larry Mishel: Uber Is Not the Future of Work

Posted on by Brad DeLong

Must-Read: I’m with Larry Mishel here: Why do people think Uber-type companies are an important deal, again? Uber, Airbnb, Craigslist… and what else?

Larry Mishel: Uber Is Not the Future of Work: “The rise of Uber has convinced many… that freelancing via digital platforms is becoming increasingly important…

…[But] a look at Uber’s own data about its drivers’ schedules and pay reveals them to be much less consequential than most people assume… distracts from the central features… that should be prominent in the public discussion: a disappointingly low minimum wage, lax overtime rules, weak collective-bargaining rights, and excessive unemployment, to name a few…. Curiously, the best evidence of Uber’s relatively small impact on the American labor market comes from data released and publicized by the company itself. David Plouffe, an Uber strategist… ‘Here in the U.S., there are more than 400,000 active drivers… half the drivers work less than 10 hours per week… a third of drivers said they used Uber to earn money while looking for a job.’… Driving mostly for supplementary income on a transitory basis conflicts with the notion, promoted by the company, that Uber, and gig work more generally, are a major feature of how people will earn a living in the future…