Quantifying the ex-post causal impact of differential pricing on commuter trip scheduling in Hong Kong
File(s)Early_Bird_Discount_Hong_Kong.pdf (2.72 MB)
Accepted version
Author(s)
Anupriya, Anupriya
Graham, Daniel J
Horcher, Daniel
Anderson, Richard
Bansal, Prateek
Type
Journal Article
Abstract
This paper quantifies the causal impact of differential pricing on the trip-scheduling of regular commuters using the Mass Transit Railway (MTR) in Hong Kong. It does so by applying a difference-in-difference (DID) method to large scale smart card data before and after the introduction of the Early Bird Discount (EBD) pricing intervention. We find statistically significant but small effects of the EBD in the form of earlier departure times. Leveraging the granularity of the data, we also allow for the treatment effect to vary over observed travel characteristics. Our empirical results suggest that fares and crowding are the key determinants of commuter responsiveness to the EBD policy.
Date Issued
2020-11-01
Date Acceptance
2020-08-19
Citation
Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, 2020, 141, pp.16-34
ISSN
0191-2607
Publisher
Elsevier
Start Page
16
End Page
34
Journal / Book Title
Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice
Volume
141
Copyright Statement
© 2020 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. This manuscript is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International Licence http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/
Subjects
1205 Urban and Regional Planning
1507 Transportation and Freight Services
Logistics & Transportation
Publication Status
Published
Date Publish Online
2020-09-15