New York City Cab Drivers' Labor Supply Revisited: Reference-Dependent Preferences with Rational-Expectations Targets for Hours and Income

S-Tier
Journal: American Economic Review
Year: 2011
Volume: 101
Issue: 5
Pages: 1912-32

Authors (2)

Vincent P. Crawford (not in RePEc) Juanjuan Meng (Peking University)

Score contribution per author:

4.022 = (α=2.01 / 2 authors) × 4.0x S-tier

α: calibrated so average coauthorship-adjusted count equals average raw count

Abstract

This paper proposes a model of cab drivers' labor supply, building on Henry S. Farber's (2005, 2008) empirical analyses and Botond Koszegi and Matthew Rabin's (2006; henceforth "KR") theory of reference-dependent preferences. Following KR, our model has targets for hours as well as income, determined by proxied rational expectations. Our model, estimated with Farber's data, reconciles his finding that stopping probabilities are significantly related to hours but not income with Colin Camerer et al.'s (1997) negative "wage" elasticity of hours; and avoids Farber's criticism that estimates of drivers' income targets are too unstable to yield a useful model of labor supply. (JEL J22, J31, L92)

Technical Details

RePEc Handle
repec:aea:aecrev:v:101:y:2011:i:5:p:1912-32
Journal Field
General
Author Count
2
Added to Database
2026-01-25