Economists are confirming what anyone who has ever taken a taxi already knows: consumers benefit when innovative car services like Uber and Lyft are free to compete with taxis.
The University of Chicago’s Initiative on Global Markets, which collects the opinions of economists on major policy questions, asked its economic experts to agree or disagree with this statement:
Out of the 43 economists asked to respond to the prompt, every single one who replied either agreed or “strongly” agreed. Three gave no response.
“Yes. Yes. A thousand times yes,” wrote Austin Goolsbee, an economics professor at the University of Chicago. “Instead, try calling for a cab on Saturday night from the south side of Chicago and see what happens.”
“Competition on quality and price helps consumers,” said Stanford professor Darrell Duffie. “We also have some evidence from revealed preference. Uber was popular right away.”
