The case for Uber-regulation

I make the case in Slate, which is that the market for short-term, on-demand car rides is inherently monopolistic. That is in fact why taxi regulation exists, and always has, virtually everywhere. The Slate piece arose from some initial thoughts in this blog post, further stimulated by Ilya Somin’s criticisms of that post. One point of disagreement centers around how to interpret people who consent to and then complain about surge pricing. Somin thinks they are irrational. I think they are reasonably concerned that they are being overcharged. The underlying problem is the high cost of search in this market, as explained in the Gallick & Sisk JLEO paper I cite. There is an interesting sense in which Uber’s disruption of the taxi market replays an earlier disruption in the 1920s when mass-produced automobiles threatened to unravel taxi pricing with the introduction of part-time drivers who skimmed off the best fares.