Spaces of competition in the sharing economy : taxi markets and Uber entry in NYC

Multisided platforms are among the main drivers of the growth of the so-called 'sharing economy' and their diffusion is apparently also changing the profitability and spatial structure of traditional markets. This paper investigates the spatial effect of Uber on the taxi industry in New York City, using a large data set consisting of all taxi and Uber rides from April to June 2014. Our results indicate that Uber had a positive and significant effect on the number of taxi trips, whereas no significant effect was detected for average trip fare and distance. These findings are consistent with the view that new operators in the sharing economy, and Uber in particular, do not directly compete with traditional operators and can potentially generate spillover effects.