Labor supply of new york city cabdrivers: one day at a time

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Kahneman, daniel, jack knetsch, and richard thaler, “experimental tests of the. endowment effect and the coase theorem,” journal of political economy,. xcviii ( ...
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LABORSUPPLYOFNEWYORKCITYCABDRIVERS:ONEDAYATATIME*COLINCAMERERLINDABABCOCKGEORGELOEWENSTEINRICHARDTHALERLife-cyclemodelsoflaborsupplypredictapositiverelationshipbetweenhourssuppliedandtransitorychangesinwages.WetestedthispredictionusingthreesamplesofwagesandhoursofNewYorkCitycabdrivers,whosewagesarecorrelatedwithindaysbutuncorrelatedbetweendays.Estimatedwageelasticit-iesaresignicantlynegativeintwooutofthreesamples.Elasticitiesofinexperi-enceddriversaverageapproximately21andarelessthanzeroinallthreesamples(andsignicantlylessthanforexperienceddriversintwoofthreesamples).Ourinterpretationofthesendingsisthatcabdrivers(atleastinexperi-encedones):(i)makelaborsupplydecisions“onedayatatime”insteadofinter-temporallysubstitutinglaborandleisureacrossmultipledays,and(ii)setaloosedailyincometargetandquitworkingoncetheyreachthattarget.I.INTRODUCTIONDynamicmodelsoflaborsupplypredictthatworkhoursshouldrespondpositivelytotransitorypositivewagechanges,asworkersintertemporallysubstitutelaborandleisure,...