Equal split in the informal market for group train travel

In this paper, we make use of a unique dataset collected at the central train station of the city of Kiel, Germany. Group tickets are used by individual proposers looking for co-travelers to share the ride with shortly before the train departure. The shared ride is offered for a fixed price. We obse...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inEconomics letters Vol. 118; no. 2; pp. 327 - 329
Main Authors Waichman, Israel, Requate, Till, Korzhenevych, Artem
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Amsterdam Elsevier B.V 01.02.2013
Elsevier Science Ltd
Subjects
Asymmetric information
Bargaining
Equal split
Focal point
Individuals
Informal economy
Natural experiment
Panel data
Prices
Railroad transportation
Studies
Tickets
Kiel Germany
Germany
D74
Focal point
Equal split
C78
Bargaining
C93
Natural experiment
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Summary:In this paper, we make use of a unique dataset collected at the central train station of the city of Kiel, Germany. Group tickets are used by individual proposers looking for co-travelers to share the ride with shortly before the train departure. The shared ride is offered for a fixed price. We observe that the prevailing price offer corresponds to an equal split of the ticket cost between the maximum possible number of co-travelers. This result is remarkable, because the positions of the bargaining parties are clearly asymmetric and formation of the full group is not guaranteed. ► We investigate a naturally occurring bargaining situation ► The equal split is the clear mode of the observed bargaining outcomes. ► This result is remarkable, since the positions of participants are clearly asymmetric. ► We discuss our findings in relation to the evidence from laboratory experiments.
Bibliography:ObjectType-Article-2
SourceType-Scholarly Journals-1
ObjectType-Feature-1
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ISSN:0165-1765
1873-7374
DOI:10.1016/j.econlet.2012.10.013