Tipping in crises: Evidence from Chicago taxi passengers during COVID-19.

ABSTRACT: In early 2020, the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) spread to the United States and upended normal life. Using trip-level data on over 17 million taxi rides taken in Chicago from 2018-2021, I document how tipping behavior changed during the COVID-19 pandemic. I find that the average non-zero tip as a percent of the taxi fare increased 2 percentage points, or roughly 10%. Meanwhile, the likelihood that a passenger left a tip at all declined by roughly 5 percentage points, down from a pre-pandemic likelihood of 95%. My preferred specification suggests that the effect on the intensive margin dominates that in the extensive margin, leading to an aggregate increase in tipping generosity during the pandemic. I leverage granularity in the data to explore the mechanisms behind these trends and offer t

SUBMITTER: Conlisk S 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8767780 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature