The benefits of forced experimentation: striking evidence from the London underground network
Shaun Larcom, Ferdinand Rauch and Tim Willems
We present evidence that a significant fraction of commuters on the London Underground do not travel on their optimal route. We show that a strike on the Underground, which forced many commuters to experiment with new routes, brought lasting changes in behavior. This effect is stronger for commuters who live in areas where the Underground map is more distorted, which points to the importance of informational imperfections. Information resulting from the strike improved network efficiency. Search costs alone are unlikely to explain the suboptimal behavior.
1 November 2017
The Quarterly Journal of Economics 132(4) , pp.2019-2055, 2017
https://academic.oup.com/qje/article-abstract/132/4/2019/3857744?redirectedFrom=fulltext
This Journal article is published under the centre's Urban programme, Neighbourhoods programme.