NDRC experts Guohua: It is time to break the monopoly of taxi

Cheong noted that with the development of the times, more and more people travel demand increases,play Anna Games resulting in a growing contradiction between the needs of the taxi market with its system. With the development of mobile Internet, the emergence of software as a taxi cab industry has brought unprecedented opportunities and challenges, and bear the brunt of it: subvert the theoretical basis of the existing taxi system. In addition, the article also pointed out that a taxi software innovation advantages even solves the control can not solve public problems. Price controls, the taxi drivers are often based on their own interests and choose the "good list" abandoned "bad list", is the most significant manifestation of drivers are often reluctant to go to the congested road during peak periods, so that damage to the taxi characteristics of public transport services. The following is the text of the article: Mobile Internet era is undoubtedly subversive, revolutionary era, more and more traditional industry is also faced with the fate of subversion - the taxi industry is one of them. 2012 appeared taxi software took just two years, it has changed people's behavior. From taxi drivers to passengers, more and more people have become accustomed to travel by taxi software. And after a successful catch user, a taxi software have also launched their own car service, about to enter the commercial vehicle market. However, to completely change a traditional monopoly industry can not be plain sailing. In fact, the car hit the software from the beginning constant controversy, but as a quasi-public taxi transport services has always been subject to strict government regulation, a taxi software appears also to the government out of a problem. First, the car hit a big controversy in the software in a way that it will be a taxi quasi-public transportation into private transport, resulting in unused software people taxi difficult. To solve this problem, some local government departments issued the relevant regulations and policies. For example, Shanghai Municipal Transport and Port Authority in February 2014 issued measures to strengthen the management of the taxi, the interim decision in the morning and evening rush hour two, prohibited the use of taxis "taxi software" provides about car service to ease peak time taxi difficult situation. Secondly, business is not about cars clear laws and regulations to define and regulate its legal status there is a big controversy, "limousine" service launched soon, Shenyang and other cities have emerged in the part of the "car" determines " black car "and the case was accordingly punished. Undoubtedly, taxi and limousine service software is the emergence of long-unmet demand for cars in the market response for public services, security considerations, the government's regulatory response is understandable. However, in the face of the impact of the mobile Internet, much of the discussion about the taxi software are based on the current taxi system, including the "service system", "security", "how to regulate" and other content. Discussants ignore the fundamental point, before discussing "how to regulate", we must first answer "why regulation" of the more important issues. Different perspective, we see a different world, in order to see past the taxi and the development of the afterlife. Institutional origin Taxi from the predecessor - cab birth, the industry on the subject of government regulation. In 1636, King Charles on the announcement to allow 50 runs in a London cab, and is determined by the parliamentary oversight to ensure that the number will not be exceeded. Meanwhile, the government also introduced such as the coachman and carriage must be "fit and proper" (strong and decent) service quality standards. Today, most countries still taxis different levels of control, even in developed countries such as the United States is no exception. Control is very simple intention, on the one hand for the industry's own characteristics caused by the "market failure" to correct, on the other hand is trying to protect and supervise this "supplementary public transport," the quality of service. Specifically, it depends on the market "invisible hand" of the market get a taxi to reach optimal equilibrium, requires a lot of market participants as well as adequate information, need to have adequate and rational decision-making capacity of the "economic man" to maximize the benefits to pursue their own decisions. • Adam Smith as the representative of the classical economic theory based on the above conditions, the advocate of laissez-faire, free competition in the market that the economy is the most effective mechanism, advocated the "invisible hand" will make the socio-economic activities to achieve optimal allocation of resources. But the real world and the ideal world there is a huge difference in the taxi market is one example. Traditional taxi market due to the scarcity of road resources, consumption of binding, non-disposable aftereffect and play Dora Games services transactions and other characteristics, determine its own can not achieve the optimal allocation of resources. First of all, compared with the general economic resources, any city road resources are very limited, the larger the city the more significant this feature. Macro sense, limited the city's roads, a limited number of vehicles on the road can be accommodated, a micro perspective, crossing through specific taxi is limited. Shazam slowly varying traffic demand and transport supply, determines the number of taxi supply is unlikely to change with changes in demand and in a timely manner, the impact of supply and demand adjust resource efficiency. Secondly, the consumer has a strong taxi binding. General merchandise consumer choice of time and space constraints obvious, buy a bottle of mineral water, then or later that time to buy, buy buy at the supermarket or newsstand tend to have adequate choice. But urban travel has a strong randomness, but also can choose from a specific time and place through a small taxi, and therefore face great information asymmetry. As a result, taxi spending decisions often not the best decision is rational economic man. Moreover, the production process is a unified taxi trading and consumption process, coupled with the trading process and occurs randomly, so obviously having a one-off characteristics. Due to the randomness of consumption, one-time transaction, so it has a non-taxi service aftereffect. General merchandise quality and to achieve price stability, homogeneity and features - Times Square McDonald's Big Mac and Beijing Xidan McDonald's Big Mac is basically no difference. But the probability of a passenger ride with a taxi but very small, even if by chance this happens, passengers often do not remember. Therefore, the quality of service provided by each taxi driver to get the follow-up to its business, the quality of follow-up did not affect the basic business services. For consumers, if you encounter "excellent" taxi driver, is good luck, if met, "bad", only bad luck. Such characteristics of the market will inevitably lead to the taxi market have a "Gresham's Law" phenomenon, because the services provided are bound to put more costs, but not necessarily get rewarded, while poor service by a low return on investment for , and services are no different. As a result, the lack of market incentives to optimize taxi service, it is difficult to ensure the survival of the fittest by the market and the level of quality of service. Because of these characteristics, the pure market taxi regulatory mechanism is malfunctioning. This failure, as the representative of Coase theory institutional economists to explain, is due to the existence of a market "transaction costs". As First Coase Theorem posterity summary description of: if the transaction cost is zero, regardless of the initial property arrangements, negotiations will lead to arrangements between the parties that wealth maximization, the market mechanism will automatically achieve Pareto optimal . But in the real world, but the transaction costs are real. Back to the taxi market, due to the scarcity of resources and other characteristics, the market there are high transaction costs, including consumers for car safety, quality of service, reasonable prices and other aspects of access to information needed to consider, weigh the cost of time and effort and risk-taking. According to the description of the second Coase theorem, greater than zero transaction cost world, different systems design can impact on transaction costs, but also the appropriate allocation of resources to produce different results. In the taxi market, through the establishment of the unified management of the company scattered vehicles, is designed to reduce the transaction costs of the system in the industry. Taxi company uniform quality service, price, and be reflected through a unified body design and price marking, reduce information asymmetry. At the same time, the company's existence, but also feature a one-time taxi service is weakened, the consumer can deal with the same repeat a taxi company, for unsatisfactory service complaints to the company, or simply choose another company. This allows taxi service with aftereffect, thereby enhancing the stability of its safety and quality, but also to be competition between taxi companies and thus encourage them to improve service quality. Meanwhile, the taxi carrying the part of the public service functions. Based on public welfare security, stability considerations, as well as to ensure that the majority of taxi services available to consumers, so have the government of the taxi market three types of controls: the number of controls, price controls, service control and safety standards. Thus, from reduced transaction costs and ensure the quality of public services, starting with the formation of a modern government regulation taxi operators and taxi companies characterized system. Shame uncontrolled Taxi establish a market system is undoubtedly a good starting point, but the regulation itself a distortion of the market, and play Cooking Games with the development of the times, more and more people travel demand increases, resulting in a growing demand among taxi market with its system big contradiction, the question came. Control for the most serious market distortions doubt that the number of controls and strict access audit due to the company's monopoly taxi operations, and brought high monopoly profits. For example, due to the increasing scarcity of taxi licenses and market demand, the price way up, many cities in China, taxi license prices are more than 600,000 yuan in some cities is to reach hundreds of million. However, the Government did not share the high monopoly earnings (minority local government grant exceptions taxi licenses by auction), so can not be converted to the public welfare; secondly, because of price controls and price increases with a license, taxi driver "elements of money "will also rise, their incomes were not the same as other market sectors with economic development and rising, more and more become the city of vulnerable groups, by the media as a new era of" Camel "; ultimately, the consumer is undoubtedly monopoly earnings the final bill payer. Monopoly earnings taxi industry is almost entirely occupied by a taxi company, which makes the market designed to reduce the transaction costs of the taxi company system has actually increased transaction costs, seriously affecting the efficiency of the market. Because of the importance of urban public taxi service for to taxi companies represented, forming vested interests, they use their influence to make the Government to maintain or even to further consolidate its monopoly, appeared to be regulators called for the strengthening of anti-market regulation phenomenon. Chicago school of economics, Stiglitz described this phenomenon as "regulatory capture", namely a start control in order to meet the welfare needs of the public and produce, and the ultimate control mechanism was controlled by industry. Another social problems caused by the taxi regulation is the "black car" flooding. In the suburbs of many cities, the "black car" has become an inevitable choice in fact many residents travel. According to China Central Television reported, outside Beijing Huilongguan Subway Station, the "black car" have occupied half of the driveway. "Black car" is a spontaneous response to market demand, but it has brought many problems of traffic management, public safety and so on. Although the government banned, and the "black car" has a severe punitive measures, but with little success, investigate serious market distortions and its source of supply and demand, or a taxi imbalance caused control. To solve the "black car" problem, the first thing needed is a reform of the taxi market. Aware of the many problems the taxi market, the local government is not completely indifferent, in recent years, there are some attempts to adjust policy, but unfortunately, most of the policies in the wrong direction. As Professor Xue Zhaofeng National Development Research Institute of Peking University has written that the direction of the taxi reform should follow the market demand, quantity and price deregulation, but the Government has not done: "One, not release the number of control elements in order to effectively reduce money, but to make the driver granted financial oil, which not only reinforces the taxi companies and drivers on the 'open market access' boycott, and with taxpayers' money to subsidize a regular taxi middle class, increasing social Second unfair distribution, not to play Baby Hazel Games try the black car into the public administration, so that they become legitimate incremental supply, but to be a direct attack, which leads to adverse selection, that is, only the courage to take risks to make the black truck driver to leave, thereby increasing passenger costs and risks. Third, not relax fare price controls, a more free-floating fares to encourage drivers of the bus, but directly punish those who pick off and bargaining drivers. clearly, unless the government can out of the bus driver at gunpoint otherwise, these sanctions will only further blow supply, taxi passengers more difficult. "