Assessing the potential of integrating public transportation with e-hailing services: a randomized trial in a ridesharing platform in São Paulo, Brazil

Last registered on December 06, 2023
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Pre-Trial

Trial Information

General Information

Title
Assessing the potential of integrating public transportation with e-hailing services: a randomized trial in a ridesharing platform in São Paulo, Brazil
RCT ID
AEARCTR-0012627
Initial registration date
November 29, 2023

Initial registration date is when the trial was registered.

It corresponds to when the registration was submitted to the Registry to be reviewed for publication.

First published
December 06, 2023, 8:15 AM EST

First published corresponds to when the trial was first made public on the Registry after being reviewed.

Locations

Country
Brazil
Region
São Paulo

Primary Investigator

Name
Ciro Biderman
Affiliation
FGV
Contact Primary Investigator

Other Primary Investigator(s)

Additional Trial Information

Status
Completed
Start date
2018-10-01
End date
2019-08-30
Keywords
Behavior, Other
Additional Keywords
ride-hailing, modal integration, urban transportation
JEL code(s)
R40, R48
Secondary IDs
Prior work
This trial does not extend or rely on any prior RCTs.
Abstract
This study investigates whether providing passengers with a pecuniary incentive to use both public transportation and ridesharing in their daily commute increases the demand for e-hailing services as a means to complete first- or last-mile trips. To do so, we designed and implemented an experiment in partnership with one of São Paulo's largest e-hailing platforms in which some of the service's active users were randomly assigned eligibility to two daily discounts for app trips starting or ending in a train/subway station. Discounts were available over ten weekdays, in two randomly assigned regimes: two daily 20% discounts (limited to 10 BRL per trip), and two daily 50% discounts (also limited to 10 BRL). Using the random assignment and the user's history in the platform, we assess whether increased discounts indeed increase modal integration.
External Link(s)

Registration Citation

Citation
Biderman, Ciro. 2023. "Assessing the potential of integrating public transportation with e-hailing services: a randomized trial in a ridesharing platform in São Paulo, Brazil." AEA RCT Registry. December 06. https://doi.org/10.1257/rct.12627-1.0
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Experimental Details

Interventions

Intervention(s)
Our interventions consist in providing daily coupons to a subset of the users in the ridesharing platform. These coupons allow users to have a discount in car trips which start or end in a train/subway station. We considered both 20% and 50% discount coupons, both of which were limited to 10 BRL off per trip.
Intervention Start Date
2018-11-26
Intervention End Date
2018-12-07

Primary Outcomes

Primary Outcomes (end points)
number of app rides integrating with train/subway, number of total app rides, number of total app rides minus number of app rides integrating with train/subway
Primary Outcomes (explanation)

Secondary Outcomes

Secondary Outcomes (end points)
Secondary Outcomes (explanation)

Experimental Design

Experimental Design
We randomized three experimental regimes for a subset of the users in the ridesharing platform for which we collected baseline information on commuting habits and sociodemographic traits (importantly, no information on a prospective experiment was disclosed when collecting baseline data, with only a discount coupon being offered upon completion of the survey). One group was randomly assigned to the control arm, and was not informed about the experiment. A second group was randomly assigned to the 20% discount regime. This group was eligible to two daily 20% discounts, limited to 10BRL per trip, on app rides starting or ending in a train/subway station. A third group was randomly assigned to the 50% discount regime, which consisted of two daily 50% discounts, also limited to 10 BRL per trip, on app rides integrating with train/metro. Both discount regimes lasted for ten weekdays. Communication on the availability of discounts proceeded as follows. On November 26, 2018 (a Monday), all users selected into active treatment received SMS and push notifications informing them about the daily discount coupons to integrate their app rides with the public transportation system until the 30th (same week’s Friday). They also received daily reminders for the rest of the business week. On the next Monday (3rd of December), all users in these groups received similar notifications informing them that the discounts were also available for that whole week (until December 7, Friday), again with daily reminders following.
Experimental Design Details
Randomization Method
Randomization was performed in a computer in the office of the ridesharing service.
Randomization Unit
Randomization was conducted at the individual (user) level.
Was the treatment clustered?
No

Experiment Characteristics

Sample size: planned number of clusters
4650 users.
Sample size: planned number of observations
4650 users.
Sample size (or number of clusters) by treatment arms
1522 users in the control arm, 1603 users in the 20% discount regime, and 1525 users in the 50% discount regime.
Minimum detectable effect size for main outcomes (accounting for sample design and clustering)
Supporting Documents and Materials
IRB

Institutional Review Boards (IRBs)

IRB Name
IRB Approval Date
IRB Approval Number
Analysis Plan

Post-Trial

Post Trial Information

Study Withdrawal

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Intervention

Is the intervention completed?
No
Data Collection Complete
Data Publication

Data Publication

Is public data available?
No

Program Files

Program Files
Reports, Papers & Other Materials

Relevant Paper(s)

Reports & Other Materials