【公开学术报告】The Dual and Asymmetric Impact of E-Scooters on Shared Mobility, Retailing, and Consumer Safety

The Dual and Asymmetric Impact of E-Scooters on Shared Mobility, Retailing, and Consumer Safety

Guest Speaker:     Ruichun LIU (University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign)

Date & Time:       10:00-11:30 (Beijing Time), Fri. 27^rd, Sept. 2024

Zoom Meeting:    818 578 53108 (Password: 532663)

Click the Link:    https://us02web.zoom.us/j/81857853108

ABSTRACT

Shared micromobility services have grown rapidly in recent years. Within micromobility, electric scooters (e-scooters) have expanded in usage and account for 63% of shared micromobility trips in the U.S. While research in marketing has examined how e-scooters affect restaurant spending, their effects on firms, consumers, and society beyond the restaurant industry are unclear. Using the quasi-experimental entry of e-scooters in parts of Chicago in 2019, we examine how e-scooters impact other shared mobility (i.e., rideshare and bikeshare trips), retail visits (i.e., visits to restaurants and retail stores), and consumer safety (i.e., crimes and crashes). The results from a difference-in-differences analysis reveal the dual impact of e-scooters; while the entry of e-scooters improves economic activity, it adversely impacts consumer safety and other forms of micromobility. First, the entry of e-scooters increases the number of short rideshare trips by 3.01%, but decreases the number of bikeshare trips by 24.98% in the 18 weeks after the entry of e-scooters. Second, the entry of e-scooters increases consumer visits to restaurants by 1.77% and retail stores by 8.37%. Third, the entry of e-scooters increases the number of crimes (e.g., break-ins) by 12.16% and crashes (e.g., bike crash) by 62.74%. The underlying mechanisms are consistent with increased hedonic and tourist activities. Importantly, the effects are heterogeneous by the age and racial composition of a neighborhood; the benefits of e-scooters are attenuated and their downsides are aggravated in neighborhoods with relatively higher older population and people of color, revealing important asymmetries in the impact of e-scooters. Our research offers key implications and includes a research app companion for consumers, firms, and policymakers.

Keywords:

E-scooter, Shared Mobility, Retailing, Consumer Safety, Inequity, Difference-in-differences, Quasi-experiment