Striking Evidence? Demand Persistence for Inter-City Buses from German Railway Strikes – Levke Jessen-Thiesen

Speaker

Levke Jessen-Thiesen (Kiel Institute)

Abstract

This paper investigates the impact of the largest rail strikes in German history on long-distance buses – a then newly liberalized market. Based on a unique dataset of detailed bus ticket sales, we exploit variations in rail service cancellations across routes to perform a difference-in-difference estimation. We find that the disruption in rail transport increased the demand for bus rides. The demand surge persists beyond the strike only on shorter bus routes. Some travelers seem to not return to their originally preferred mode of transport. This suggests that inter-city transport customers were previously under-experimenting, as has been shown to be the case for inner-city transport. 

Authors

Matthias Beestermöller (University of Munich) – Levke Jessen-Thiessen (Kiel Institute) – Alexander Sandkamp (Kiel Institute; University of Kiel (CAU)) 

Room

Lecture Hall (A-032)