Fig. 3: Characterizing non-equilibrium surge dynamics.
From: Anomalous supply shortages from dynamic pricing in on-demand mobility
The timescales of price changes characterize the surge dynamics at different locations. These price changes separate into small, slow changes Pbase corresponding to varying base costs and fast, strong changes Psurge corresponding to the surge fee (red and blue line in the histograms in b–e, respectively). a Characterizing locations by the total weight wsurge of the surge component of the price change distribution and the magnitude σsurge of the associated price changes reveals several locations [e.g., Warsaw, Montreal, Chicago, New York City [city(1) and station(2)] and Chennai] with similar surge characteristics to DCA (see Fig. 4 and “Methods” section and Supplementary Note 2 for more details and additional examples). b and c (left), Locations with low surge strength σsurge exhibit no significant surge activity and no price changes on a fast time scale, shown here for Johannesburg (JNB, South Africa) and Brussels (BRU, Belgium). d (bottom right), Locations with high surge strength σsurge and small surge contribution wsurge exhibit relatively few price surges (SFO, San Francisco, USA). e (top right), Locations with high surge strength σsurge and high surge contribution wsurge exhibit a large number of fast price surges potentially driven by artificially induced supply shortages. Figure 4 confirms that the surge fee dynamics at these locations is indeed similar to the dynamics observed at DCA (Washington, DC, USA).
