一、主題：Money for MetroCards: How a New Card Fee Made New York Transit Riders Invest More and Lose More

二、主講人：孫美萍，美國哥倫比亞大學經濟學博士生（預計2017年畢業）。本科畢業于美國伯利亞學院，獲得哥倫比亞大學經濟學碩士學位。主要研究方向為應用微觀經濟學、公共經濟學。其研究成果曾在AEA annual meeting、NBER Summer Institute 等國際頂尖會議報告。她還曾在Columbia University、Drew University、Simmons College授課。

三、時間：2016年12月28日（周三），13:15-14:00

四、地點：主樓910會議室

五、主持人：張莉妮，bevictor伟德官网講師

摘要：Since 1998, the New York City Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) system has used prepaid cards (MetroCards) to collect subway and bus fares. In 2013, the MTA imposed a $1 card fee (surcharge) on new MetroCard purchases. After the card fee was imposed, riders started to put more money on new MetroCard purchases. The response to the card fee was greater in low-income neighborhoods and among riders who used cash or debit cards rather than credit cards. As a result, the net monthly outstanding balance from transit card deposits increased dramatically, with riders lending an extra $150 million, on an annual basis, to the MTA. Moreover, over $20 million of the increased balances in the first year were never redeemed and escheated to the MTA when these cards expired. I document these changes using a novel dataset with transaction-level deposit and card use information. The leading explanation highlights the importance of the cost of effort to remember to carry the same card for future periods. I pose a dynamic structural model to calibrate the effect of a new card fee. Counterfactual simulation predicts that the optimal new card fee is $4.35 to maximize the MTA’s profit. These findings have implications for fiscal policy designs and fee structures of prepaid card industry.