UFTI Professor Begins Work on New NSF Grant

UFTI Professor Yafeng Yin and UF Department of Economics Professor Steven Slutsky have begun work on a new National Science Foundation (NSF) grant, studying on-demand, ride-sourcing companies and their impacts on the more heavily regulated taxi industry.

Ride-sourcing companies such as Uber and Lyft provide ride-hailing applications that intelligently source private car owners who drive their own vehicles to provide taxi services for profit to riders. With a user base of almost nine million, they are changing the way that we travel around our cities with accessibility and convenience.

But that growth doesn’t come without creating some controversy. Cab drivers and their employers are arguing unfair competition as the regulations in terms of price, entry and service quality that are imposed on the taxis are comparatively higher than the regulatory requirements that have been imposed on ride-sourcing companies.

These companies, who were non-existent in 2012, are now a multi-billion dollar industry. According to CNBC, the ride-sourcing company Uber has over 14,000 cars operating in New York, compared to the 13,587 yellow medallion cabs allowed to drive at any one time.

With this grant, researchers will develop methodologies and tools for analyzing the structure and competition of taxi markets with ride-sourcing services and the effects of their regulation. The grant will also provide support for the government agencies of many cities to better understand the impacts and implications of ride-sourcing companies and develop policies to guide their deployment.

Researchers are hopeful that this study will assist in the analysis and management of other types of on-demand economy and other emerging urban mobility services such as car sharing and ridesharing.

Student participation is expected at all levels, with the grant helping to create interactive, virtual environments for in-class use. Additionally, materials related to an on-demand economy and innovative urban mobility services will be developed to enhance existing courses.

About the Principal Investigators

Dr. Yafeng Yin is an Associate Professor and the Director of Transportation Research Center at the Engineering School of Sustainable Infrastructure and Environment in University of Florida. He works in the areas of analysis, modeling, design and optimization of transportation systems towards achieving sustainability and economic efficiency, and has published over 70 refereed papers in leading academic journals. Dr. Yin earned his Ph.D. from the University of Tokyo, Japan in 2002, his master of engineering and bachelor of engineering degrees from Tsinghua University Beijing, China in 1996 and 1994 respectively.


Dr. Steve Slutsky is a Professor and the Graduate Coordinator of the Department of Economics at the University of Florida. His current research is in public economics (tax evasion, optimal taxation and government decentralization), game theory (refinements and bargaining theory), and industrial organization (mixed strategy pricing in search models). Professor Slutsky previously served on the faculty of Cornell University (1972 -80).