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

二、主讲人：孙美萍，美国哥伦比亚大学经济学博士生（预计2017年毕业）。本科毕业于美国伯利亚学院，获得哥伦比亚大学经济学硕士学位。主要研究方向为应用微观经济学、公共经济学。其研究成果曾在AEA annual meeting、NBER Summer Institute 等国际顶尖会议报告。她还曾在Columbia University、Drew University、Simmons College授课。

三、时间：2016年12月28日（周三），13:15-14:00

四、地点：主楼910会议室

五、主持人：张莉妮，澳门威斯人游戏网站官网讲师

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.