The influence of sunlight on taxi driver productivity

We assess the influence of hourly variation in sunlight on the productivity of New York City cab drivers. The cab-driver-ride sample examined here has a lower “assortative match” between tasks and employee experience and abilities, and quasi-random matching between cab riders and cab drivers significantly lowers unobserved selection based on customer needs and driver ability. We draw on a sample of 9.76 million cab-driver-rides. With increasing...