How Uber affects public transit ridership is a relevant policy question facing cities worldwide. Theoretically, Uber's effect on transit is ambiguous: while Uber is an alternative mode of travel, it can also increase the reach and flexibility of transit's fixed-route, fixed-schedule service. We use a difference-indifferences design to measure the effect of Uber on public transit ridership. The design exploits variation across U.S. metropolitan areas in both the intensity of Uber penetration (as measured using data from Google Trends) and the timing of Uber entry. We find that Uber is a complement for the average transit agency. This average effect masks considerable heterogeneity, with Uber being more of a complement in larger cities and for smaller transit agencies. Comparing the effect across modes, we find that Uber's impact on bus ridership follows the same pattern as for total ridership, though for rail ridership, it is a complement for larger agencies.

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We examine the weight that the USA and other countries place on different types of movie content when assigning movies a mature rating. We use data on the international movie ratings for over 1,000 movies reviewed by either Screen It or Kids in Mind, two companies that provide measures of different types of movie content. Among English-speaking countries, the United States is unique in that, it places the most weight on profanity but the least weight on violence. Across all countries, the USA and Asian countries place the largest weight on sex, while Scandinavian countries place the least weight on sex but the largest weight on violence. The approach the USA takes toward assigning mature ratings is puzzling since, of the three types of content, violence has the strongest body of evidence to document harm to children.

In this article, we examine the effect, on players, of a change in the technology for scoring points in the NBA, the introduction of the three-point line. While a naive prediction about the impact of this change suggests that it would disproportionately raise the productivity and value of guards who are more likely to shoot the ball from behind the three-point line, we show in a simple model that the strategic response of the defense leads the three-point line to increase the relative productivity of players who are more likely to shoot closer to the basket. We provide evidence that centers and forwards experienced increases in relative productivity with the introduction of the three-point line. Finally, we present evidence that the labor market in the NBA adjusted by increasing the demand for height in the NBA draft. Our results highlight the potential for strategic adjustments to affect the bias of technological change.