“License Plate Lottery”: Why Are People So Keen to Participate in It?

Abstract

Vehicle purchase restriction policies greatly influence people’s behavior, especially their participation in the license plate lottery. This paper focuses on the socioeconomic characteristics and psychological factors of citizens participating in the license plate lottery, which can serve as a reference for policy makers aiming to guide rational participation in the lottery. A Multi-Index and Multi-Causal model were established based on social psychology, combined with the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB). Perceived car necessity, perceived behavioral control, car ownership attitude and subjective norms were regarded as four latent psychological variables. Furthermore, the behaviors of license plate lottery participants in cities with purchase restriction policies were statistically analyzed from the perspectives of personal socioeconomic characteristics and psychological factors. The empirical research results reveal that the socioeconomic attributes of citizens have different degrees of influence on latent variables. Perceived car necessity is observed to have a significant direct impact on a citizen’s behavioral intention to participate in the lottery, which is also affected by perceived behavioral control. Car ownership attitude has the strongest impact on citizen behavior towards participating in the license plate lottery, followed by subjective norms, perceived behavioral control, and perceived car necessity. More specifically, the economic benefit associated with perceived behavioral control is identified as the critical factor in further promoting participation in the license plate lottery.

Social Psychology and the Willingness of Different Citizens to Participate in a Car Lottery

“…In Beijing, the number of people who are participating in the motor vehicle lottery is large. Similarly, the number of citizens who have motor vehicles in their families but still participate in the lottery is large, further increasing the difficulty of obtaining a license plate quota for citizens who do not have cars in their families but have a high demand for cars [7]. car needs in the lottery can make it difficult for people with car needs to win the quota in time.…”