Even though social preferences affect nearly every facet of life, there exist many open questions on the economics of social preferences in markets. We leverage a unique opportunity to generate a large data set to inform the who’s, what’s, where’s, and when’s of social preferences through the lens of a nationwide tipping field experiment on the Uber platform. Our field experiment generates data from more than 40 million trips, allowing an exploration of social preferences in the ride sharing market using big data. Combining experimental and natural variation in the data, we are able to establish tipping facts as well as provide insights into the underlying motives for tipping. Interestingly, even though tips are made privately, and without external social benefits or pressure, more than 15% of trips are tipped. Yet, nearly 60% of people never tip, and only 1% of people always tip. Overall, the demand-side explains much more of the observed tipping variation than the supply-side.

More on this topic

BFI Working Paper·Jun 7, 2025

The Local Root of Wage Inequality

Hugo Lhuillier
Topics: Employment & Wages
BFI Working Paper·Jun 5, 2025

Firm Premia and Match Effects in Pay vs. Amenities

Anders Humlum, Mette Rasmussen, and Evan K. Rose
Topics: Employment & Wages
BFI Working Paper·May 19, 2025

Remote Work, Employee Mix, and Performance

Cevat Giray Aksoy, Nicholas Bloom, Steven Davis, Victoria Marino, and Cem Özgüzel
Topics: Employment & Wages