(Forthcoming Article) - Designing public transport networks involves trade-offs between coverage, service frequency, and direct service. We use the expansion of the bus system in Jakarta, Indonesia, to study these trade-offs. We analyze how new direct connections, changes in bus travel time, and wait time reductions affect bus ridership and aggregate flows, and estimate a transit network demand model by matching the route launch events. Commuters in Jakarta are 2-3 times more sensitive to wait time than bus time, and inattentive to long routes. We develop a flexible framework to characterize optimal networks. A less concentrated network would increase ridership and commuter welfare.

Join LACEA LAMES 2026 in Lima, Peru, November 12-14. Submit abstracts. Leading economists, keynote speakers, and cutting-edge research.

This week we featured research on jobs in Vietnam, pre-colonial Africa, Colombia coffee, Myanmar's mining ban and more!

Full-text search across 15,000+ papers from top economics journals and NBER working papers. Track how empirical methods have evolved over time.

This Quick Start guide aims to help econ lovers easily join Bluesky’s growing economics community. The Bluesky User FAQ covers generic basics, like how to start an account. This guide orients you to e...

The first in this year's series of posts by PhD students on the job market looks at how non-agricultural firms' sales in Africa and South Asia are affected by weather shocks and why.