Investigating the endogenous social interaction effects on the choice of owning a bicycle by the university students in Toronto

Abstract

The paper employed a latent segmentation discrete choice model with endogenous social interaction effects to investigate the role of gender and age-cohort-specific peer influences on the choice of owning a bicycle by university students in Toronto. The empirical investigation used a dataset collected through a survey of students on seven campuses of four universities in Toronto. Two latent segments of bicycle owners are identified: peer-conformable and peer-indifferent. The empirical model proves that the influence of social interactions is real and very strong on bicycle ownership choices. The influence of fellow female students’ choices on an individual female student is stronger than the influence of the choices of fellow male students on an individual male student in Toronto. Moreover, considerable heterogeneity exists in such effects. Policy initiatives that target female students of specific age groups will have great potential in influencing bicycle ownership.