The Uncertain Hand

Book excerpt: This book traces the sometimes bizarre and comical history of taxi regulations in Hong Kong. It compares the history of regulation changes to developments in the taxi business, including the rise and fall of the illegal taxi trade, the patterns of taxi accidents, malpractice complaints, and taxi license prices. The strange history of the market for taxi licenses shows that these regulations have been inconsistent, erratic and incomprehensible to people risking their money in the public auctions for licenses. In essence, this is an analysis of how people in the taxi business have studied the process of governmental regulation. The dispersion and volatility of taxi license auction prices, reveal the results of these studies and say more about their conclusions than any library of academic works will ever do.