Abstract: The emergence of on-demand ride-sharing platforms has greatly influenced the way people travel, and the question of how to balance the platform supply is an interesting one. In this paper, the impact of three different strategies on the platform performance, namely temporary agent, long-term agent and hybrid agent is explored. The study shows that the temporary agent strategy is the optimal strategy for the platform when consumer acceptance of public transportation is small. When consumer acceptance of public transportation is large, the mixed agent strategy is optimal if the temporary drivers are much more sensitive to subsidies than to permanent drivers’ wages. Otherwise the long-term agent strategy is optimal. In addition, when the platform only employs long-term drivers, the employment of temporary drivers cannot improve the platform service level. When only temporary drivers are employed, the employment of long-term drivers can not only improve the platform service level, but also improve the platform profit to a certain extent.

Key words: on-demand ride-sharing platforms, temporary agent, long-term agent, mixed agent

摘要： 网约车平台的出现极大影响消费者出行方式，如何平衡平台供给成为了一个有趣的研究问题。旨在探讨网约车平台临时代理、长期代理和混合代理3种不同方式对平台自身运营效率以及社会福利的影响。研究表明：当消费者对公共交通接受度较低时，临时代理方式是平台的最优方式；当消费者对公共交通的接受度较高时，若临时代理司机对补贴的敏感度远远大于对长期代理司机工资的敏感度，则混合代理方式最优，否则长期代理方式最优。此外，平台仅雇用长期司机时，另外雇用临时司机不能提高平台服务水平，而仅雇用临时司机时，另外雇用长期司机在一定程度上不仅能提高平台服务水平，而且能提高平台利润。

关键词: 网约车平台, 临时代理, 长期代理, 混合代理