Pizza Principle

{{short description|Comparison between the cost of a slice of pizza and a subway ride in New York City}}

{{about|the relative costs of pizza and transit fares|the drug trial|Pizza Connection Trial}}

The Pizza Principle, or the Pizza-Subway Connection, in New York City, is a humorous but generally historically accurate "economic law" proposed by native New Yorker Eric M. Bram.{{cite news |first=Glenn |last=Collins |url=https://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=FA0C1EF9395F12728DDDA10994DE405B8084F1D3 |title=Metropolitan Diary |work=The New York Times |date=June 18, 1980 |page=C2}} He noted, as reported by The New York Times in 1980, that from the early 1960s "the price of a slice of pizza has matched, with uncanny precision, the cost of a New York subway ride."

File:Pizza Pasta Cafe, New York City.jpg

{{Use mdy dates|date=April 2016}}

In 1985, the late writer, historian, and film critic George Fasel learned of the correlation and wrote about it in an op-ed for The New York Times.{{cite news |first=George |last=Fasel |title=If You Understand Pizza, You Understand Subway Fares |work=The New York Times |date=December 14, 1985 |page=27}} The term "Pizza Connection" referring to this phenomenon was coined in 2002 by New York Times columnist Clyde Haberman, who commented on the two earlier publications of the theory in the Times, and predicted a rise in subway fare.{{cite news |first=Clyde |last=Haberman |url=https://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9A00E0D81F39F931A25752C0A9649C8B63 |title=Beware The Price Of a Slice |work=The New York Times |date=January 12, 2002}}{{cite news |first=Clyde |last=Haberman |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2002/07/09/nyregion/nyc-as-inevitable-as-pepperoni-higher-fares.html |title=As Inevitable As Pepperoni: Higher Fares |work=The New York Times |date=July 9, 2002}}

In May 2003, The New Yorker magazine proclaimed the validity of the Pizza Connection (now called the pizza principle) in accurately predicting the rise of the subway (and bus) fare to $2.00 the week before.{{cite magazine |first=Nick |last=Paumgarten |url=http://www.newyorker.com/archive/2003/05/19/030519ta_talk_paumgarten |title=Two Bucks |magazine=The New Yorker |date=May 19, 2003}} They also quoted Mr. Bram (by then a patent attorneyUnited States Patent and Trademark Office [https://oedci.uspto.gov/OEDCI/practitionerDetails?regisNum=37285 Reg. No. 37,285]) as warning that since the New York City Transit Authority had announced the discontinuation of the subway token itself{{cite news |first=Richard |last=Pérez-Peña |url=https://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9A02EED61E3EF936A25750C0A9659C8B63 |title=Farewell, Subway Token |work=The New York Times |date=March 15, 2003}} in favor of the variable-fare cost MetroCard (also used on the buses at that point), the direct correlation between the cost of an off-the-street slice of cheese pizza and the cost of a subway token might not continue to hold.

In 2005,{{cite news |first=Clyde |last=Haberman |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2005/06/21/nyregion/21nyc.html |title=Digging Deep for a Slice of the Pie |work=The New York Times |date=June 21, 2005}} and again in 2007,{{cite news |first=Clyde |last=Haberman |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/27/nyregion/27nyc.html |title=Will Subway Fares Rise? Check at Your Pizza Place |work=The New York Times |date=July 27, 2007}} Haberman noted the price of a slice was again rising, and, citing the Pizza Connection, worried that the subway/bus fare might soon rise again. The fare did indeed rise to $2.25 in June 2009, and again in 2013 to $2.50.{{cite news |first=Nate |last=Freeman |url=http://www.observer.com/2010/real-estate/subway-fare-upped-250-will-pizza-slice-prices-follow-suit |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101013070256/http://www.observer.com/2010/real-estate/subway-fare-upped-250-will-pizza-slice-prices-follow-suit |archive-date=October 13, 2010 |title=With Subway Fare Upped to $2.50, Will Pizza Slice Prices Follow Suit? |work=The New York Observer |date=October 7, 2010}} In 2014, Jared Lander, a professional statistician and adjunct professor at Columbia University, conducted a study of pizza slice prices within New York City and concluded that the Pizza Principle still held true.{{cite web |first=Jared |last=Lander |url=http://www.jaredlander.com/2014/05/average-cost-of-a-new-york-slice-in-2014/ |title=Average Cost of a New York Slice in 2014 |website=Jared Lander |date=May 23, 2014}} Other New York City news organizations occasionally confirm the ability of the Pizza Principle to predict increases in the cost of a single-ride subway/bus fare in the city.{{cite web |first=Garth |last=Johnston |url=http://gothamist.com/2012/06/28/the_pizza_principle_is_alive_and_we.php |title=The Pizza Principle Is Alive And Well! |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141018094125/http://gothamist.com/2012/06/28/the_pizza_principle_is_alive_and_we.php |archive-date=October 18, 2014 |work=Gothamist |date=June 28, 2012}}{{cite web |first=Chris |last=Weller |url=http://www.techinsider.io/the-story-of-the-pizza-principle-2015-10 |title=Pizza is the key to this strange economic principle |website=Tech Insider |date=October 25, 2015}}{{cite web |first=Alex |last=Swerdloff |url=https://www.vice.com/en/article/what-the-price-of-a-slice-of-pizza-can-tell-you-about-new-york/ |title=What the Price of a Slice of Pizza Can Tell You About New York |work=Munchies |date=March 14, 2016}}{{cite news |first=Kate |last=Holland |url=https://www.nyunews.com/2017/05/01/the-economics-of-dollar-slice-the-pizza-principle/ |title=The Economics of the Dollar Slice: The Pizza Principle |work=Washington Square News |date=May 1, 2017}} In 2019, The Wall Street Journal noted that, due to a combination of a decrease in the fare bonus for a subway ride rather than an increase in the overall fare ($2.75 at the time) and the increased variability of the cost of pizza in New York City, the Pizza Principle may no longer be accurate.{{Cite news|url=https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-metrocard-derailed-the-price-of-a-sliceat-least-thats-one-theory-11551546001|title=The MetroCard Derailed the Price of a Slice—at Least That's One Theory|last=Passy|first=Charles|date=2019-03-02|work=Wall Street Journal|access-date=2019-04-26|language=en-US|issn=0099-9660}} Inflation after the COVID-19 pandemic, plus a decision by the MTA to freeze fares, led to some evidence of a divergence in 2022.{{cite news |last=Pollard |first=Amelia |title=Pizza Prices Surpass Subway Fares, Upending Decades of NYC Economics |url=https://www.bloomberg.com/graphics/2022-pizza-principle-transit-fare-price/?srnd=citylab |access-date=6 April 2022 |work=Bloomberg News |date=1 April 2022}}

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