I guess this isn't true anymore then: http://www.observer.com/2010/10/with-subwa...

Someone · on March 31, 2012

I cannot find good data on it, but on what I read on Wikipedia, I doubt the correlation is that strong. Wikipedia states:

"In 2005,[8] and again in 2007,[9] Haberman noted the price of a slice was again rising, and, citing the Pizza Connection, worried that the subway fare might soon rise again. The fare did indeed rise to $2.25 in June 2009, and again in 2011 to $2.50.[10]"

So, the subway prize increase that "matched" a 2005 pizza slice price increase was in June 2009?

I bet you can find similar correlations between many pairs of products. If you pick a simple model that states the price of an item is "x liters of oil and y hours of unskilled labour", products with the same y/x ratio will correlate highly in price. Pizza slices and subways fares might be such a pair, with four years of inflation correcting for the difference in absolute values.

on March 31, 2012

[deleted]

ComputerGuru · on March 31, 2012

You're completely missing the point, but that's not your fault. There's a little known "phenomenon" (that was previously posted here on HN) about the almost matching prices of a pizza slice and the price of a subway ticket: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_New_York_Pizza_Connection

"He noted in 1980 that from the early 1960s the price of a slice of pizza "matched, with uncanny precision, the cost of a New York City Subway ride."[1]"

And that phenomenon is (was?) ongoing even now.

jrockway · on March 31, 2012

Nice. My theory is that the color of the sauce on pizza in Manhattan is directly correlated with the color of subway services that run on the IRT 7th Avenue line. It's been true even longer than the price thing you cite.

demallien · on March 31, 2012

The difference in the two situations of course being the the colour of pizza sauce and subway services is constant, whereas the price of the ticket and the pizza slice are both variable over time.

It suggests that both values are tied to the same index somewhere - for example maybe both the government and pizza places have tied their pricing to be 0.1% of the average monthly wage. Or maybe it's tied to the price of crude oil. Figuring out the common index may give valuable insight into government services pricing and pizza making...