  Dynamic pricing schemes are increasingly employed across industries to
maintain a self-organized balance of demand and supply. However, throughout
complex dynamical systems, unintended collective states exist that may
compromise their function. Here we reveal how dynamic pricing may induce
demand-supply imbalances instead of preventing them. Combining game theory and
time series analysis of dynamic pricing data from on-demand ride-hailing
services, we explain this apparent contradiction. We derive a phase diagram
demonstrating how and under which conditions dynamic pricing incentivizes
collective action of ride-hailing drivers to induce anomalous supply shortages.
By disentangling different timescales in price time series of ride-hailing
services at 137 locations across the globe, we identify characteristic patterns
in the price dynamics reflecting these anomalous supply shortages. Our results
provide systemic insights for the regulation of dynamic pricing, in particular
in publicly accessible mobility systems, by unraveling under which conditions
dynamic pricing schemes promote anomalous supply shortages.
