RESEARCH ON THE ECONOMIC ADVANTAGE OF CAR SHARING The research objective is to enable an analysis of the economic advantage of car sharing vis-à-vis using an individual car on the basis of the use that is made of cars (e.g. length and frequency of movements). The research creates a model that enables comparing the cost of an individual car and a car sharing car. Therefore the model enables determining the real costs of possession and use of an individual car, the perceived connected costs and also highlighting the social-psychological factors that affect individual decision-making processes. The intermediate objectives were the following: ✓ classification of types of cars owned by the motorised population on the basis of statistical data on the Italian car fleet; ✓ stratification of a significant sample of the Italian motorised population with an enquiry conducted with CATI methodology (Computer Assisted Telephone Interviewing); ✓ identification of real and perceived costs of owning and using an individual car; ✓ quantification of real and perceived costs of owning and using an individual car; ✓ creation of a modelling instrument that enables comparing the costs of car sharing and the real costs of having a private car and also between the costs of car sharing and perceived costs of a private car; ✓ identification of economic, social and psychological variables that affect the choice of individual car/car sharing; ✓ determining the decision-making process that ties the individual to the use of an individual car or car sharing.