IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/jhouse/v46y2019ics1051137718301815.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The impact of host race and gender on prices on Airbnb

Author

Listed:
  • Marchenko, Anya

Abstract

This study investigates the impact of host race and gender on Airbnb property prices. I use an existing dataset of Airbnb listings and visually inspect 70,000 host profile pictures to code host demographics. I estimate that Asian hosts earn 4–5%, and Black male hosts 3%, less than White males for the same type of property. However, controlling for more observables weakens the effects, requiring a cautious interpretation of these point estimates. I use two proxies for the number of bookings a listing has to estimate whether a demand or supply shift is responsible for the price disparity. I find that despite the lower prices they charge for listings, minority hosts face lower demand. These findings are consistent with, but not conclusive of, the presence of discrimination.

Suggested Citation

  • Marchenko, Anya, 2019. "The impact of host race and gender on prices on Airbnb," Journal of Housing Economics, Elsevier, vol. 46(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:jhouse:v:46:y:2019:i:c:s1051137718301815
    DOI: 10.1016/j.jhe.2019.101635
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1051137718301815
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.jhe.2019.101635?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Joseph G. Altonji & Todd E. Elder & Christopher R. Taber, 2005. "Selection on Observed and Unobserved Variables: Assessing the Effectiveness of Catholic Schools," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 113(1), pages 151-184, February.
    2. Hanson, Andrew & Hawley, Zackary, 2011. "Do landlords discriminate in the rental housing market? Evidence from an internet field experiment in US cities," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 70(2-3), pages 99-114, September.
    3. Gutiérrez, Javier & García-Palomares, Juan Carlos & Romanillos, Gustavo & Salas-Olmedo, María Henar, 2017. "The eruption of Airbnb in tourist cities: Comparing spatial patterns of hotels and peer-to-peer accommodation in Barcelona," Tourism Management, Elsevier, vol. 62(C), pages 278-291.
    4. Devin G. Pope & Justin R. Sydnor, 2011. "What’s in a Picture?: Evidence of Discrimination from Prosper.com," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 46(1), pages 53-92.
    5. Myers, Caitlin Knowles, 2004. "Discrimination and neighborhood effects: understanding racial differentials in US housing prices," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 56(2), pages 279-302, September.
    6. Patrick Mason, 1997. "Race, culture, and skill: Interracial wage differences among African Americans, Latinos, and whites," The Review of Black Political Economy, Springer;National Economic Association, vol. 25(3), pages 5-39, March.
    7. John S. Heywood & Daniel Parent, 2012. "Performance Pay and the White-Black Wage Gap," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 30(2), pages 249-290.
    8. Yinger, John, 1986. "Measuring Racial Discrimination with Fair Housing Audits: Caught in the Act," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 76(5), pages 881-893, December.
    9. Glenn Firebaugh & Chad R. Farrell, 2016. "Still Large, but Narrowing: The Sizable Decline in Racial Neighborhood Inequality in Metropolitan America, 1980–2010," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 53(1), pages 139-164, February.
    10. Marianne Bertrand & Sendhil Mullainathan, 2004. "Are Emily and Greg More Employable Than Lakisha and Jamal? A Field Experiment on Labor Market Discrimination," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 94(4), pages 991-1013, September.
    11. Benjamin Edelman & Micahel Luca, 2014. "Digital Discrimination: The Case of Airbnb.com," Harvard Business School Working Papers 14-054, Harvard Business School.
    12. Bayer, Patrick & Casey, Marcus & Ferreira, Fernando & McMillan, Robert, 2017. "Racial and ethnic price differentials in the housing market," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 102(C), pages 91-105.
    13. Maury Gittleman & Edward N. Wolff, 2004. "Racial Differences in Patterns of Wealth Accumulation," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 39(1).
    14. Kakar, Venoo & Voelz, Joel & Wu, Julia & Franco, Julisa, 2018. "The Visible Host: Does race guide Airbnb rental rates in San Francisco?," Journal of Housing Economics, Elsevier, vol. 40(C), pages 25-40.
    15. Mason, Patrick L., 1997. "Race, culture, and skill: interracial wage differentials among African Americans, Latinos, and whites," MPRA Paper 11329, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    16. Benjamin Edelman & Michael Luca & Dan Svirsky, 2017. "Racial Discrimination in the Sharing Economy: Evidence from a Field Experiment," American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, American Economic Association, vol. 9(2), pages 1-22, April.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Makovi, Michael, 2022. "Is There Discrimination in Property Taxation? Evidence from Atlanta, Georgia, 2010-2016," Journal of Housing Economics, Elsevier, vol. 56(C).
    2. Boto-García, David & Balado-Naves, Roberto & Mayor, Matías & Baños-Pino, José Francisco, 2023. "Consumers' demand for operational licencing: evidence from Airbnb in Paris," Annals of Tourism Research, Elsevier, vol. 100(C).
    3. Michael Bar & Nishanlang Khonglah, 2022. "Racial differences in access to mortgage lending: comparison across major institutions," SN Business & Economics, Springer, vol. 2(8), pages 1-26, August.
    4. Élisabeth Tovar & Mathieu Bunel, 2023. "Fairness of the First-Come, First-Served rule on the rental housing market: answers from a hypothetical survey experiment," EconomiX Working Papers 2023-31, University of Paris Nanterre, EconomiX.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Makovi, Michael, 2022. "Is There Discrimination in Property Taxation? Evidence from Atlanta, Georgia, 2010-2016," Journal of Housing Economics, Elsevier, vol. 56(C).
    2. Priyanga Gunarathne & Huaxia Rui & Abraham Seidmann, 2022. "Racial Bias in Customer Service: Evidence from Twitter," Information Systems Research, INFORMS, vol. 33(1), pages 43-54, March.
    3. Anthony Lepinteur & Giorgia Menta & Sofie R. Waltl, 2023. "Equal Price for Equal Place? Demand-Driven Racial Discrimination in the Housing Market," LISER Working Paper Series 2023-09, Luxembourg Institute of Socio-Economic Research (LISER).
    4. Andrew Hanson & Zackary Hawley, 2023. "Restricted access: Real estate agent response to client race, ethnicity, gender, and side of market," Real Estate Economics, American Real Estate and Urban Economics Association, vol. 51(4), pages 855-890, July.
    5. Gaddis, S. Michael, 2018. "An Introduction to Audit Studies in the Social Sciences," SocArXiv e5hfc, Center for Open Science.
    6. Hanson, Andrew & Hawley, Zackary & Martin, Hal & Liu, Bo, 2016. "Discrimination in mortgage lending: Evidence from a correspondence experiment," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 92(C), pages 48-65.
    7. Gaddis, S. Michael & DiRago, Nicholas V., 2021. "Audit Studies of Housing in the United States: Established, Emerging, and Future Research," SocArXiv fn4ta, Center for Open Science.
    8. Natalya Bikmetova & Geoffrey K. Turnbull & Velma Zahirovic‐Herbert, 2023. "Ethnicity in housing markets: Buyers, sellers and agents," Real Estate Economics, American Real Estate and Urban Economics Association, vol. 51(1), pages 196-232, January.
    9. Farajallah, Mehdi & Hammond, Robert G. & Pénard, Thierry, 2019. "What drives pricing behavior in Peer-to-Peer markets? Evidence from the carsharing platform BlaBlaCar," Information Economics and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 48(C), pages 15-31.
    10. Wong, Francis & Kermani, Amir, 2022. "Racial Disparities in Housing Returns," VfS Annual Conference 2022 (Basel): Big Data in Economics 264099, Verein für Socialpolitik / German Economic Association.
    11. Murchie, Judson & Pang, Jindong & Schwegman, David J., 2021. "Can information help Lakisha and Jamal find housing? Evidence from a low-cost online experiment of landlords," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 90(C).
    12. Lee, Jungmin & Park, Sangkon, 2019. "Price discrimination by language: Field experimental evidence from a shopping mall," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 63(C), pages 69-98.
    13. Kas, Judith, 2022. "The effect of online reputation systems on intergroup inequality," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics (formerly The Journal of Socio-Economics), Elsevier, vol. 96(C).
    14. Petter Törnberg & Letizia Chiappini, 2020. "Selling black places on Airbnb: Colonial discourse and the marketing of black communities in New York City," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 52(3), pages 553-572, May.
    15. Marianne Bertrand & Esther Duflo, 2016. "Field Experiments on Discrimination," NBER Working Papers 22014, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    16. Hamermesh, Daniel S. & Biddle, Jeff E., 2018. "Taking Time Use Seriously: Income, Wages and Price Discrimination," IZA Discussion Papers 11997, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    17. Carlsson, Magnus & Eriksson, Stefan, 2014. "Discrimination in the rental market for apartments," Journal of Housing Economics, Elsevier, vol. 23(C), pages 41-54.
    18. Flage, Alexandre, 2018. "Ethnic and gender discrimination in the rental housing market: Evidence from a meta-analysis of correspondence tests, 2006–2017," Journal of Housing Economics, Elsevier, vol. 41(C), pages 251-273.
    19. Jaeger, Bastian & Sleegers, Willem W.A. & Evans, Anthony M. & Stel, Mariëlle & van Beest, Ilja, 2019. "The effects of facial attractiveness and trustworthiness in online peer-to-peer markets," Journal of Economic Psychology, Elsevier, vol. 75(PA).
    20. Anja Lambrecht & Catherine Tucker, 2019. "Algorithmic Bias? An Empirical Study of Apparent Gender-Based Discrimination in the Display of STEM Career Ads," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 65(7), pages 2966-2981, July.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:jhouse:v:46:y:2019:i:c:s1051137718301815. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/inca/622881 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.