Reducing racial bias in the sharing economy

Issue 10: Reducing racism in the sharing economy; talking to your kids about race; the role of racism in health; and the new 'Power of Us' website

As the pandemic begins to recede in many places and people make summer travel plans, many are turning to vacation rental companies. In 2019, more than 250 million people booked Airbnb apartments around the the world and business is likely to be brisk due to the pent up desire to travel and visit with family and friends.

Unfortunately, business won’t boom as much for everyone. There is growing evidence of rampant racial discrimination on rental and other “gig economy” platforms.

Field experiments have found, for example, that guests with African American-sounding names are less likely to be accepted by Airbnb hosts. Indeed, some hosts are willing to incur significant costs in order to discriminate: Those who reject a guest because of their race turn down between $65 and $100 of revenue. Another study found that apartments belonging to Black Airbnb hosts were priced approximately 10% lower than similar listings by White or Asian hosts.

In a recent series of experiments, Jay teamed up wit…