Data and Code for: Can Information Reduce Ethnic Discrimination? Evidence from Airbnb

We use data from Airbnb to identify the mechanisms underlying discrimination against ethnic-minority hosts. Within the same neighbourhood, hosts from minority groups charge 3.2% less for comparable listings. Since ratings provide guests with increasingly rich information about a listing's quality, we can measure the contribution of statistical discrimination, building upon Altonji and Pierret (2001). We find that statistical discrimination can account for the whole ethnic price gap: ethnic gaps would disappear if all unobservables were revealed. Also, three quarters (2.5 points) of the initial ethnic gap can be attributed to inaccurate beliefs by potential guests about hosts' average group quality.