The paper "Racial Discrimination in the Sharing Economy: Evidence from a Field Experiment" by Benjamin G. Edelman, Michael Luca, and Daniel Svirsky examines racial discrimination in the Airbnb platform. The authors conducted a field experiment where they created guest accounts with distinctively African-American and White names and inquired about availability on Airbnb listings in five cities. They found that applications from guests with African-American names were 16% less likely to be accepted compared to those with White names. Discrimination was observed among landlords of all sizes, including small and large hosts, and was most pronounced among hosts who had never had an African-American guest. The study also found that discrimination persisted across different types of hosts and listings, and that the cost of discriminating for hosts was between $65 and $100 in lost revenue. The authors suggest that Airbnb's design choices, such as allowing hosts to see guest names and photos, facilitate discrimination and highlight the need for platform designers to address this issue.The paper "Racial Discrimination in the Sharing Economy: Evidence from a Field Experiment" by Benjamin G. Edelman, Michael Luca, and Daniel Svirsky examines racial discrimination in the Airbnb platform. The authors conducted a field experiment where they created guest accounts with distinctively African-American and White names and inquired about availability on Airbnb listings in five cities. They found that applications from guests with African-American names were 16% less likely to be accepted compared to those with White names. Discrimination was observed among landlords of all sizes, including small and large hosts, and was most pronounced among hosts who had never had an African-American guest. The study also found that discrimination persisted across different types of hosts and listings, and that the cost of discriminating for hosts was between $65 and $100 in lost revenue. The authors suggest that Airbnb's design choices, such as allowing hosts to see guest names and photos, facilitate discrimination and highlight the need for platform designers to address this issue.