Digital discrimination: Airbnb Amsterdam
Summary
In this thesis an answer is sought to be given on the question if there is any influence of the ethnicity of the host on the number of bookings and prices used. This resulted in the exact research question: To what extent is there any influence of the ethnicity and reputation of the hosts of Airbnb Amsterdam on the amount of bookings and price of listings? To answer this research question, data of the Inside Airbnb Project has been used. After studying the existing literature and describing the different mechanisms and theories, multiple regression analysis have been applied. This resulted in expected and unexpected outcomes. Although, there is no effect of ethnicity on bookings, a negative significant effect of ethnicity on prices was one of the results. This means that non-western hosts ask lower prices than western hosts for their listings. The reputation system of Airbnb does not significantly influence this effect. Concluding, there is evidence for ethnic discrimination taking place at Airbnb listings in Amsterdam. However, due to limitations of the data used, further research is necessary to understand the functioning of these mechanisms at Airbnb.