Racial Bias During “Black Lives Matter” : How Social Movement Reshapes Airbnb Host Performance

Racial bias is an important issue and has been observed on sharing economy (SE) platforms. However, few studies examine how racial bias changes during large-scale social movement. We examine this issue with five million Airbnb host records in the Unites States during the Black Lives Matter (BLM), one of the largest social movements since the Civil Rights era. We find that racial bias evolves during the BLM movement, affecting host performance differentially. Critically, host performance varies by supply-side contextual heterogeneity, such as racial composition in neighborhoods. The results highlight the dynamic process of racial bias in the sharing economy, which continues to be reshaped by social movement such as the BLM as well as local environment. The paper contributes to an understanding of racial bias as a dynamic process, especially during race-related social movement that spills over to online platforms and affects user behavior.