Code for: The Welfare Effects of Peer Entry: The Case of Airbnb and the Accommodation Industry

Principal Investigator(s): View help for Principal Investigator(s) Chiara Farronato, Harvard Business School; Andrey Fradkin, Boston University

Version: View help for Version V1

Name	File Type	Size	Last Modified
0a.clean_instruments.do	text/plain	27.4 KB	01/25/2022 08:55:AM
0b.create_master_data_group.do	text/plain	10.2 KB	01/25/2022 07:22:AM
1.replicate_descriptives.R	text/x-rsrc	20 KB	11/20/2021 05:06:AM
2a.replicate_create_instruments.R	text/x-rsrc	2.2 KB	11/20/2021 05:06:AM
2b.replicate_final_jan_pyblp_newinst_sep.py	text/x-python	27.1 KB	11/20/2021 05:06:AM
3a.replicate_post_demand_estimation.R	text/x-rsrc	6.3 KB	11/20/2021 05:06:AM
3b.replicate_hotel_supply.R	text/x-rsrc	8.3 KB	11/20/2021 05:06:AM
3c.replicate_airbnb_supply.R	text/x-rsrc	4 KB	11/20/2021 05:06:AM
3d.replicate_prep_counterfactuals.R	text/x-rsrc	3.8 KB	11/20/2021 05:06:AM
4a.replicate_counterfactuals.m	text/x-objcsrc	4.3 KB	11/20/2021 05:07:AM

Project Citation:

Farronato, Chiara, and Fradkin, Andrey. Code for: The Welfare Effects of Peer Entry: The Case of Airbnb and the Accommodation Industry. Nashville, TN: American Economic Association [publisher], 2022. Ann Arbor, MI: Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research [distributor], 2022-05-25. https://doi.org/10.3886/E154841V1

Project Description

Summary: This repository contains the code and data description for the paper "The Welfare Effects of Peer Entry: The Case of Airbnb and the Accommodation Industry". Some data is not available because it was obtained via proprietary relationships with companies.

Abstract:
We study the welfare effects of enabling peer supply through Airbnb in the accommodation industry. We present a model of competition between flexible and dedicated sellers - peer hosts and hotels - who provide differentiated products. We estimate this model using data from major US cities and quantify the welfare effects of Airbnb on travelers, hosts, and hotels. The welfare gains are concentrated in locations (New York) and times (New Year’s) when hotels are capacity constrained. This occurs because peer hosts are responsive to market conditions, expand supply as hotels fill up, and keep hotel prices down as a result

Scope of Project

Subject Terms: Airbnb; Digital Platforms; Industrial organization

JEL Classification:
      D40 Market Structure, Pricing, and Design: General
      L10 Market Structure, Firm Strategy, and Market Performance: General
      L86 Information and Internet Services; Computer Software

Geographic Coverage: United states

Time Period(s): 1/1/2011 – 12/31/2015

Collection Date(s): 1/1/2015 – 1/1/2021

Universe: Guests to Airbnb listings in large US cities and Airbnb hosts in large US cities. Hotels in large US cities.

Data Type(s): program source code

Methodology

Data Source: There are several data sources:
- Proprietary Airbnb data.
- Purchased data from Smith Travel Research.
- Data for Sabre Travel Solutions.
- The American Community Survey.
- WRLURI and Saiz measures of housing markets.
- Google Trends data for search to hotels in the United States.

Unit(s) of Observation: City, accommodation type, date

Related Publications

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Published Versions

V1 [2022-05-25]

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Dublin Core

DDI 2.5

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