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THE IMPACT OF AIRBNB ON THE RESIDENTIAL HOUSING MARKET BEFORE COVID-19: ESTIMATES FROM NEW YORK CITY

How was Airbnb affecting housing markets before the COVID-19 pandemic? In this talk, Sophie Calder-Wang, a former Meyer Fellow and Assistant Professor at The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, will discuss her research focused on the impacts of Airbnb on New York City before the pandemic hit. Using Airbnb data and a stylized model of the city’s housing market, she examined the overall Airbnb costs to the city’s renters and found that the increased rent burden fell most heavily on high-income, educated, white renters. She will also discuss how a nuanced characterization of the winners and losers in the sharing economy can provide a framework for understanding the consequences of regulating Airbnb and similar technological innovations.