TY - JOUR
T1 - The Benefits of Revealing Race
T2 - Evidence from Minority-Owned Local Businesses
AU - Aneja, Abhay
AU - Luca, Michael
AU - Reshef, Oren
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2025 American Economic Association. All rights reserved.
PY - 2025/2
Y1 - 2025/2
N2 - Is there latent demand to support Black-owned businesses? We explore this question by analyzing a new feature that made it easier to identify Black-owned restaurants on an online platform. We find that labeling restaurants as minority-owned increased customer engagement and firm performance, as measured by online traffic, calls, orders, and in-person visits. These effects were more pronounced in areas characterized by greater support for the Democratic Party and lower implicit bias against racial minorities. Labeled restaurants also see an increase in the fraction of reviews that are written by White customers.
AB - Is there latent demand to support Black-owned businesses? We explore this question by analyzing a new feature that made it easier to identify Black-owned restaurants on an online platform. We find that labeling restaurants as minority-owned increased customer engagement and firm performance, as measured by online traffic, calls, orders, and in-person visits. These effects were more pronounced in areas characterized by greater support for the Democratic Party and lower implicit bias against racial minorities. Labeled restaurants also see an increase in the fraction of reviews that are written by White customers.
UR - https://www.scopus.com/pages/publications/86000743929
U2 - 10.1257/aer.20230075
DO - 10.1257/aer.20230075
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:86000743929
SN - 0002-8282
VL - 115
SP - 660
EP - 689
JO - American Economic Review
JF - American Economic Review
IS - 2
ER -