Seminar

Past

Platform as a Rule Maker: Evidence from Airbnb's Cancellation Policies

  • Date19 October 2021
  • Time 14h00 - 15h00
  • Room Zoom Meeting

Abstract

Digital platforms are not only match-making intermediaries but also establish internal rules that govern all users in their ecosystems. To better understand the governing role of platforms, we study two Airbnb pro-guest rules that pertain to guest and host cancellations, using data on Airbnb and VRBO listings in 10 US cities. We demonstrate that such pro-guest rules can drive demand and supply to and from the platform, as a function of the local platform competition between Airbnb and VRBO. Our results suggest that platform competition sometimes dampens a platform wide pro-guest rule and sometimes reinforces it, often with heterogeneous effects on different hosts. This implies that platform competition does not necessarily mitigate a platform's incentive to treat the two sides asymmetrically, and any public policy in platform competition must consider its implication on all sides.

Related document(s)

Other seminars

Past

Decoding Rankings: Consumer Search, Price Competition, and Platform Regulation

  • Seminar

  • Economics of Platforms Seminar

  • Date 1 October 2026

  • Place Zoom

  • Speaker or organiser Hanlin Zhao

Details

Past

Impressing the Algorithm

  • Seminar

  • Economics of Platforms Seminar

  • Date 3 September 2026

  • Place Online

  • Speaker or organiser Sandro Shelegia (University of Pompeu Fabra, Barcelona)

Details

Past

The Impact of Google AI Overviews on Publisher Traffic and User Experience: Evidence from a Field Experiment

  • Seminar

  • Economics of Platforms Seminar

  • Date 2 July 2026

  • Place Online

  • Speaker or organiser Saharsh Agarwal (Indian School of Business)

Details