IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/aea/aecrev/v115y2025i2p660-89.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The Benefits of Revealing Race: Evidence from Minority-Owned Local Businesses

Author

Listed:
  • Abhay Aneja
  • Michael Luca
  • Oren Reshef

Abstract

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.

Suggested Citation

  • Abhay Aneja & Michael Luca & Oren Reshef, 2025. "The Benefits of Revealing Race: Evidence from Minority-Owned Local Businesses," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 115(2), pages 660-689, February.
    • Handle: RePEc:aea:aecrev:v:115:y:2025:i:2:p:660-89
    DOI: 10.1257/aer.20230075
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.aeaweb.org/doi/10.1257/aer.20230075
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://doi.org/10.3886/E209318V1
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.aeaweb.org/doi/10.1257/aer.20230075.appx
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.aeaweb.org/doi/10.1257/aer.20230075.ds
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to AEA members and institutional subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1257/aer.20230075?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • D22 - Microeconomics - - Production and Organizations - - - Firm Behavior: Empirical Analysis
    • J15 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Economics of Minorities, Races, Indigenous Peoples, and Immigrants; Non-labor Discrimination
    • L25 - Industrial Organization - - Firm Objectives, Organization, and Behavior - - - Firm Performance
    • L83 - Industrial Organization - - Industry Studies: Services - - - Sports; Gambling; Restaurants; Recreation; Tourism
    • L86 - Industrial Organization - - Industry Studies: Services - - - Information and Internet Services; Computer Software

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:aea:aecrev:v:115:y:2025:i:2:p:660-89. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Michael P. Albert (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/aeaaaea.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.