Ismael Galvez Iniesta (p), José Luis Groizard, Ferrán Portella Carbó

Kristóf Gyódi

The emergence of new digital business models, often called peer-to-peer (P2P) marketplaces, is transforming the hospitality industry. While its implications go beyond the industry, our knowledge of its aggregate impact is limited. This paper examines the effects of the P2P irruption on the local labor markets in Spain between 2016 and 2020. We exploit exogenous regulatory changes in short-term rentals (STRs) across different municipalities and periods to investigate the employment outcomes and job reallocation patterns in response to the P2P technology shock. Our findings reveal a strong and positive effect of P2P activity on local employment. A 10\% increase in P2P overnights leads to an increase in local employment by 8.2 workers and a reduction in unemployment by 7.6 workers. This effect is pronounced across various sectors, including services, construction, and industry, while agriculture experiences an increase in unemployment. Our analysis indicates that the employment gain from P2P STRs varies across municipalities, with smaller non-touristy areas demonstrating the most substantial employment gains. In contrast, areas with intense competition from hotels experience a diminished effect.

Kristóf Gyódi (p), Joanna Mazur

Johannes Ross

Aim: The main goal of this work is to identify the effectiveness of regulatory developments concerning the short-term rental market on the example of Barcelona. While various aspects of short-term rental platforms have already been explored, there is still a research gap regarding the interplay between the regulatory efforts undertaken by cities and empirical analyses which show the results of these regulatory initiatives.
Data and methods: First, our work provides an overview of the main policy changes and enforcement activities. Second, using listing level data on Airbnb, changes in the main attributes of Airbnb supply are examined in the period 2015-2022. We analyse the structure and evolution of the short-term rental market in the context of policy, including the dynamics of different zones that are subject to varying rules. The share of listings complying with regulations is approximated based on the official registry of licenses. Finally, we examine changes of trends in various key Airbnb attributes following regulatory developments on the basis of panel data analysis.
Results: The results support that policy developments can influence the dynamics of platform- mediated services and can effectively mitigate the negative effects created by platforms. The campaign-like enforcement activities lead to one-off increases in the legality of Airbnb that were not sustainable on the longer run. On the other hand, deeper reforms like the PEUAT system brought a more lasting change on Airbnb supply, with long-term increases in the share of listings with a license. However, in the short-run the city had to cope with unintended negative effects of the reform, with hosts using loopholes and adapting to the enforcement strategy of the city. The results also support the key role of enforcement.

Johannes Ross (p), Vera Rocha, Tom Grad, Jörg Claussen

Alberto Hidalgo

The rise of the sharing economy has enabled more efficient use of particular resources and the generation of additional income streams for individuals via collaborative peer-to-peer, platform-mediated transactions. In this paper, we study one of the potential dark sides of this phenomenon: the taxes evaded in those transactions. We integrate detailed data on Airbnb rental activities with individual-level administrative microdata to address two main questions: First, who participates in the sharing economy as a host on Airbnb? Second, how much taxes are potentially evaded on Airbnb transactions, and which hosts are more likely to under-report the income they earn on short-term rentals? We leverage the strict housing regulations in Denmark and detailed data on 27,734 listings and 22,834 unique hosts that were active in Copenhagen and surroundings in 2017-2018 to provide novel evidence on the different types of Airbnb hosts and uncover substantial levels of undeclared income earned on the platform. We find significant associations between individuals' socio-economic background and their participation on Airbnb as a host. Our analyses furthermore reveal non-negligible effects of these rental activities on undeclared income - back-of-the-envelope calculations suggest that nearly 420 million DKK in income may have been undeclared just in the Copenhagen area in those two years combined, but less conservative estimates point to under-reporting that may exceed 1 billion DKK. Finally, we identify individual characteristics that significantly predict income under-reporting in this context. Our findings can be informative for policymakers and motivate future research on the impact of platform regulation on individual behavior.

Alberto Hidalgo (p), Massimo Riccaboni, Francisco J. Velazquez

Ismael Galvez Iniesta

This paper investigates the unequal effect of Airbnb on the spatial organisation of economic activity in Madrid, Spain. Using establishment-level data from Madrid City Council and consumer-facing information from this short-term rental company, we find that Airbnb contributes to shaping the urban space in line with tourists’ needs, ultimately displacing local businesses. These findings prove that short-term rentals do displace not only the local population but also resident-oriented businesses. Eventually, we show that our results are not driven by the method of measuring digital accommodation activity, other touristic actors, and confounders related to gentrification and the rise of online purchasing.