We study funding gaps on Kickstarter across multiple ethnic groups from 2009-2021. Scaling the concept of racially salient events, we quantify the close co-movement of minority funding gaps in crowd-funding to inflamed political rhetoric surrounding migration. The funding gap for minorities more than doubles in the most inflamed periods compared to baseline. Results are especially acute for Hispanic creators. Distant, mostly white backers are typically important for projects reaching a critical threshold of funding support. Retractions in support for minority creators during tense periods are even spatially, as present in liberal cities as conservative ones.
Authors
John (Jianqiu) Bai, William R. Kerr, Chi Wan, Alptug Y. Yorulmaz
- Acknowledgements & Disclosure
- Kerr is the corresponding author. We are grateful to Sabrina Howell, Dan Marom, Alicia Robb, and Jun Wong for sharing data for this project. We also thank Peter Blair, Solène Delecourt, Stefano DellaVigna, Michael Ewens, Rob Fairlie, Pauline Grosjean, Bart Hamilton, Sabrina Howell, Hans Hvide, Josh Lerner, Dan Marom, Federico Masera, Matt Marx, Ethan Mollick, Abhishek Nagaraj, Ramana Nanda, David Robinson, Marco Tabellini, Rick Townsend, Emmanuel Yimfor, and seminar participants at Bentley University, Harvard University, National Bureau of Economic Research, Northeastern University, University of California Berkeley, University of Pennsylvania Wharton, and Washington University in St. Louis for insights. The views expressed herein are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Bureau of Economic Research.
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.3386/w33097
- Pages
- 70
- Published in
- United States of America
Table of Contents
- 1-Kickstarter-Tables-RP3-Core.pdf -1
- T1 18
- T2 19
- T3 20
- T4 21
- T5 22
- 241019-Kickstarter-Appendix.pdf -1
- 1-Kickstarter-Tables-RP3-App.pdf -1
- FS1 38
- FS2 39
- FS4 40
- TS1a 41
- TS1b 42
- TS2a 43
- TS2b 44
- TS2c 45
- TS2d 46
- TS3a 47
- TS3b 48
- TS3d 49
- TS3e 50
- TS4a 51
- TS4b 52
- TS5a 53
- TS5b 54
- TS6a 55
- TS6b 56
- TS6c 57
- TS7 58
- TS8 59
- TS9 60
- TS10 61
