Does Home Sharing Impact Crime Rate? A Tale of Two Cities.

The rise of home sharing has disrupted traditional industries and has a number of unforeseen societal impacts. These changes sparked policy debates on how to keep home sharing platforms' rapid growth in a sustainable manner. This paper empirically investigates whether and how home sharing impacts the crime rate in the community. Using two policy changes in New York City and San Francisco to mimic an experimental design, and using a difference in difference model, we found a positive association between commercial home sharing and the increase of the crime rate. Leveraging instrumental variables estimation method, we further found that there is no significant relationship between non-commercial (authentic) home sharing and violent criminal activity. This paper provides empirical evidence to support policy change. It also contributes to the understanding of the sharing economy business model and its societal impacts. Further robustness checks will be implemented to validate the findings of this research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]