Publications
Publications
- January 2025
- Research Policy
Everyone Steps Back?: The Widespread Retraction of Crowd-Funding Support for Minority Creators When Migration Fear Is High
By: John (Jianqui) Bai, William R. Kerr, Chi Wan and Alptug Yorulmaz
Abstract
We study funding gaps on Kickstarter across multiple ethnic groups from 2009 to 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 in conservative ones.
Keywords
Citation
Bai, John (Jianqui), William R. Kerr, Chi Wan, and Alptug Yorulmaz. "Everyone Steps Back? The Widespread Retraction of Crowd-Funding Support for Minority Creators When Migration Fear Is High." Research Policy 54, no. 1 (January 2025).