Do Social Movements Benefit Local Minority Businesses? Evidence from BLM Protests

Feng Qiu and Qiagxiao Li

No 360612, 2025 AAEA & WAEA Joint Annual Meeting, July 27-29, 2025, Denver, CO from Agricultural and Applied Economics Association

Abstract: This paper investigates the economic impact of the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement on minority-owned food service establishments (MFEs) in the United States. Leveraging establishment-level panel data from the National Establishment Time-Series (NETS) database and a novel county-level panel of BLM protest events from 2014 to 2022, we implement a stacked difference-in-differences framework to estimate causal effects. Our findings suggest that BLM protests led to a sustained and statistically significant increase in MFE sales, with the effects persisting and strengthening over time. The economic gains are most pronounced in areas with moderate protest activity and are primarily driven by small-scale MFEs. Our study highlights the longterm market influences of social movements and offers policy-relevant insights into how economic empowerment can be aligned with broader social justice efforts.

Keywords: Agricultural; and; Food; Policy (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 32
Date: 2025
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ags:aaea25:360612

DOI: 10.22004/ag.econ.360612

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