 Price and prejudice: Gender discrimination in online marketplacesSher Afghan Asad, Husnain Fateh Ahmad and Hadia Majid Journal of Development Economics, 2025, vol. 177, issue C Abstract: We investigate gender discrimination in an online marketplace in Pakistan. Employing buyer profiles that signal gender, we experimentally engage in transactions with sellers on the platform. We find no evidence of discrimination in pricing or product quality, suggesting that digital marketplaces may neutralize traditional economic biases. However, significant gender differences persist in non-price interactions. Female buyers are significantly more likely to receive unsolicited messages and friend requests following transactions, primarily from male accounts. Linguistic analysis further reveals that male sellers exhibit greater verbosity, enthusiasm, and flirtatiousness towards female buyers. While these interactions may not constitute overt harassment, in conservative and patriarchal settings, such unsolicited contact – regardless of intent – can carry reputational and social costs for women. Our findings highlight that online marketplaces, even as they remove discrimination on economic outcomes, may pose subtle barriers to equitable participation. Keywords: Discrimination; Online-marketplaces; Taste-based discrimination; Statistical discrimination; Harassment; Language-processing (search for similar items in EconPapers) Downloads: (external link) Related works: Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:deveco:v:177:y:2025:i:c:s0304387825000914 DOI: 10.1016/j.jdeveco.2025.103540 Access Statistics for this article Journal of Development Economics is currently edited by M. R. Rosenzweig More articles in Journal of Development Economics from Elsevier |
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