Cambridge–CityUHK Postdoctoral Research Fellow Scheme · £300,000 · 1 September 2025 – 31 August 2029 · Principal Investigator (Cambridge): Helen X. H. Bao
About the project
Housing discrimination remains a persistent barrier to social and economic equality, affecting marginalised groups across dimensions such as race, ethnicity, gender, LGBTQ identity, and disability. While spatial analysis and behavioural insights have been used to study urban inequalities, a systematic, global approach to mapping and understanding housing discrimination is lacking. Addressing this requires integrating geospatial analysis, explainable AI (XAI), and behavioural research to identify patterns and inform policy interventions.
This project aims to develop a live, interactive map of housing discrimination in sales and rental markets worldwide. It will standardise protocols for correspondence and paired testing, aggregate validated data from researchers around the world, and apply advanced spatial analysis and AI techniques to uncover the underlying drivers of discrimination. The project will deliver a live global Housing Discrimination Map providing real-time insights into discriminatory practices; standardised methodologies for detecting housing discrimination; a centralised database linking spatial and behavioural data; policy reports and academic publications outlining evidence-based interventions; and stakeholder engagement through workshops and webinars. By bridging data-driven research with policy applications, the project advances knowledge on housing discrimination, supports global collaborations, and contributes to reducing structural inequalities in housing markets.
Team Members
- Helen X. H. Bao — Principal Investigator, Department of Land Economy, University of Cambridge
- Eddie Hui — Principal Investigator (Hong Kong), City University of Hong Kong
- Xuan Liu — Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Department of Land Economy, University of Cambridge
Publications
This project’s publications are in preparation.
Working papers
The team has been working on the following papers: