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Digitizing Disclosure: The Case of Restaurant Hygiene Scores

Author

Listed:
  • Weijia Dai
  • Michael Luca

Abstract

Collaborating with Yelp and the City of San Francisco, we revisit a canonical example of quality disclosure by evaluating and helping to redesign the posting of restaurant hygiene scores on Yelp.com. We implement a two-stage intervention that separately identifies consumer response to information disclosure and a disclosure design with improved salience—a consumer alert. We find score posting is effective, but improving salience further increases consumer response.

Suggested Citation

  • Weijia Dai & Michael Luca, 2020. "Digitizing Disclosure: The Case of Restaurant Hygiene Scores," American Economic Journal: Microeconomics, American Economic Association, vol. 12(2), pages 41-59, May.
    • Handle: RePEc:aea:aejmic:v:12:y:2020:i:2:p:41-59
    DOI: 10.1257/mic.20180293
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    Citations

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    Cited by:

    1. Makofske, Matthew Philip, 2021. "Spoiled food and spoiled surprises: Inspection anticipation and regulatory compliance," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 190(C), pages 348-365.
    2. Kim, Tami & Martin, Daniel, 2021. "What do consumers learn from regulator ratings? Evidence from restaurant hygiene quality disclosures," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 185(C), pages 234-249.
    3. Gao, Yuan & Lopez, Rigoberto A. & Liao, Ruili & Liu, Xiaoou, 2022. "Public health shocks, learning and diet improvement," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 112(C).
    4. Schmitt, Stefanie Y., 2022. "Competition with limited attention to quality differences," BERG Working Paper Series 184, Bamberg University, Bamberg Economic Research Group.
    5. Matthew P. Makofske, 2024. "Disclosure policy design and regulatory agent behavior," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 106(1), pages 118-144, January.
    6. Bovay, John, 2021. "Moral hazard under discrete information disclosure: Evidence from food-safety inspections," 2021 Allied Social Sciences Association (ASSA) Annual Meeting (Virtual), January 3-5, 2021, San Diego, California 307948, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association.
    7. Siqi Liu & Bhoomija Ranjan & Benjamin Reed Shiller, 2020. "Are Coarse Ratings Fine? Applications to Crashworthiness Ratings," Working Papers 132, Brandeis University, Department of Economics and International Business School.
    8. Xiang Hui & Meng Liu, 2022. "Quality Certificates Alleviate Consumer Aversion to Sponsored Search Advertising," CESifo Working Paper Series 9886, CESifo.
    9. John Bovay, 2023. "Food safety, reputation, and regulation," Applied Economic Perspectives and Policy, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 45(2), pages 684-704, June.

    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • D12 - Microeconomics - - Household Behavior - - - Consumer Economics: Empirical Analysis
    • D18 - Microeconomics - - Household Behavior - - - Consumer Protection
    • D83 - Microeconomics - - Information, Knowledge, and Uncertainty - - - Search; Learning; Information and Knowledge; Communication; Belief; Unawareness
    • L83 - Industrial Organization - - Industry Studies: Services - - - Sports; Gambling; Restaurants; Recreation; Tourism
    • L88 - Industrial Organization - - Industry Studies: Services - - - Government Policy

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