Consumers, experts, and online product evaluations: Evidence from the brewing industry

Grant Jacobsen

Journal of Public Economics, 2015, vol. 126, issue C, 114-123

Abstract: The growth of the Internet has led to a dramatic increase in the number of consumer or “user” product ratings, which are posted online by individuals who have consumed a good, and are available to other individuals as they make decisions about which products to purchase. These ratings have the potential to substantially improve the match between products and consumers, however the extent to which they do so likely depends on whether the ratings reflect actual consumer experiences. This paper evaluates one potential source of bias in consumer ratings: mimicry of the reviews of experts. Using a rich dataset on consumer product ratings from the brewing industry and a regression discontinuity empirical framework, I show that expert reviews influence consumer ratings. Consumer ratings fall in response to negative expert reviews and increase in response to positive expert reviews. The results are most pronounced for strongly negative or strongly positive expert reviews. This mimicry limits the extent to which information on product quality from actual consumer experiences diffuses to the population. I suggest that “nudges” could be implemented to limit the extent to which mimicry affects ratings.

Keywords: Consumer ratings; User ratings; Product ratings; Electronic-word-of-mouth; eWOM, user-generated content; Expert reviews; Beer; Brewing industry; Nudges (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D12 D71 D83 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2015
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (6)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0047272715000717
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:pubeco:v:126:y:2015:i:c:p:114-123

DOI: 10.1016/j.jpubeco.2015.04.005

Access Statistics for this article

Journal of Public Economics is currently edited by R. Boadway and J. Poterba

More articles in Journal of Public Economics from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().