Online Reviews: Information Content, Drivers, and Platform Design

Tommaso Bondi and Michelangelo Rossi

No 12427, CESifo Working Paper Series from CESifo

Abstract: Online ratings emerge from a multi-stage process that can systematically distort their informational content. We develop a unified framework decomposing the rating process into distinct components: experienced quality (driven by intrinsic quality, seller effort, and price), expectations formed prior to consumption, contextual influences, strategic distortions, idiosyncratic tastes, and selection into reviewing. This decomposition organizes a growing theoretical and empirical literature and clarifies how seemingly disparate findings -- from fake reviews to disappointment effects to selection biases - relate to distinct stages of the data-generating process. Our framework also provides a lens for evaluating platform design interventions: effective policies target specific components of the rating process, yet many distortions remain difficult to address without introducing new trade-offs. We highlight open questions where further research is most needed.

Keywords: online reviews; rating biases; digital platforms; platform design (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D83 L86 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2026
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