Efficiency and Robustness of Binary Feedback Mechanisms in Trading Environments with Moral Hazard

Chrysanthos Dellarocas

No 4297-03, Working papers from Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Sloan School of Management

Abstract: This paper offers a systematic exploration of online feedback mechanism design issues in trading environments with opportunistic sellers, imperfect monitoring of a seller's effort level, and two possible transaction outcomes (corresponding to "high" and "low" quality respectively), one of which has no value to buyers. The objective of feedback mechanisms in such settings is to induce sellers to exert high effort and, therefore, to maximize the probability of high quality outcomes. I study a practically significant family of mechanisms that resembles aspects of the one used by online auction house eBay. These feedback mechanisms solicit "binary" ratings of transaction outcomes as either positive or negative and publish the sums of ratings posted by buyers on a seller during the N most recent periods. My analysis finds that such "binary" feedback mechanisms can induce high average levels of cooperation that remain stable over time. Surprisingly, their efficiency cannot be improved by summarizing larger numbers of ratings or by publishing a seller's detailed feedback history. I further examine the robustness of these mechanisms to incorrect or incomplete feedback as well as to strategic changes of online identities. The theoretical outcomes predicted by this paper are consistent with empirical observations and offer theory-backed explanations to hitherto poorly understood phenomena such as the remarkably low fraction of negative feedback on eBa

Keywords: Online Feedback Mechanisms; E-commerce; Moral Hazard; Game Theory; Electronic Markets; Internet (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2003-04-14
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/1852 (application/pdf)

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:mit:sloanp:1852

Ordering information: This working paper can be ordered from
MASSACHUSETTS INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY (MIT), SLOAN SCHOOL OF MANAGEMENT, 50 MEMORIAL DRIVE CAMBRIDGE MASSACHUSETTS 02142 USA

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in Working papers from Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Sloan School of Management MASSACHUSETTS INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY (MIT), SLOAN SCHOOL OF MANAGEMENT, 50 MEMORIAL DRIVE CAMBRIDGE MASSACHUSETTS 02142 USA. Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by None ( this e-mail address is bad, please contact ).