Working papers:

• Safety Reviews on Airbnb: An Information Tale, with Yidan Sun and Liad Wagman, January 2024, NBER working paper #31855.

• Does Human-algorithm Feedback Loop Lead to Error Propagation? Evidence from Zillow’s Zestimate, with Meng Liu and Runshan Fu, June 2023, NBER working paper #29880.

• Designing Quality Certificates: Insights from eBay, with Xiang Hui and Meng Liu, January 2022, NBER working paper #29674.

• More Trusting, Less Trust? An Investigation of Early E-commerce in China, Jul. 2014, with Hongbin Cai, Li-an Zhou and Chong Liu, NBER working paper #18961.

• Learning by Doing with Asymmetric Information: Evidence from Prosper.com, Jul. 2018, with Seth Freedman, NBER working paper #16855.

• Drug Advertising and Health Habit, Jan. 2007, with Toshiaki Iizuka, NBER working paper #11770.

Publications on information disclosure in retail food safety:

• New Evidence on Information Disclosure through Restaurant Hygiene Grading: Reply, with Phillip Leslie, American Economic Journal: Economic Policy 2019, 11(4): 429–443.

• A Tale of Repetition: Lessons from Florida Restaurant Inspections, with Jungmin Lee, Journal of Law & Economics 61(1): 159-188.

• Incomplete Disclosure: Evidence of Signaling and Countersignaling, with Ben Bederson, Phillip Leslie, Alex Quinn and Ben Zou, American Economic Journal: Microeconomics, February 2018, 10(1): 41-66.

  • Research Highlights by the American Economic Association

• Inspection Technology, Detection and Compliance: Evidence from Florida Restaurant Inspections, with Jungmin Lee, RAND Journal of Economics, Winter 2014, 45(4): 885-917.

• The Potential Consequences of Public Release of Food Safety and Inspection Service Establishment-Specific Data (November 2011) with Lee-Ann Jaykus, Julie Caswell, James Dickson, John Dunn, Stephen Fienberg, William Hallman, Gale Prince, Donald Schaffner, Kathleen Segerson, Christopher Waldrop and David Weil as a committee appointed by the National Academies, Board on Agriculture and Natural Resources. Publisher: the National Academies Press, ISBN-10:0-309-22465-9 & ISBN-13: 978-0-309-22465-9.

• Reputation Incentives for Restaurant Hygiene with Phillip Leslie, American Economic Journal (Microeconomics) February 2009, 1(1): 237-67.

• Impact of Restaurant Hygiene Grade Cards on Foodborne Disease Hospitalizations in Los Angeles County, (with Phillip Leslie, Paul Simon, Grace Run, Roshan Reporter, Arturo Aguirre and Jonathan E. Fielding) Journal of Environmental Health, March 2005, Vol. 67, 32-36.

• The Case in Support of Restaurant Hygiene Grade Cards, with Phillip Leslie, Choices, 2nd Quarter 2005, 20(2), 97-102. 

  • This study has encouraged the public health authorities in the UK to adopt food hygiene grades both via restaurant window displays and on the internet. The internet publication of hygiene grades is available at www.scoresonthedoors.org.uk .

• The Effects of Information on Product Quality: Evidence from Restaurant Hygiene Grade Cards, with Phillip Leslie, Quarterly Journal of Economics, May 2003, 118(2), 409-51.

  • Press articles in the Wall Street Journal (5/29/2003), Sacramento Bee (6/21/2003 ), Los Angeles Times ( 7/28/2003).

  • Related opinions in Napa News (2/13/2005).

  • Book mentions: Secrets of the MoneyLab (by Kay-Yut Chen and Marina Krakovsky)

Publications on quality, advertising and learning in health care

• Learning by Suffering? Patterns in Flu Shot Take-up, November 2018, with Thomas G. Koch, NBER working paper #25272, forthcoming American Journal of Health Economics.

• Direct-to-Consumer Advertising and Online Search, with Matthew Chesnes, Information Economics and Policy, 2019, vol. 46(C), pages 1-22.

• Banning Foreign Pharmacies from Sponsored Search: The Online Consumer Response, with Matthew Chesnes and Weijia (Daisy) Dai, Marketing Science, November-December 2017, 36(6): 879-907.

  • Highlights by INFORMS

• Poor Drug Quality and Global Trade: A Pilot Study, with Roger Bate, Aparna Mathur and Amir Attaran, American Journal of Health Economics, Summer 2016, 2(3): 373-398.

  • Summary in Vox (10/9/2014), Opinion in Forbes (9/17/2014), mentioned in Economist (9/13/2014), Wall Street Journal Blog (9/18/2014), Bloomberg (9/17/2014).

  • Our response to comments from India (10/102014)

• Falsified or Substandard? Assessing Price and Non-Price Signals of Drug Quality, with Roger Bate and Aparna Mathur, Journal of Economics & Management Strategy Winter 2015 (feature article).

  • Opinion piece on Forbes.com (6/3/2014); Q&A on JEMS (12/1/2015)

• In Whom We Trust: The Role of Certification Agencies in Online Drug Markets, with Roger Bate and Aparna Mathur, forthcoming the B.E. Journal of Economic Analysis & Policy, Contribution tier , December 2013, Volume 14, Issue 1, Pages 111–150.

• Does Price Reveal Poor-Quality Drugs? Evidence from 17 Countries, with Roger Bate and Aparna Mathur, Journal of Health Economics, December 2011, 1150-1163.

• Information, Learning, and Drug Diffusion: the Case of Cox-2 Inhibitors, with Pradeep Chintagunta and Renna Jiang, Quantitative Marketing and Economics, volume 7 number 4, December 2009, 399-443.

• Direct to Consumer Advertising and Prescription Choice, with Toshiaki Iizuka, Journal of Industrial Economics , 2007, 55(4): 771-771.

• Information and Consumer Choice: The Value of Publicized Health Plan Ratings, with Alan Sorensen, Journal of Health Economics, March 2006, 25(2): 248-275.

• The Effects of Prescription Drug Advertising on Doctor Visits, with Toshiaki Iizuka, Journal of Economics & Management Strategy, Fall 2005, 14(3): 701-727.

• Competition and Disclosure Incentives: An Empirical Study of HMOs, RAND Journal of Economics, Spring 2005, Vol. 26, 93-113.

Publications on information issues in E-Commerce (non-health care)

• The Effects of Short-term Rental Regulation: Insights from Chicago, with Liad Wagman and Mengyi Zhong, forthcoming International Journal of Industrial Organization.

• Can Data Regulation Reshape the Short-Term Rental Market?, with Liad Wagman and Mengyi Zhong, February 2024, CPI Antitrust Chronicle.

• The Effects of Government Licensing on E-commerce: Evidence from Alibaba, Oct. 2020, with Zhentong Lu, Xiaolu Zhou and Chunxiao Li, NBER working paper #27884, accepted by the Journal of Law and Economics, special issue in memory of Harold Demsetz.

• Learning from Deregulation: The Asymmetric Impact of Lockdown and Reopening on Risky Behavior During COVID-19, Aug.  2020, with Edward L. Glaeser, Benjamin T. Leyden, Michael Luca, NBER working paper #27650, accepted by the Journal of Regional Science, special issue on COVID-19 and regions.

  • summary in Harvard Business School Working Knowledge (12/15/2020).

• Aggregation of Consumer Ratings: An Application to Yelp.com, with Weijia (Daisy) Dai, Jungmin Lee, and Michael Luca, Quantitative Marketing and Economics, September 2018, vol. 16(3), pages 289-339.

• The Information Value of Online Social Networks: Lessons from Peer-to-Peer Lending , joint with Seth Freedman, International Journal of Industrial Organization, March 2017, 51: 185-222, previous versions available as NBER working paper #19820 and NET Institute Working Paper No. 08-43.

• Seller Reputation: From Word-of-Mouth to Centralized Feedback, with Hongbin Cai, Li-an Zhou and Chong Liu, International Journal of Industrial Organization, May 2014, volume 34, page 51-65.

• Dividing Online and Offline: A Case Study, with Andrew Kato, Review of Economic Studies (July 2007) Vol. 74(3), 981-1004.

  • Press articles in Toronto Star (June 8, 2013).

• Price, Quality and Reputation: Evidence From An Online Field Experiment, with Andrew Kato, RAND Journal of Economics.  Winter 2006, Vol. 37 No.4.

Publications on retraction and reputation in scientific publishing

• The Reverse Matthew Effect: Consequences of Retraction in Scientific Teams , with Susan Lu, Ben Jones and Brian Uzzi, Review of Economics and Statistics, July 2019, vol. 101(3), pages 492-506.

  • Online appendix. Comment from freakeconomics.com.

• Retraction and Reputation, in policy forum titled "Towards a more scientific science", with Susan Lu, Science, 21 Sep 2018, 361(6408) pp. 1194-1197.

• The Retraction Penalty: Evidence from the Web of Science, with Susan Lu, Ben Jones and Brian Uzzi, Scientific Reports , Volume 3, November 6, 2013.

Other publications on information economics

• Complex Disclosure, with Michael Luca and Daniel Martin, NBER working paper #24675, Management Science, May 2022.

  • Featured blog on Management Science website

• Is No News (Perceived as) Bad News? An Experimental Investigation of Information Disclosure, with Michael Luca and Daniel Martin, NBER working paper #21099, American Economic Journal: Microeconomics, May 2021, 13(2): 141-73.

  • summary on HBS Working Knowledge (6/1/2015); summary on Vox (7/22/2015)

• The Informative Role of Advertising and Experience in Dynamic Brand Choice: an Application to the Ready-to-Eat Cereal Market, with Yan Chen, Chapter 5 in Value of Information: Methodology Frontiers and New Applications in Environment and Health, edited by Ramanan Laxminarayan and Molly K. Macauley, Springer 2012.

• Quality Disclosure and Certification: Theory and Practice, with David Dranove, Journal of Economic Literature, December 2010, 48(4): 935-63.

• That's News to Me! Information Revelation in Professional Certification Markets , with John List and Andrew Kato, Economic Inquiry, January 2010, 48(1): 104-122.

• Games Parents and Adolescents Play: Risky Behaviors, Parental Reputation and Strategic Transfers, with V. Joseph Hotz and Lingxin Hao, The Economic Journal.  (April 2008 leading article): Vol 118 Issue 528: 515-555.

  • Press articles in Telegraph (4/16/08), The Daily Mail (4/16/08) , BBC (4/16/08), Wall Street Journal Blog (4/24/08), Newsweek (4/30/08), MSNBC (5/5/08).

Book review:

• Mandated Disclosure May Have Flaws, But It Still Has Value, June 22, 2015, comments on More Than You Wanted To Know: The Failure of Mandated Disclosure, by Omri Ben-Shahar and Carl E. Schneider.

Conference organization:

• Co-organizer, Research on Effective Government: Inspection and Compliance Workshop (June 2015).

• Co-organizer, Marketing Science – Federal Trade Commission Economic Conference on Marketing and Consumer Protection (September 16, 2016).