Learning from the Crowd: Regression Discontinuity Estimates of the Effects of an Online Review Database
Anderson first author. A regression discontinuity on rounded restaurant ratings found that an extra half star causes restaurants to sell out 19 percentage points, or about half again, more often, with larger effects where other information is scarce. The outcome is reservation availability on one booking platform. The authors note the returns give restaurateurs an incentive to leave fake reviews, and their robustness checks found no discontinuous manipulation of ratings.
Anderson first author. A regression discontinuity on rounded restaurant ratings found that an extra half star causes restaurants to sell out 19 percentage points, or about half again, more often, with larger effects where other information is scarce. The outcome is reservation availability on one booking platform. The authors note the returns give restaurateurs an incentive to leave fake reviews, and their robustness checks found no discontinuous manipulation of ratings.
Written from the abstract read 2026-10-18.
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Anderson, M., & Magruder, J. (2012). Learning from the Crowd: Regression Discontinuity Estimates of the Effects of an Online Review Database. The Economic Journal, 122(563), 957-989. doi:10.1111/j.1468-0297.2012.02512.x.