Promotional Reviews: An Empirical Investigation of Online Review Manipulation
Mayzlin first author, not Chevalier. A difference-in-differences across two travel platforms, one allowing reviews only from customers who had booked through it and one open to anyone, tested the prediction that the gains from promotional reviewing are highest for independent single-unit hotels. Hotels with a high incentive to fake had more positive reviews on the open platform relative to the closed one, and their neighbours had more negative ones.
Mayzlin first author, not Chevalier. A difference-in-differences across two travel platforms, one allowing reviews only from customers who had booked through it and one open to anyone, tested the prediction that the gains from promotional reviewing are highest for independent single-unit hotels. Hotels with a high incentive to fake had more positive reviews on the open platform relative to the closed one, and their neighbours had more negative ones.
Written from the abstract read 2026-10-18.
What our sources record
Recorded when this source was checked, figures included, with page references and quotation marks removed.
Mayzlin, D., Dover, Y., & Chevalier, J. (2014). Promotional Reviews: An Empirical Investigation of Online Review Manipulation. American Economic Review, 104(8), 2421-2455. doi:10.1257/aer.104.8.2421.