题    目：Food Inspection, Disclosure and Consumer Reviews

嘉    宾：刘其宏  教授， University of Oklahoma

主持人： 胥   莉  教授， 上海交通大学安泰经济与管理

时    间：2026年5月21日（周四）上午10:00-11:30

地    点:  上海交通大学徐汇校区安泰经济与管理A507

内容简介：This paper studies how platform-driven disclosure of regulatory information, and food inspection outcomes interact with consumer reviews.  In the middle of our sample period, Yelp began prominently displaying restaurant inspection information on its platform. We exploit this platform-level disclosure change to implement a difference-in-differences design comparing restaurants on Yelp (treated) with control groups before and after disclosure. This allows us to isolate the causal impact of making inspection information salient within the review interface. Our analysis proceeds in three parts. First, we estimate the effect of Yelp’s disclosure policy on ratings and review volume, documenting heterogeneous impacts across restaurants (e.g., older versus newer, chain vs. non-chain, high vs. low-rating establishments). Second, using post-disclosure data, we examine how changes in inspection outcomes translate into subsequent consumer responses, allowing us to assess whether platform disclosure increases consumer sensitivity to objective quality signals. Third, we conduct sentiment analysis of review text processed via an LLM API, focusing on hygiene-related language, to test whether disclosure shifts not only ratings but also the content and emphasis of consumer reviews. The paper contributes to the literature on consumer reviews, information disclosure, and digital platforms by showing how a platform’s endogenous disclosure decision alters the interaction between formal regulatory signals and decentralized consumer-generated information. The results carry implications for platform design and the strategic use of third-party quality information in online marketplaces.

演讲人简介： Qihong LIU is President's Associates Second Century Presidential Professor, Director of Graduate Studies, and Professor of Economics at University of Oklahoma. He received his Ph.D. in Economics from SUNY Stony Brook in 2003. His main research areas are Industrial Organization and Applied Micro, with current research focusing on platforms and the digital economy, and pricing. His research has been published in journals including Review of Economics and Statistics, Strategic Management Journal, Marketing Science, Management Science, European Economic Review, International Journal of Industrial Organization, Journal of Economics & Management Strategy, Journal of Industrial Economics. His research has been supported by USDA grant, and has been featured in Bloomberg, Forbes, Harvard Business Review, Insider Higher Ed, Kellogg Insight, MorningStar and Wall Street Journal.  He is a Co-Editor of Journal of Economics and Management Strategy, an Associate Editor of Decision Sciences, Information Economics and Policy, and Journal of Media Economics, and serves on the Editorial Board of Marketing Science. He served as the President of Chinese Economists Society in 2022-2023, and Special Issue Managing Guest Editor for China Economic Review. Personal webpage: https://qihongliuus.github.io/