Year: 2014
Type: report
Abstract: Quality certification programs help consumers to identify high-quality products or sellers in markets with information asymmetries.Using data from eBay UK's online marketplace, we study how certification's impact on consumer demand varies with market-and seller-level attributes, exploiting quasi-experimental variation in sellers' certification status.The positive effects of eBay's "top rated seller" certification are stronger for categories with relatively few other certified sellers, in more competitive markets, and for sellers with shorter records of past performance.These findings indicate certification provides its greatest value when certification is rare, the product space is crowded, and for sellers lacking established reputations.
DOI: 10.3386/w20074
Institutions: University of North Carolina at Charlotte, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, University of Minnesota, Georgia Institute of Technology, National Bureau of Economic Research, Washington University in St. Louis, University of Michigan, Arizona State University, Federal Trade Commission, Columbia University
Language: English
Subfield: Marketing
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W2891640944