【学术研讨】评级膨胀的价值

The Value of Ratings Inflation

课程信息 | INFOMATION

讲者：高小奕助理教授 (新西兰奥克兰大学)

时间：2025年5月19日（周一） 10时

地点:   同济大厦A座510教室

课程描述 | DESCRIPTION

Does ratings inflation help or hurt consumers? Managers? To answer these questions, we build a dynamic pricing model, wherein consumers’ utility depends on product features including the consumer rating that evolves over time. Applying control theory, we compare the pricing strategies with and without ratings inflation. In addition, we empirically validate the model using market data on 10,263 Airbnb properties over four years from Austin, Texas. We find a counter-intuitive result that ratings inflation helps both managers and consumers. Under the dynamic pricing context, ratings inflation helps managers because they earn a higher long-term profit although consumer surplus decreases. However, the ratio of consumer surplus in dynamic pricing relative to that from static pricing increases as ratings increase. Furthermore, the price premium over the static pricing decreases as ratings increase. Consequently, consumers are least worse off when the rating approaches its ceiling value. Hence, ratings inflation helps consumers as well.

GUEST BIO | 讲者介绍

Dr. Xiaoyi Sylvia Gao is a lecturer in Marketing at the University of Auckland Business School. She serves as a PhD co-advisor in the Department of Marketing and is the Chair of the Early Career Researcher Committee at the UoA Business School. Additionally, she is a member of the Centre of Digital Enterprise (CODE) at the same institution.

Dr. Gao earned her PhD in Management, specializing in Marketing and Information Systems, from the University of California, Irvine, in the United States. Her research interests focus on several key areas, including competition in online marketplaces, pricing and product strategies for digital goods and services, compensation schemes in the sharing economy, and online consumer product search behavior. Her methodological approaches encompass Analytical Modeling, Econometrics, and Experimental Design.