Buying reputation as a signal of quality: Evidence from an online marketplace
研究淘宝的“奖励反馈”机制，发现高质量卖家会为买家提供反馈奖励，尤其是缺乏评价的新产品，这使销量提升36%，表明购买反馈可作为质量信号。
Abstract Seller reputation, generated by buyer feedback, is critical to fostering trust in online marketplaces. Marketplaces or sellers may choose to compensate buyers for providing feedback. Signaling theory predicts that only sellers of high‐quality products will reward buyers for truthful feedback, especially when a product lacks any feedback and when the seller is not established. We confirm these hypotheses using Taobao's reward‐for‐feedback mechanism. High‐quality products, especially without established feedback, are chosen for feedback rewards, which cause sales to increase by 36%. Marketplaces and consumers can therefore benefit from allowing sellers to buy feedback and signal their high‐quality products in the process.