True for Your School? How Changing Reputations Alter Demand for Selective U.S

Publicized ratings should influence consumer demand in markets that have at least one of two elements. First, ratings may influence demand when there is asymmetric information whereby consumers possess far less knowledge than sup-pliers. For example, first-time diners might be unaware of a restaurant’s kitchen’s typical hygiene standards, and so health inspection report cards can reduce this asymmetric informa-tion. Second, ratings may influence demand when consumers would otherwise have trouble processing ample information to determine sig-nals ’ accuracy and relevance. Concise informa-tion can be so influential in some contexts that experimental studies may exploit variation in the availability of concise information to instrument for program participation (e.g., Hastings & Weinstein, 2008). Several previous empirical studies of ratings and reputations have focused on supply and demand responses to single indicators of the quality of suppliers ’ services. Researchers have examined the effects of restaurants ’ display of hygiene quality grades (Jin & Leslie, 2003), mor-tality rate report cards for hospitals and doctors performing cardiac surgeries (Dranove, Kessler