A Dollar for Your Thoughts: Feedback-Conditional Rebates on eBay

Abstract

Abstract. We run a series of controlled field experiments on eBay where buyers are rewarded for providing feedback. Our results suggest that the feedback rate increases when a rebate is given, though the effect is small. Moreover, the nature of buyer feedback is influenced by rewards: buyers are more likely to give positive feedback following a high-quality transaction (fast shipping) and less likely to give negative feedback following a lowquality transaction (slow shipping). In sum, you can buy feedback but you cannot buy unbiased feedback.

Incentive Provision and Pro-Social Behaviors

“…Particularly, Cabral and Li (2015) conducted field experiments on eBay and found that users do show reciprocity by decreasing the likelihood of leaving negative feedback when they receive rebates [20]. Other researchers have empirically studied the temporary crowding-out effect and find that reviewers…”

Warranty, Seller Reputation, and Buyer Experience: Evidence From EBAY Used Car Auctions

“…Our study is also related to the new and growing literature on reputation system design in online marketplaces (Li and Xiao [2014]; Cabral and Li [2015]). To maintain performance, an online marketplace as a pure market intermediary needs to consider designs for both information disclosure and a reputation rating system.…”

Who should pay for online reviews? Design of an online user feedback mechanism

“…However, a later field experiment study reached a different conclusion: The provision of online reviews did not increase, although rebates were provided. To make things worse, there were far fewer negative reviews (Cabral and Li, 2015), which is puzzling.…”