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Data and Code for: Consumer Protection in an Online World: An Analysis of Occupational Licensing

Principal Investigator(s):  View help for Principal Investigator(s) Chiara Farronato, Harvard Business School; Andrey Fradkin, Boston University; Bradley Larsen, Washington University in St. Louis; Erik Brynjolfsson, Stanford University

Version:  View help for Version V1

Name File Type Size Last Modified

Project Citation: 

Farronato, Chiara, Fradkin, Andrey , Larsen, Bradley, and Brynjolfsson, Erik. Data and Code for: Consumer Protection in an Online World: An Analysis of Occupational Licensing. Ann Arbor, MI: Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research [distributor], 2023-06-05. https://doi.org/10.3886/E192072V1

Project Description

Summary:  View help for Summary This repository contains data and code relating to our paper, "Consumer Protection in an Online World: An Analysis of Occupational Licensing". Note that due to confidentially reasons, we are not able to share our main dataset relating to the platform. We are able to share other data we have collected separately from the platform. Specifically, we share data from our nationally representative survey of occupation licensing. 

An abstract of the paper is follows:

 
We study the demand and supply implications of occupational licensing using transaction-level data from a large online platform for home improvement services. We find that demand is more responsive to a professional's reviews than to the professional's platform-verified licensing status. We show some evidence that consumers view licenses and reviews as substitutes. We confirm the generality of our findings off the platform in an independent consumer survey. Combining state-level licensing regulation data with platform micro-data, we find that more stringent requirements are associated with less competition, higher prices, and no increase in demand or consumer satisfaction. 

Scope of Project

Subject Terms:  View help for Subject Terms occupational licensing; digital platforms; online reviews
Geographic Coverage:  View help for Geographic Coverage United States
Time Period(s):  View help for Time Period(s) 3/1/2013 – 11/4/2015; 2019 – 2019
Universe:  View help for Universe - All requests and bids on the platform relating to Home Improvement categories. 
- Nationally representative sample of survey responses.
Data Type(s):  View help for Data Type(s) aggregate data; event/transaction data; survey data

Methodology

Unit(s) of Observation:  View help for Unit(s) of Observation Survey response, Bid

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Published Versions

V2 [2024-06-12]

V1 [2023-06-05]

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DDI 2.5

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