Effect of critical reviews of experts and consumers on information goods consumption - the United States cinema

• Grant number: 18/02272-1
• Support type: Regular Research Grants
• Duration: August 01, 2018 - July 31, 2020
• Field of knowledge: Applied Social Sciences - Economics
• Principal researcher: Marislei Nishijima
• Grantee: Marislei Nishijima
• Home Institution: Instituto de Relações Internacionais (IRI). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). São Paulo , SP, Brazil

Abstract

We aim to study the effects of critical reviews of consumers and experts on the consumption of information and experience goods. Particularly, we are going to evaluate these effects on the cinema consumption at the U.S. market, which is the incumbent country in this sector and concentrate its highest revenues. To this end, we intend to collect weekly data available on industry-representative websites, such as all economic variables related to each film and its critical reviews, whether numerical or textual, to apply data mining and propose their use as specific indicators. With regard to critical reviews of consumers, we find that their evaluations have double acting, one refers to the word of mouth effect and another to the effect of resembling the expert critical reviews, giving relevant information about experience goods. In the case of experts, besides the role of bringing relevant information about the quality of the good and its main attributes, they also have an influence effect on consumption, which for the case of cinema has been robustly confirmed by empirical studies. Extensive studies of bibliographic references, industry documents and econometric evaluations will be carried out with the aim of capturing the transmission mechanisms of reviews influence in a rigorous and robust way. We believe that combining big data analysis with applied studies in economics is a fundamental part of the natural evolution of economics research, as well as in any other area of knowledge. (AU)

Scientific publications

(References retrieved automatically from Web of Science and SciELO through information on FAPESP grants and their corresponding numbers as mentioned in the publications by the authors)

NISHIJIMA, MARISLEI; RODRIGUES JR, MAURO; DONEGA SOUZA, THAIS LUIZA. Is Rotten Tomatoes killing the movie industry? A regression discontinuity approach. APPLIED ECONOMICS LETTERS, APR 2021. (18/02272-1)