A trio of business school professors — in trying to understand the potential effects on consumers and the economy by fake reviews — has identified which hotels are likely to generate or attract fraudulent reviews. Authors Dina Mayzlin (USC), Yaniv Dover (Dartmouth) and Judith Chevalier (Yale and NBER) don’t make overly broad claims. But by looking at the “differences in differences” of two travel sites with extensive hotel reviews, they have shown that certain hotels distinguished by geography, ownership or management will post more fake positive reviews for themselves and more fake negative reviews for their competitors.

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