caa a22 4500 605488835 CHVBK 20210128100457.0 cr unu---uuuuu 210128e20150901xx s 000 0 eng 10.1007/s10683-014-9410-3 doi (NATIONALLICENCE)springer-10.1007/s10683-014-9410-3 Wibral Matthias Institute for Applied Microeconomics, University of Bonn, Adenauerallee 24-42, 53113, Bonn, Germany aut Identity changes and the efficiency of reputation systems [Elektronische Daten] [Matthias Wibral] Reputation systems aim to induce honest behavior in online trade by providing information about past conduct of users. Online reputation, however, is not directly connected to a person, but only to the virtual identity of that person. Users can therefore shed a negative reputation by creating a new account. We study the effects of such identity changes on the efficiency of reputation systems. We compare two markets in which we exogenously vary whether sellers can erase their rating profile and start over as new sellers. Buyer trust and seller trustworthiness decrease significantly when sellers can erase their ratings. With identity changes, trust is particularly low towards new sellers since buyers cannot discriminate between truly new sellers and opportunistic sellers who changed their identity. Nevertheless, we observe positive returns on buyer investment under the reputation system with identity changes, and our evidence suggests that trustworthiness is higher than in the complete absence of a reputation system. Economic Science Association, 2014 Trust nationallicence Reputation nationallicence Identity change nationallicence Experimental Economics Springer US; http://www.springer-ny.com 18/3(2015-09-01), 408-431 1386-4157 18:3<408 2015 18 10683 https://doi.org/10.1007/s10683-014-9410-3 text/html Onlinezugriff via DOI BK010053 XK010053 XK010000 Metadata rights reserved Springer special CC-BY-NC licence nationallicence 1 research-article jats NATIONALLICENCE NATIONALLICENCE NL-springer NATIONALLICENCE 856 40 https://doi.org/10.1007/s10683-014-9410-3 text/html Onlinezugriff via DOI NATIONALLICENCE 100 1- Wibral Matthias Institute for Applied Microeconomics, University of Bonn, Adenauerallee 24-42, 53113, Bonn, Germany aut NATIONALLICENCE 773 0- Experimental Economics Springer US; http://www.springer-ny.com 18/3(2015-09-01), 408-431 1386-4157 18:3<408 2015 18 10683