We examine changes in the retail sector in the US over the period 1999 to 2017. We show that while there were fewer physical stores in 2017 compared to the start of the period (consistent with the widely reported notion of a “retail apocalypse”), other indicators including employment, real...

We investigate the informativeness of hygiene signals in online reviews, and their effect on consumer choice and restaurant hygiene. We first extract signals of hygiene from Yelp. Among all dimensions that regulators monitor through mandated restaurant inspections, we find that reviews are more...