Professor Simon Board gave a talk to UCLA alumni in London on the topic of “Reputation Design”. The talk discussed the challenges platforms like eBay, Yelp and IMDB face in eliciting and providing information to users. Professor Board discussed the different methods that are used to encourage participation, and also how they can give rise to biased feedback, gaming and retribution. He also discussed how platforms can mitigate such manipulation, and how economic theory shapes how information should presented. For example, is full transparency always a good policy?

The talk also discussed recent innovation in the UCLA economics department, including Partnership UCLA and the design of our data analytics training.