Research Interests of Ginger Z. Jin (as of June 10, 2008)My research focuses on empirical studies in information economics. In particular, I investigate how market mechanisms alleviate information asymmetry among economic agents and what role government regulations play in information markets. Most of my work are straight IO (industrial organization), with a few exceptions casting IO insights on information issues within family.
Refereed Publications
- The Effects of Information on Product Quality: Evidence from Restaurant Hygiene Grade Cards, with Phillip Leslie, the Quarterly Journal of Economics, May 2003, 118(2), 409-51.
Working paper version.
Press articles in the Wall Street Journal (May 29, 2003), Sacremento Bee (June 21, 2003 ), Los Angeles Times ( July 28, 2003).
Related opinions: Napa News
- Competition and Disclosure Incentives: An Empirical Study of HMOs, RAND Journal of Economics, Spring 2005, Vol. 26, 93-113.
- Impact of Restaurant Hygiene Grade Cards on Foodborne Disease Hospitalizations in Los Angeles County, (with Phillip Leslie, Paul Simon, Grace Run, Roshan Reporter, Arturo Aguirre and Jonathan E. Fielding) Journal of Environmental Health, March 2005, Vol. 67, 32-36.
- The Effects of Prescription Drug Advertising on Doctor Visits, with Toshiaki Iizuka at Aoyama Gakvin University, Journal of Economics & Management Strategy, Fall 2005, 14(3): 701-727.
- Information and Consumer Choice: The Value of Publicized Health Plan Ratings, with Alan Sorensen at Stanford, Journal of Health Economics, March 2006, 25(2): 248-275.
- The Case in Support of Resetaurant Hygiene Grade Cards, with Phillip Leslie at Stanford, Choices, 2nd Quarter 2005, 20(2), 97-102.
- Price, Quality and Reputation: Evidence From An Online Field Experiment (Dec. 2005), with Andrew Kato at Bureau of Labor Statistics, RAND Journal of Economics. Winter 2006, Vol. 37 No.4.
- Direct to Consumer Advertising and Prescription Choice (June 2006) with Toshiaki Iizuka at Aoyama Gakvin University. Journal of Industrial Economics, Notes and Comments. published at http://www.essex.ac.uk/jindec/notes.htm.
- Dividing Online and Offline: A Case Study with Andrew Kato at Bureau of Labor Statistics. Review of Economic Studies (July 2007) Vol. 74(3), 981-1004.
- Games Parents and Adolescents Play: Risky Behaviors, Parental Reputation and Strategic Transfers (Aug. 2006), with V. Joseph Hotz at UCLA and Lingxin Hao at John Hopkins. The Economic Journal. (April 2008 leading article): Vol 118 Issue 528: 515-555.
Press articles in Telegraph (4/16/08), The Daily Mail (4/16/08) , BBC (4/16/08), Wall Street Journal Blog (4/24/08), Newsweek (4/30/08), MSNBC (5/5/08).
- Drug Advertising and Health Habit (Jan. 2007) with Toshiaki Iizuka at Aoyama Gakvin University. Forthcoming at the series of Advances in Applied Microeconomics, Volume Communication Games, Elsevier.
- Reputation Incentives for Restaurant Hygiene (May 2008) with Phillip Leslie at Stanford, forthcoming American Economic Journal (Microeconomics).
- That's News to Me! Information Revelation in Professional Certification Markets (February 2008), with John List and Andrew Kato. Forthcoming Economic Inquiry.
- Information, Learning, and Drug Diffusion: the Case of Cox-2 Inhibitors (January 2009) with Pradeep Chintagunta and Renna Jiang at University of Chicago GSB Marketing.
- Do Social Networks Solve Information Problems for Peer-to-Peer Lending? Evidence from Prosper.com (with Seth Freedman, Nov. 2008)
This is an ACADEMIC study using Prosper data from June 1, 2006 through July 31, 2008. Readers should NOT use it as an investment guide. Because none of the Prosper loans have reached their regular maturity, the loan performance reported in this paper is up to data availability as of August 1, 2008 (our data download date). Consequently, the estimated rate of return entails a number of assumptions. Any conclusion drawn from our study is subject to the validity of these assumptions.An earlier draft has been circulated under the title ``Dynamic Learning and Selection: the Early Years of Prosper.com." In comparison, this draft has updated the data from December 2007 to July 2008 and corrected several mistakes in the data work. All the remaining errors are our own. All rights reserved.
- Matchmaking for Children: Are There Agency Costs? (under revision, draft coming soon) with Lixin Xu at the World Bank.
- Consumer Information about Health Plan Quality: Evidence Prior to the National Medicare Education Program (Dec 2002), dissertation chapter.
- Inspector Objectivity (with Phillip Leslie and David J. Becker)
- Platform Prices at Sports Card Conventions (with Marc Rysman)
- The Impact of State Health Insurance Mandates on Self Insurance 1997-2005 (with Kosali Simon and Phillip Cooper)
- Report Cards (with David Dranove)
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