PEAKS Presentation: Mandatory Disclosure Laws & Spatial Competition, presented by Michael Smith

Michael Smith recently presented his dissertation research topic to the PEAKS audience at Summit. As part of completing his Ph.D. program at Boston College, Mike is investigating the relationship between New York City’s mandatory disclosure laws for restaurant health grades and spatial competition. In layman’s terms, he wants to find out if this law influences restaurants in similar markets to improve their hygiene quality comparative to the establishments around them, and if a customer’s choice to go to a restaurant is influenced according to these two factors (distance and hygiene quality).

In his literature review, Mike noted that similar laws, such as nutritional facts being disclosed to customers at restaurants, have been shown to influence customer behavior. Mike presented on this topic earlier in the year and has continued to review the literature and develop statistical models to yield answers to his research questions.

His model works to predict consumer and firm behavior before and after the grade law. As he works to gather the needed data, Mike noted that some questions need to be worked out, such as how prices influence a consumer’s behavior relative to their immediate geographic options and knowledge of inspection grades. Although New York maintains these records online in addition to requiring restaurants to disclose their scores, he is continuing to research sources for additional data, making the model more robust.

He notes that his current work is preliminary and incomplete. Please comment on this post to request a copy of the presentation.

We hope Mike provides PEAKS with updates on this interesting topic as his work progresses!