Responding to Information-Based Regulation: A Behavioral Analysis of the UK's Food Hygiene Ratings Scheme

• 成果类型: Article; Early Access
• 署名作者: Panagiotopoulos, Panos; Bowen, Frances
• 署名单位: University of London; Queen Mary University London; University of Essex
• 刊物名称: REGULATION & GOVERNANCE
• ISSN/ISSBN: 1748-5983
• DOI: 10.1111/rego.70092
• 发表日期: 2025
• 关键词: ATTENTION-BASED VIEW; disclosure; QUALITY; safety

摘要

Regulators increasingly rely on public information disclosure to influence organizational behaviors. Prior research is mixed on the effects of information-based instruments in an environment of abundant online information. The study applies a behavioral perspective to examine how regulatory ratings shape the responses of regulated entities by serving as carriers of attention. We present evidence based on a natural experiment arising from regulatory changes in the United Kingdom and a dataset of the food hygiene rating scores of 286,605 food outlets within 2015-2019. The findings demonstrate how responses from food outlets vary based on features like physical versus online-only disclosure. We discuss how behavioral responses can inform regulators' choice architecture of instrument design.