Citation

Palsson C, Price J, Shores J. Contemp. Econ. Policy 2013; 31(1): 13-21.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2013, Western Economic Association International, Publisher John Wiley and Sons)

DOI

10.1111/j.1465-7287.2012.00315.x

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

Ratings and report cards provide a relatively cheap way to influence consumer and producer decisions. We examine the specific case of movie ratings and find that receiving a mature rating (rated R) reduces a movie's box office revenues by 20%. We focus on the specific role of ratings by constructing a mature content index for each movie and compare movies with similar amounts of mature content, but that received different ratings. We also exploit the fact that the movie rating system places specific guidelines on the number of F-words that are allowed at each content rating. (JEL D0, L82)

Language: en