Quality Differentiation and Spatial Clustering among Restaurants

• We explore spatial patterns of restaurants across large UK cities Top-rated tend to be spatially more concentrated around the city center locate close other top Bottom-rated away from each A larger quality difference increases dispersion top-rated To relationship between location and differentiation, we build a dataset over 30,000 rated by TripAdvisor, cities. document several new stylized facts. than bottom-rated ones. Whereas restaurants, closer Our theoretical model can explain main features observed patterns. Consistently with predictions our model, regression analysis finds that an increase in population density is associated decrease both bottom this reduction being magnitude for Also, absolute relative restaurants.