Two Berkeley economists took on the task of studying Yelp and found that a half-star difference in the rating of a restaurant can make or break it as a business. Writes Gregory Ferenstein in TechCrunch, "a simple half-star improvement on Yelp's 5-star rating makes it 30-49% more likely that a restaurant will sell out its evening seats." This contradicts another recent study that concluded diners don't seem to care at all about Yelp reviews. [Eater National]
