Is the quality of a 91-point wine significantly different from that of an 89-point wine? Which wines are underpriced relative to their evaluation of quality? This paper addresses these questions by constructing a novel wine rating system based on scores assigned by a panel of wine experts to a set of wines. Wines are classified in ranked disjoint quality equivalence classes using measures of statistically significant and commercially relevant score differences. The rating system is applied to the “Judgment of Paris” wine competition, to data of Bordeaux en-primeur expert scores and prices, and to expert scores and price categories of a large database of Italian wines. The proposed wine rating system provides an informative assessment of wine quality for producers and consumers and a flexible rating methodology for commercial applications.

This paper examines the economic impact of wine counterfeiting, with a focus on the Sassicaia scandal, publicized in 2020, regarding counterfeit 2015 vintage bottles of the iconic Super Tuscan wine. Wine fraud, documented since ancient Rome, has evolved alongside the industry, with key developments such as the Appellation d'Origine Contrôlée system aiming to curb it. The paper briefly reviews three other significant modern cases of wine counterfeiting: the Hardy Rodenstock “Jefferson bottles” affair, the Brunello di Montalcino scandal, and Rudy Kurniawan’s counterfeit operation. It then shifts to a detailed analysis of the case of Sassicaia. We combine informal analysis using data plots and a formal difference-in-differences analysis to assess the market impact of the 2015 Sassicaia scandal. We find that, surprisingly, the scandal led to an increase in the price of authentic 2015 Sassicaia, perhaps driven by perceived rarity and media attention.

Previous research links organic purchasing motivations to personal and family health. We conduct a national survey to explore whether this preference intensifies when preparing family meals, especially during Thanksgiving. We find that approximately 83% of consumers change their consumption habits for Thanksgiving, with a notable preference for organic products. Results from the choice experiment indicate willingness to pay premiums for Thanksgiving-themed items, especially those with USDA-certified organic or certified naturally grown labels. These findings underscore policy initiatives that strengthen consumer understanding of organic certifications and support producers in securing them, capitalizing on the seasonal demand surge.

This paper uses data from the 2021 Swiss edition of the Gault&Millau food guide to analyze the probability with which restaurant owners decide to share their wine list with the public. This is an important question relating to the amount of information circulating in markets characterized by information asymmetry in the context of experience and credence goods. We find that restaurant owners are more willing to share wine lists with others if competition is limited or their wine list does not contain idiosyncratic information that competitors may use strategically. Interviews indicate the challenge for restaurants to balance the risk of sharing information with competitors and the opportunity to attract wine lovers by revealing an appealing wine list. We also show that this decision depends on cultural considerations.

We propose to establish wine rankings using scores that depend on the differences between favorable and unfavorable opinions about each wine, according to the Borda rule. Unlike alternative approaches and specifications, this method is well-defined even if the panelists’ quality relations are not required to exhibit demanding properties such as transitivity or acyclicity. As an illustration, we apply the method to rank wines assessed by different experts and compare the resulting ranking with that obtained according to Condorcet's method of majority voting.

This paper investigates the relative importance of various attributes, including varietal, brands, and geographic origin, in explaining retail wine prices for the United States market. We use a metric based on the Shapely value, from cooperative game theory, in the context of an empirical hedonic price equation estimated using a large sample of retail wine sales for home consumption over the period 2007–2019. We find that brands alone explain more than 70% of the variation in wine prices, but geographic origin and varietals retain additional explanatory power. Furthermore, information about the geographic origin appears to be a considerably more important attribute than varietals.

The outcome of the famous 1976 Judgment of Paris, a blind wine tasting of ten wines by nine French judges, brought American wines to the forefront of the wine business. A Californian wine, the 1973 Stag's Leap Wine Cellars S.L.V. Cabernet Sauvignon, was declared the winner, surpassing four highly prized French wines (Château Mouton-Rothschild 1970, Château Montrose 1970, Château Haut-Brion 1970, and Château Léoville Las Cases 1971). We collect ratings from experts for (almost) all vintages of the same ten wines over the years 1968–2021 and find that the Stag's Leap Cabernet Sauvignon is far from being first. We conclude that either the 1973 vintage was overrated by the experts who tasted it in 1976, or 1973 was merely an outlier in this winery.

We disentangle the effects of biodiesel incentives and shale oil expansion on the long-run equilibrium price relationships among biodiesel feedstocks and crude oil in the United States (US) and European Union (EU). We find that the 2005 Energy Policy Act in the US substantially increased the responsiveness of soy oil, canola oil, and corn oil prices to crude oil price movements. However, in recent years, expansion in the global supply of crude oil from shale oil extraction has offset the effects of US biodiesel incentives and blending mandates. In the EU, the Indirect Land Use Change Directive of 2015 substantially reduced the responsiveness of biodiesel feedstock prices to crude oil price movements.

Legitimate reasons for the imposition of non-tariff measures (NTMs) within regulations have triggered their extensive use. Among these measures, technical barriers to trade (TBTs) and sanitary and phytosanitary (SPS) measures allow countries to impose restrictions on the import of low-quality products suspected of harming domestic consumers’ health, plant life, or the environment. This paper analyses two regulative and standard-like NTMs – TBTs and SPS measures – and the quality of traded products that is driven by their imposition, which is a general underlying motive for the adoption of such regulations. A dummy variable measuring the existence of these NTMs and a count variable indicating their stringency are used in the analysis. Moreover, two other variables indicate flows of NTMs imposed in each year and stocks of these NTMs accumulated over years. The results indicate that TBTs and SPS measures do indeed imply a higher quality of traded products. Stringent TBTs with more regulations imposed in each year (i.e. flows of count TBTs) have the largest impact on the quality of traded products. However, for SPS measures, only the existence of a regulation (i.e. the dummy variable on flows of SPS measures) on a traded product has the strongest impact on its quality.

Retail sales of fluid cow’s milk are decreasing while those of plant-based milk analogues are increasing. In this study, we model the relationship between households’ purchases of both types of products and perform simulations. Results show that growing consumer demand for plant-based products is causing cow’s milk sales to decline somewhat faster than otherwise. However, plant-based products are not a primary driver of sales trends for cow’s milk. The decline in cow’s milk sales is substantially greater than the rise in sales of plant-based analogues.

This study reports the findings for an analysis using the computer program NAADSM (North American Animal Disease Spread Model) and a supply-driven social accounting matrix to examine the impact of a hypothetical foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) outbreak in a relatively isolated part of the United States, Utah, under various levels of livestock traceability. The analysis demonstrates that a significant regional economic impact in Utah would result from an FMD outbreak but that improved levels of traceability would be very important in helping to reduce the negative economic consequences of the outbreak.

This study determines the relative effects of price, cattle quality, and feeding performance factors on profit per head for fed cattle marketed via a grid structure. Two different data sets of cattle that were marketed in two different grid pricing systems are used in the analysis with comparisons of results made between grids. Grid base price and feeder cattle price are the most important determinants of profit over time in both grids. However, considering only nonprice variables, the cumulative quality of cattle in a pen is also an important profit determinant.

The 1986 U.S. Grain Quality Improvement Act introduced an explicit, economic purpose for grades—that they transmit information about end use value—but provided little guidance about what factors to include in grades. We determine which quality characteristics best reflect the processed value of U.S. corn in the case of a Japanese wet miller. Foreign material is the only grade factor closely related to processed value, but a large number of nongrade attributes, many of which reflect the intrinsic properties of corn, are found to vary substantially across shipments and to provide extensive information about value. Recommendations for U.S. grades are made.

Considerable evidence exists of high returns to public and private investment in commodity research and development programs. This study investigates the potential returns to product research, development, and marketing in a dynamic commodity-market model. Theoretical hypotheses derived from the solution to this model are tested in an empirical example of Washington apples. Estimation results show that, despite significant spillovers to research and promotion expenditure in this industry, there is nonetheless considerable latitude to increase annual sales.

Cattle feeders want feeder cattle that have been weaned and preconditioned with a certified health program. Preconditioned calves perform more efficiently in the feedlot with lower morbidity and mortality. Health program claims, however, range from no claim to being USDA-certified. The value of health protocol certification may vary with certifying entity. Results from a choice experiment and survey of cattle feeders indicate preconditioning programs that include weaning, vaccinating against respiratory and clostridial/blackleg, and treating for parasites are worth on average $7.28/cwt to feedlots. Furthermore, a health program certified by USDA carries an additional value of $2.37/cwt on average.

When consumers have heterogeneous perceptions about product quality, traditional parametric methods may not provide accurate marginal valuation estimates of a product's characteristics. A quantile regression framework can be used to estimate valuations of product characteristics when quality perceptions are not homogeneous. Semiparametric quantile regressions provide identification and quantification of heterogeneous marginal valuation effects across a conditional price distribution. Using purchase price data from a bull auction, we show that there are nonconstant marginal valuations of bull carcass and growth traits. Improved understanding of product characteristic valuations across differentiated market segments can help producers develop more cost-effective management strategies.

Dans cet article, nous considérons la mise en œuvre du critère de l'offre économiquement la plus avantageuse dans des marchés publics passés par voie électronique. Pour cela, nous analysons la procédure usuelle de l'enchère anglaise inversée avec bonus de qualité en considérant que les coûts de production des offreurs sont croissants avec le niveau de qualité des produits et que la fonction d'utilité des acheteurs est concave en qualité. Nous montrons que cette procédure ne concrétise pas en général le mécanisme d'enchères optimal. Nous montrons ensuite qu'un plafonnement des prix dans l'enchère anglaise permet de restaurer l'optimalité de la procédure et de mettre en œuvre une discrimination analogue à la discrimination optimale dans le cas uniforme.

L'agglomération spatiale des firmes est un phénomène largement dé-battu en économie géographique. Cet article propose une nouvelle explication à ce phénomène : les entreprises mettent en avant la localisation comme un moyen de signaler un bien nouveau. Accepter la concurrence en se localisant au plus près des entreprises existantes permet de montrer aux consommateurs la valeur du produit vendu. La polarisation géographique, et par là même une plus grande concurrence, sert de faire-valoir à une innovation. On montre que la firme innovante se localise dans la même région que la firme concurrente uniquement si le produit qu'elle propose est suffisamment innovant. Le critère de raffinement "K-undefeated" assure l'unicité de l'équilibre semi-séparateur. La polarisation de l'activité est uniquement imputable à l'asymétrie d'information. Cette forte polarisation doit inciter les autorités supra-régionales à privilégier plutôt les infrastructures de désenclavement qui se traduisent par une forte baisse des coûts de transport. En effet, une faible baisse du coût de transport peut se traduire par une baisse du bien-être total.