[go: up one dir, main page]

IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/bpj/bjafio/v8y2010i1n2.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Prices as Quality Signals: Evidence from the Wine Market

Author

Listed:
  • Schnabel Hubert

    (Vereinigte Hospitien Trier)

  • Storchmann Karl

    (New York University)

Abstract
In this paper we empirically analyze whether prices serve as signals. Specifically, and following the hypothesis by Bagwell and Riordan (1991), we examine whether (1) higher quality and (2) low consumer information levels about quality are associated with prices that are above the full information equilibrium. We refer to two price samples of identical wines and analyze the difference between both. The first sample consists of prices for informed wholesalers who can taste the wines before purchase. The second sample comprises retail prices for the imperfectly informed public. We find support for the Bagwell-Riordan model, i.e., price signals respond positively to wine quality and negatively to increasing information. For our sample, the information effect by far dominates the quality effect.

Suggested Citation

  • Schnabel Hubert & Storchmann Karl, 2010. "Prices as Quality Signals: Evidence from the Wine Market," Journal of Agricultural & Food Industrial Organization, De Gruyter, vol. 8(1), pages 1-23, February.
  • Handle: RePEc:bpj:bjafio:v:8:y:2010:i:1:n:2
    DOI: 10.2202/1542-0485.1283
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.2202/1542-0485.1283
    Download Restriction: For access to full text, subscription to the journal or payment for the individual article is required.

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.2202/1542-0485.1283?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Rothschild, Michael, 1974. "Searching for the Lowest Price When the Distribution of Prices Is Unknown," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 82(4), pages 689-711, July/Aug..
    2. Jean Tirole, 1988. "The Theory of Industrial Organization," MIT Press Books, The MIT Press, edition 1, volume 1, number 0262200716, April.
    3. Orley Ashenfelter & Karl Storchmann, 2010. "Using Hedonic Models of Solar Radiation and Weather to Assess the Economic Effect of Climate Change: The Case of Mosel Valley Vineyards," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 92(2), pages 333-349, May.
    4. Janssen, Maarten C.W. & Roy, Santanu, 2010. "Signaling quality through prices in an oligopoly," Games and Economic Behavior, Elsevier, vol. 68(1), pages 192-207, January.
    5. Mahenc, Philippe & Meunier, Valérie, 2006. "Early Sales of Bordeaux grands crus," Journal of Wine Economics, Cambridge University Press, vol. 1(1), pages 57-74, April.
    6. Rosenthal, Robert W, 1980. "A Model in Which an Increase in the Number of Sellers Leads to a Higher Price," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 48(6), pages 1575-1579, September.
    7. Nelson, Philip, 1974. "Advertising as Information," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 82(4), pages 729-754, July/Aug..
    8. Marco Costanigro & Jill J. McCluskey & Christopher Goemans, 2010. "The Economics of Nested Names: Name Specificity, Reputations, and Price Premia," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 92(5), pages 1339-1350.
    9. Asher Wolinsky, 1983. "Prices as Signals of Product Quality," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 50(4), pages 647-658.
    10. George A. Akerlof, 1970. "The Market for "Lemons": Quality Uncertainty and the Market Mechanism," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 84(3), pages 488-500.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Clarissa Laura Maria Spiess Bru, 2023. "Does the Tasting Note Matter? Language Categories and Their Impact on Professional Ratings and Prices," Working Papers Dissertations 105, Paderborn University, Faculty of Business Administration and Economics.
    2. Santeramo, Fabio G., 2017. "On Non-Tariff Measures and Changes in Trade Routes: From North-North to South-South Trade?," 2017: Globalization Adrift, December 3-5, 2017, Washington, D.C. 266809, International Agricultural Trade Research Consortium.
    3. Swinnen, J. & Meloni, G. & Haeck, C., 2018. "What is the Value of Terroir? Historical Evidence from Champagne and Bordeaux," 2018 Conference, July 28-August 2, 2018, Vancouver, British Columbia 277221, International Association of Agricultural Economists.
    4. Orley Ashenfelter & Karl Storchmann, 2010. "Measuring the Economic Effect of Global Warming on Viticulture Using Auction, Retail, and Wholesale Prices," Review of Industrial Organization, Springer;The Industrial Organization Society, vol. 37(1), pages 51-64, August.
    5. Saïdi, Monia & Ay, Jean-Sauveur & Marette, Stéphan & Martin, Christophe, 2020. "Willingness-to-Pay for Reshuffling Geographical Indications," Journal of Wine Economics, Cambridge University Press, vol. 15(1), pages 95-111, February.
    6. Santeramo, F G & Lamonaca, E & Nardone, G & Seccia, A, 2018. "On the Effects of Bilateral Agreements in World Wine Trade On the Effects of Bilateral Agreements in World Wine Trade," 2018 Seventh AIEAA Conference, June 14-15, Conegliano, Italy 275644, Italian Association of Agricultural and Applied Economics (AIEAA).
    7. Jianyu Yu & Zohra Bouamra-Mechemache & Angelo Zago, 2018. "What is in a Name? Information, Heterogeneity, and Quality in a Theory of Nested Names," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 100(1), pages 286-310.
    8. Lan-fei Gao & Hui Li, 2024. "Overcoming the pitfalls of economies-of-scale in shared accommodation: How can effective multi-listing management enhance the sustainability of homestay businesses?," Palgrave Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 11(1), pages 1-14, December.
    9. Brunke, Henrich & Lapsley, James T. & Mueller, Rolf A.E. & Tauscher, Ludwig, 2016. ""Tested Quality In The Glass": Wine Quality Certification In Germany," Working Papers 234641, American Association of Wine Economists.
    10. Garcia-Galan, Mar, 2024. "Designations of Origin as Brand for Agro-Food Market: The Case of Spanish Wine Producers," OSF Preprints cfg5w, Center for Open Science.
    11. Edward Oczkowski, 2016. "Analysing Firm-level Price Effects for Differentiated Products: The Case of Australian Wine Producers," Australian Economic Papers, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 55(1), pages 43-62, March.
    12. Kapferer, Jean-Noël & Valette-Florence, Pierre, 2021. "Which consumers believe luxury must be expensive and why? A cross-cultural comparison of motivations," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 132(C), pages 301-313.
    13. Ying Gao & Xiangpei Hu & Qingkai Ji, 2022. "Quality signaling strategies of experience goods in online–offline channel integration," Managerial and Decision Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 43(7), pages 2967-2981, October.
    14. B. Faye & E. Le Fur & S. Prat, 2015. "Dynamics of fine wine and asset prices: evidence from short- and long-run co-movements," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 47(29), pages 3059-3077, June.
    15. Antonis Michis & Anna Markidou, 2013. "Determinants of retail wine prices: evidence from Cyprus," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 45(1), pages 267-280, August.
    16. Kapferer, Jean-Noël & Laurent, Gilles, 2016. "Where do consumers think luxury begins? A study of perceived minimum price for 21 luxury goods in 7 countries," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 69(1), pages 332-340.
    17. Boonsaeng, Tullaya & Murova, Olga & Velikova, Natalia, 2023. "A Comparative Analysis of Changes in Consumers’ Perceptions and Attitudes toward Local Wines in an Emerging Wine Region," Journal of Food Distribution Research, Food Distribution Research Society, vol. 54(2), July.
    18. Santeramo, Fabio Gaetano & Lamonaca, Emilia & Nardone, Gianluca & Seccia, Antonio, 2018. "The Benefits of Country-specific Non-Tariff Measures in World Wine Trade," MPRA Paper 90647, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    19. repec:ags:ijag24:347275 is not listed on IDEAS
    20. Storchmann, K., 2011. "Wine Economics: Emergence, Developments, Topics," Agrekon, Agricultural Economics Association of South Africa (AEASA), vol. 50(3), September.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Marco Costanigro & Yuko Onozaka, 2020. "A Belief‐Preference Model of Choice for Experience and Credence Goods," Journal of Agricultural Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 71(1), pages 70-95, February.
    2. Mahenc, Philippe & Meunier, Valérie, 2006. "Early Sales of Bordeaux grands crus," Journal of Wine Economics, Cambridge University Press, vol. 1(1), pages 57-74, April.
    3. Salvatore Piccolo & Piero Tedeschi & Giovanni Ursino, 2018. "Deceptive Advertising with Rational Buyers," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 64(3), pages 1291-1310, March.
    4. Cuffaro, Nadia & Di Giacinto, Marina, 2015. "Credence goods, consumers’ trust in regulation and high quality exports," Bio-based and Applied Economics Journal, Italian Association of Agricultural and Applied Economics (AIEAA), vol. 4(2), pages 1-19, August.
    5. Robert J. Kauffman & Charles A. Wood, 2007. "Follow the leader: price change timing in Internet-based selling," Managerial and Decision Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 28(7), pages 679-700.
    6. J. Tyrone & Franklin Mixon & Len Treviño & Taisa Minto, 2003. "Politics and the Adoption of Legislative Television: An Analysis of the U.S. House Vote on C-SPAN," European Journal of Law and Economics, Springer, vol. 16(3), pages 345-355, November.
    7. Fulan Wu, 2017. "Signaling Unobservable Quality Choice through Price and Advertising: The Case with Competing Firms," Manchester School, University of Manchester, vol. 85(2), pages 243-260, March.
    8. Moraga-Gonzalez, Jose Luis, 2000. "Quality uncertainty and informative advertising," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 18(4), pages 615-640, May.
    9. Simon P. Anderson & Régis Renault, 2006. "Advertising Content," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 96(1), pages 93-113, March.
    10. Eric Schmidbauer, 2016. "New and Improved?," Working Papers 2016-02, University of Central Florida, Department of Economics.
    11. Ioana Chioveanu, 2012. "Price and quality competition," Journal of Economics, Springer, vol. 107(1), pages 23-44, September.
    12. Daher, Wassim & Mirman, Leonard J. & Santugini, Marc, 2012. "Information in Cournot: Signaling with incomplete control," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 30(4), pages 361-370.
    13. Lázár Ede, 2014. "Quantifying the Economic Value of Warranties: A Survey," Acta Universitatis Sapientiae, Economics and Business, Sciendo, vol. 2(1), pages 75-94, October.
    14. Jianyu Yu & Zohra Bouamra-Mechemache & Angelo Zago, 2018. "What is in a Name? Information, Heterogeneity, and Quality in a Theory of Nested Names," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 100(1), pages 286-310.
    15. G. E. Fruchter, 2009. "Signaling Quality: Dynamic Price-Advertising Model," Journal of Optimization Theory and Applications, Springer, vol. 143(3), pages 479-496, December.
    16. Benner, Dietrich, 2004. "Quality Ambiguity and the Market Mechanism for Credence Goods," Working Papers 98639, Universitaet Hohenheim, Institute of Agricultural Policy and Agricultural Markets.
    17. Schneider, Mark & Stephenson, Daniel Graydon, 2021. "Bargains, price signaling, and efficiency in markets with asymmetric information," Games and Economic Behavior, Elsevier, vol. 128(C), pages 160-181.
    18. Daniela Rroshi & Michael Weichselbaumer, 2021. "What is in a price? Evidence on quality signaling for experience goods," Department of Economics Working Papers wuwp311, Vienna University of Economics and Business, Department of Economics.
    19. Dubois, Pierre & Nauges, Céline, 2010. "Identifying the effect of unobserved quality and expert reviews in the pricing of experience goods: Empirical application on Bordeaux wine," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 28(3), pages 205-212, May.
    20. Belleflamme,Paul & Peitz,Martin, 2015. "Industrial Organization," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9781107687899, September.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    wine; price signals;

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:bpj:bjafio:v:8:y:2010:i:1:n:2. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Peter Golla (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.degruyter.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.