Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to provide an empirical investigation of the idea that imperfectly informed consumers use simple signals to identify the characteristics of wine, for example, the geographical denomination. The reputation of a denomination will thus be an important guide for consumers when assessing individual wines.

Design/methodology/approach

The price–quality relationship is studied in a fairly homogenous geographical area where a large number of wine types is present. This is done by using a simple ordinary least squares (OLS) analysis on a database of more than 2,000 different red wines produced in a period of just four years in only one Italian region.

Findings

The results show that some denominations have a lower average quality score and that price differentials between denominations are linked to differences in average quality, although consumers tend to exaggerate the quality gap between prestigious denominations and others.

Research limitations/implications

A producer in a prestigious denomination benefits from a substantial mark-up relative to an equally good producer from another denomination. Furthermore, denomination neutral wines have a stronger price–quality relationship than denomination specific wines.

Practical implications

Consumers should not be misled by what is on the bottle, but should rather consult wine guides to become better informed before purchasing.

Social implications

The fact that quality and sensory characteristics often play a minor role in determining the price of a commodity is not immediately compatible with the postulate that consumers are well informed.

Originality/value

Unlike previous work, this paper investigates a limited area (Tuscany) and only red wines, thus making it possible implicitly to control for many other factors which might otherwise confound the price–quality relationship.

中文翻译：

---

无知的代价：托斯卡纳红葡萄酒市场的声誉加成

目的

本文的目的是对不完全知情的消费者使用简单的信号来识别葡萄酒的特征（例如地理面额）的想法进行实证研究。因此，在评估个别葡萄酒时，一个面额的声誉将成为消费者的重要指南。

设计/方法/方法

价格-质量关系是在一个存在大量葡萄酒类型的相当同质的地理区域中研究的。这是通过对仅在一个意大利地区在短短四年内生产的 2,000 多种不同红酒的数据库使用简单的普通最小二乘 (OLS) 分析来完成的。

发现

结果表明，一些面额的平均质量得分较低，并且面额之间的价格差异与平均质量的差异有关，尽管消费者倾向于夸大有声望的面额与其他面额之间的质量差距。

研究限制/影响

一个享有盛誉的教派的生产者相对于另一个教派的同样优秀的生产者而言，可以从大幅加价中受益。此外，与特定面额的葡萄酒相比，中性面额的葡萄酒具有更强的价格-质量关系。

实际影响

消费者不应被瓶子上的东西误导，而应在购买前咨询葡萄酒指南以更好地了解情况。

社会影响

质量和感官特征通常在决定商品价格中起次要作用这一事实与消费者知情的假设并不直接相符。

原创性/价值

与以前的工作不同，本文调查了一个有限的区域（托斯卡纳）和红葡萄酒，因此可以隐式控制许多其他可能混淆价格-质量关系的因素。