Dr Philippe Masset

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Wine funds : an alternative turning sour?

This article examines the performance, selectivity, and market-timing abilities of wine fund managers over the 2000–2013 period. The authors hypothesize that wine fund managers should be able to profit from market inefficiencies on the wine market...

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Wine tasters, ratings, and en primeur prices

This paper examines the ratings of 12 influential wine critics on the Bordeaux en primeur market over the vintages 2003 – 2012. We hypothesize that wine experts differ significantly in their rating approach and in fl uence on prices. We fi nd that...

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Red obsession : the ascent of fine wine in China

This article uses hammer prices from five global auction houses to analyse the price premium Bordeaux fine wine yields at Hong Kong wine auctions. We find that fine wine is on average sold at a 19% premium in Hong Kong. We further observe that the...

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A study of the performance of fine wine on the Swiss market

This paper studies the price evolution and the performance of an investment in fine wine on the Swiss market over the period 2002-2012. Using a repeat-sales-regression approach we calculate different wine indices based on auction hammer prices...

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Wine indices in practice : nicely labeled but slightly corked

This paper examines and compares wine price indices available on the wine market with those proposed in academia. We especially analyze the impact illiquidity has on the different indices and validate our findings using a simulation which allows us...

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When rationality meets passion : on the financial performance of collectibles

This article examines prior evidence and proposes an empirical study of the performance of passion investments in comparison with financial and real assets over the past 20 years. Over this period, classic cars and fine wines (but not visual art)...

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Family ownership, asset levels, and firm performance in Western European hospitality companies

This article uses a comprehensive sample of companies from 16 Western European countries over the period 2004 and 2016 to examine the relationship between blockholder ownership, asset levels, and corporate performance in the hospitality industry. We...

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Attributes’ specification of wine indexes : is devil in the details?

The dispersion of prices on the fine wines market raises the issue of the wine price index construction and valuation of wine funds. In this paper, we first propose an extended hedonic function to better control good heterogeneity (which is a major...

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Last frontier investments : the case of Alpine wines

We identify and examine the performance of frontier investments from 2002 to 2017. Using fine wine as a setting, we find that the trade frequency and value of frontier investments in the form of Alpine wines have increased in recent years, leading...

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Did wine consumption change during the COVID-19 lockdown in France, Italy, Spain, and Portugal?

This article documents how the COVID-19 crisis has affected the drinking behavior of Latin European wine consumers. Using a large online survey conducted during the first lockdown in France, Italy, Portugal, and Spain (n = 7,324 individuals), we...

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Mitigating downside risk of portfolio diversification : wine versus other tangible assets

Investors increasingly use tangible assets and especially wine to reduce the volatility of their portfolios through improved diversification. However, these assets are long-horizon investments, and therefore, short-term fluctuations (volatility) are...

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New York restaurants : a wine odyssey between 1865 and 1920

We examine the existence of wine in New York City restaurant menus over the period 1865 to 1920 for a sample of 850,000 restaurant menu items and 51,000 wines. Wine was already commonly present on menus in 1865, and its offering increased up until...

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Analyzing the risks of an illiquid and global asset : the case of fine wine

We use a unique and very deep database to examine the performance of wine investments over the period 2003–2014. Our results reveal that the returns stemming from those investments are important but can largely be explained by their exposure to...

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At what price should Bordeaux wines be released?

This paper models optimal release prices of an experience good recurrently issued on markets. Using a sample of Bordeaux wines, we find that using a minimal number of intrinsic and extrinsic attributes is sufficient to explain a large proportion of...

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Cross-dimensional measures of asset lightness and fee orientation in lodging groups

This study proposes cross-dimensional measures of the degree of implementation of the lodging industry’s asset- light & fee-oriented (ALFO) strategy. We apply a common factor analysis to measure the degree of implemented ALFO strategy on a sample of...

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The impact of wine tasters’ expectations on wine quality ratings and willingness-to-pay

Is it possible to exploit cognitive biases so that a non-professional taster prefers one wine to several other absolutely identical wines? To address this question, three complementary experiments were carried out. Each time, five wines were tasted...

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Fine wine pricing in a small and highly competitive market

Purpose – This study aims to identify the price determinants of fine wines in a small and competitive market. These characteristics are found in many lesser-known wine-producing countries and are often difficult to analyse because of lack of data....

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Efficient pricing of Bordeaux en primeur wines

This paper proposes an approach to determine efficient release prices on the Bordeaux en primeur (primary) market. The model exploits information from the secondary market to estimate efficient release prices. We apply the model to a representative...

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To share or not to share: An analysis of wine list disclosure by Swiss restaurant owners

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...