Abstract #300811

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JSM 2003 Abstract #300811
Activity Number: 291
Type: Contributed
Date/Time: Tuesday, August 5, 2003 : 2:00 PM to 3:50 PM
Sponsor: Business & Economics Statistics Section
Abstract - #300811
Title: The Effect of Robert Parker's Ratings on the Prices Achieved at Auction for French Bordeaux Wines
Author(s): Simon J. Sheather*+
Companies: University of New South Wales
Address: Australian Graduate School of Management, Sydney NSW 2052, , , Australia
Keywords: correlated errors ; regression ; applications
Abstract:

According to Langewiesche (Atlantic Monthly, Dec. 2000), "The most influential critic in the world today happens to be a critic of wine. . His name is Robert Parker, Jr., and he has no formal training in wine. . . many people now believe that Robert Parker is single-handedly changing the history of wine. . A positive review and a score over 90, especially for a wine produced in small quantities, can ignite speculation that sends the price rocketing and clears the wine out of the stores." we consider the effect of Robert Parker's ratings on the auction prices for wine. We examine UK auction prices of 11 Bordeaux wines (including the five first growths) from the 1982, 1983, 1985, 1986, 1988, 1989 and 1990 vintages over the period 1991 to 2002. We consider both the points awarded by Robert Parker to each wine prior to 1991 or its release and the size of any change in Parker's ratings reported over time in The Wine Advocate as compared to his original ratings. Modern statistical methods are used to show that a 1 point increase in Robert Parker's rating of a wine can increase median auction prices by as much as almost 20%.

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