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JWE Volume 16 | 2021 | No. 4

Journal of Wine Economics Volume 16 | 2021 | No. 4

The Water of Life and Death: A Brief Economic History of Spirits

Lara Cockx, Giulia Meloni and Johan Swinnen
Pages: 355-399
Abstract

Spirits represent around 50% of global alcohol consumption. This sector is much less studied than other alcoholic beverages such as wine or beer. This paper reviews the economic history of spirits and analyzes recent trends in the spirits markets. The technology to produce spirits is more complex than for wine or beer. Distillation was known in ancient Chinese, Indian, Greek, and Egyptian societies, but it took innovations by the Arabs to distill alcohol. Initially, this alcohol was used for medicinal purposes. Only in the Middle Ages did spirits become a widespread drink. The Industrial Revolution created a large consumer market and reduced the cost of spirits, contributing to excess consumption and alcoholism. Governments have intervened extensively in spirits markets to reduce excessive consumption and to raise taxes. There have been significant changes in spirits consumption and trade over time. Over the past 50 years, the share of spirits in global alcohol consumption increased from around 30% to around 50%. In the past decades, there was strong growth in emerging markets, including in China and India. Recent developments in the spirits industry include premium- ization, the growth of craft spirits, and the introduction of terroir for spirits.

Keywords: alcohol and health, alcohol regulations, craft and industry concentration, distillation technology, globalization and convergence of alcohol preferences, spirits.

Short Papers

Vertical and Horizontal Networks and Export Performance in the Spanish Wine Industry

Juan-Ramón Ferrer, Silvia Abella-Garcés and Raúl Serrano
Pages: 400-410
Abstract

Wineries in the “old world” export almost 40% of their production. This study analyzes the influence of vertical and horizontal networks on export performance. We draw on a sample of 183 Spanish wineries and examine the main independent variables using a two-step Heckman model. We find positive effects of horizontal networks and— at a somewhat lower level— down- stream vertical networks on export performance.

Keywords: export performance, networks, Spanish wine sector.

Short Papers

Expensive and Cheap Wine Words Revisited

Kevin W. Capehart
Pages: 411-418
Abstract

Previous work has quantitatively analyzed expert wine descriptions to identify some so-called “expensive” and “cheap” words that are indicative of a wine’s price. This paper revisits that work. In particular, I examine whether words previously identified as expensive and cheap ones are still indicative of a wine’s price when using the same methods and a different, larger dataset. My findings mostly confirm previous conclusions, although many directions for further research into expensive and cheap wine words remain open.

Keywords: expert evaluation, wine.

Short Papers

How Many Latours Is Too Many? Measuring Brand Name Congestion in Bordeaux Wine

Christopher Buccafusco, Jonathan S. Masur and Ryan Whalen
Pages: 419-428
Full Text PDF
Abstract

Firms rely on brand names to market goods to consumers, and consumers rely on brand names to locate goods that satisfy their preferences. If multiple firms are using the same or similar names, consumers may be confused about which product to buy, and firms may not obtain the benefits of their investments in quality. Recently, both firms and scholars in a number of industries have expressed concern about brand name congestion— too many firms clustering around too few terms. This paper applies computational linguistic analysis to chateau names in the Bordeaux wine region to study the degree of brand congestion within a mature, traditional, and high- value market. We find that Bordeaux producers have highly similar names to one another, far more than in comparable wine regions such as California and Alsace. More than a quarter of all Bordeaux producers have a name that is identical or nearly so to at least one other producer, and many terms are claimed by dozens of different producers. Interestingly, however, we find that the most famous and renowned producers have names that tend to be more distinctive than their less famous brethren.

Keywords: distinctiveness, marketing, text analysis, trademarks, wine branding.

Short Papers

Business Cycles and Alcohol Consumption: Evidence from a Nonlinear Panel ARDL Approach

Elkhan Richard Sadik-Zada and Britta Niklas
Pages: 429-438
Full Text PDF
Abstract

This study revisits the relationship between economic variables and alcohol consumption from a macro perspective. Focusing explicitly on the asymmetries of the responsiveness of alcohol consumption during the expansion and contraction phases of the business cycle, asymmetric panel estimators are employed. We employ a nonlinear autoregressive distributed lag model for a panel of 24 countries for the period 1961 to 2014. Findings show that expansion leads to a long-term increase in average alcohol consumption, while during contraction, the level of average alcohol consumption persists. Expansion, together with a pronounced reduction in the unemployment rate could, however, lead to a net reduction of gross alcohol and wine consumption. Nonetheless, if the recession corresponds with a surge in unemployment, this leads to a long-run increase in the level of total gross alcohol consumption but a decrease in wine and beer consumption. Reduction in unemployment does not lead to a reduction in beer consumption, as pre-expansion levels of beer consumption persist.

Keywords: alcohol intake, business cycles, unemployment, normal goods, PNARDL.

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