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Assessing the Effect of Information on the Reservation Price for Champagne: What are Consumers Actually Paying for?*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  08 June 2012

Pierre Combris
Affiliation:
INRA, Laboratoire de Recherche sur la Consommation (CORELA), 65, Bd de Brandebourg, 94205 Ivry-sur-Seine Cedex France, E-mail:[email protected]
Christine Lange
Affiliation:
CNRS, Centre Européen des Sciences du Goût (CESG), Dijon France
Sylvie Issanchou
Affiliation:
INRA, Unité Mixte de Recherche Flaveur, Vision, Comportement du Consommateur (FLAVIC), Dijon France

Abstract

Two series of Vickrey auctions have been performed to assess the effect of packaging information (bottle and label) on the reservation prices of ordinary consumers for five brut non-vintage Champagnes. As in other studies on wine tasting, packaging information is found to explain much more of the variation in willingness to pay than sensory information. Participants are unable, or unwilling, to put different values on the Champagnes after blind tasting, but significant differences in reservation prices appear when labels are disclosed. Detailed analysis of choices reveals a large heterogeneity in individual behaviors and valuations of the Champagnes included in this study. (JEL Classification: C91, D12)

Type
Articles
Copyright
Copyright © American Association of Wine Economists 2006

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