Jean-Philippe Weisskopf

EHL Hospitality Business School

This short report investigates the stock market behavior of Swiss companies during the COVID-19 pandemic. Results suggest that family firms performed better during the outbreak and post-lockdown periods than widely-held firms. Family firms also displayed a larger abnormal trading volume drop than widely-held companies. In size-sorted subsamples, th...

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 information circulating in markets characterized by information asymmetry in the context of experience and cr...

We explore the effects of online customer ratings on financial policy. Using a large sample of Parisian restaurants, we find a positive and economically significant relationship between customer ratings and restaurant debt. We use the locally exogenous variations in customer ratings resulting from the rounding of scores in regression discontinuity...

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 14 lodging companies over the period 2001–2021. The analysis confirms that there is no one-size-fits-...

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. Design/methodology/approach This study hand-collects and transcribes wine-related data for 149 Swiss wi...

We summarize in this press article a study on the determination of the "fair price" of wine. Our model is based on the release prices of Bordeaux en primeur wines. The logic of the model is based on taking into account the dynamics of the secondary market applied to the primeur (primary) market. This study will soon be published in an academic jour...

This paper investigates the impact of the coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic on investors' trading behaviors around ex-dividend dates in Europe. The sudden decrease in the number of companies paying dividends reduced the opportunities to capture dividends. Thus, the firms that maintained dividend payments during the pandemic attracted more interest...

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 common risk factors. It appears essential to properly account for the lack of liquidity on the wine marke...

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 release prices. We further observe a significant relationship between primary market prices and secon...

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 1914 before dropping with the outbreak of First World War (WWI). Casual restaurants offered a narrower...

We study the effect of dividend taxes on the payout and investment policies of publicly listed firms. We exploit a unique setting in Switzerland where, following the corporate tax reform of 2011, some but not all firms were suddenly able to pay tax-exempt dividends. We show that treated firms increase their dividend payout by around 30% after the t...

This article explores the price determinants of fine wines in a competitive and opaque market. These characteristics are found in many emerging wine-producing countries and are often difficult to analyse due to a lack of data. We use the case of Switzerland, whose wines remain little exported. Intense competition notably from famous neighbouring re...

This paper investigates the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the trading behavior of investors around ex-dividend dates in Europe. The sudden decrease in the number of companies paying dividends reduced the opportunities to capture dividends. The firms that have maintained dividend payments during the pandemic thus attracted more interest than be...

We examine the existence of wines in New York City restaurant menus over the period 1865-1920 for a sample of 850,000 restaurant menu items and 51,000 wines. Wine was already commonly present on menus in 1865, and its presence increased up until 1914 before dropping with the outbreak of WWI. Casual restaurants offered a narrower wine selection. Spe...

This paper models optimal release prices of an experience good recurrently issued on markets. Using a large sample of Bordeaux wines, we find that not only intrinsic but also extrinsic attributes affect release prices. We observe a significant relationship between primary market release prices and secondary market prices and general economic condit...

COVID-19 has officially been declared a pandemic since March 11, 2020. Its effect during the second quarter of 2020 and its forecasted impact on the economy are dramatic. For some industries, the crisis is likely to become the most severe since the Great Depression. In this article, we investigate the economic impact of COVID-19 on the fine wine ma...

We examine the effect of the relative liquidity of international equity exchange-traded funds (ETFs) and their constituent portfolios on the price difference between the fund’s market prices and its net asset values. We use data for a sample of 584 international equity ETFs listed in the U.S. over the period January 2012 to December 2017 and find t...

This paper explores the effects of online customer ratings on debt capacity. Using a large sample of Parisian restaurants, we find a positive and economically significant relation between customer ratings and bank debt. We use the locally exogenous variation in customer ratings resulting from the rounding of scores in regression discontinuity tests...

This paper explores the effects of online customer ratings on debt capacity. Using a large sample of Parisian restaurants, we find a positive and economically significant relationship between customer ratings and bank debt. We use the locally exogenous variation in customer ratings resulting from the rounding of scores in regression discontinuity t...

This paper models optimal release prices of an experience good recurrently issued on markets. Using a large sample of Bordeaux wines, we find that not only intrinsic but also extrinsic attributes affect release prices. We observe a significant relationship between primary market release prices and secondary market prices and general economic condit...

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 to a rise in their prices above inflation rates. We further document that this frontier investment has...

This paper investigates the risk and return features of an investment in the cannabis industry. It further describes the current state of the market for cannabis and critically examines its potential future development. Findings show that a portfolio of cannabis stocks displays high volatilities and returns, but also low correlations and beta coeff...

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 find evidence that both family and nonfamily blockholders display a higher use of assets in the lodg...

We study the effect of dividend taxes on the payout and investment policy of publicly listed firms. To do so, we exploit a unique setting in Switzerland where some, but not all, firms were suddenly able to pay tax-exempt dividends to their shareholders following the corporate tax reform of 2011. Using a difference-in-differences specification, we s...

We introduce a heterogeneous agent model to explain the dynamics of fine wine investments. Our results show evidence of the existence of both fundamentalists – those who trade on mean-reversion towards a fair value – and chartists – those who extrapolate recently observed price trends – in the wine market. Moreover, we document that market particip...

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) display better returns than U.S. equity, fixed income, and real estate. Volatilities are, overall, low...

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 to define the biases induced by illiquidity on the statistical properties of the indices. We also pro...

This article uses hammer prices from five global auction houses to analyse the price premium Bordeaux fine wine yielded at Hong Kong wine auctions. We find that fine wine was on average sold at a 19% premium in Hong Kong. We further observe that the Hong Kong premium is not uniform and most pronounced for wines with perfect Parker scores and the mo...

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 obtained by Steinfels Weinauktionen. Our results show that different fine wines followed a similar evoluti...

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 obtained by Steinfels Weinauktionen. Our results show that different fine wines followed a similar evoluti...

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 influence on prices. We find that European critics are less transparent and in general more severe in their scoring than their American count...

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 and generate abnormal returns for investors. Their results show that fund managers’ overall selectivit...

This article analyses founding family influence on pay-out policies for Swiss listed firms over the period 2003-2010. We hypothesise that family firms have different incentives and characteristics that affect pay-out decisions and propose three possible explanations: agency theory, reputation building and family income needs. Our results show that...

This paper examines how family and non-family ownership affects the performance of Swiss listed firms from 2003 to 2010. We distinguish between these two types of controlling shareholders since they have different objectives. We hypothesize that only family shareholders have a real incentive to reduce agency costs whereas non-family blockholders ar...

This article examines founding family influence on pay-out policies for Swiss listed firms over the period 2003-2010. We find that founding family firms have higher dividends and total pay-outs than non-family firms. There is no significant difference between stock repurchases for the two types of firms. We show that specific firm characteristics s...

Investors have never faced as many investment choices as they do today. Not only have markets become more integrated and international investments facilitated but also the number of available asset classes has grown more important during the last decade. This has also led to an increase in complex financial products. As a counterbalance, demand for...

In this paper, we analyze the evolution of fine wine prices over the period 2000-2010 on the Swiss market. We first estimate a fine wine index with several sub-indices (e.g. Bordeaux index, First growth index) using hand-collected hammer prices from Steinfels – the leading wine auction house in Switzerland. We then study the evolution of these wine...

This paper uses auction hammer prices over the period 1996-2009, with a special emphasis on periods of economic downturns, to examine risk, return and diversification benefits of fine wine. We show evidence that the wine market is heterogeneous with wine regions and price categories evolving differently. We construct wine indices for various wine r...

This paper uses auction hammer prices over the period 1996-2009, with a special emphasis on periods of economic downturns, to examine risk, return and diversification benefits of fine wine. Our research shows evidence that the wine market is heterogeneous with wine regions and price categories evolving differently in terms of volume and turnover. W...

Using a very large dataset that spans the period 1996 to 2007 and contains transaction prices for all reported auctions at the Chicago Wine Company, we analyze how the prices of high-end wines have evolved over the last decade. We characterize the returns for different wine categories and show that characteristics like vintage, rating and ranking h...

Recent research has documented that family-controlled firms are very common around the world. This paper provides new evidence on the accounting and market performance of this type of companies. The empirical investigation is conducted on a market in which family firms are well-established and represent the most widespread form of ownership, namely...

This paper uses auction hammer prices over the period 1996-2009, with a special emphasis on periods of economic downturns, to examine risk, return and diversification benefits of fine wine. We show evidence that the wine market is heterogeneous with wine regions and price categories evolving differently in terms of volume and turnover. We construct...