RAISE YOUR GLASS: WINE INVESTMENT AND THE FINANCIAL CRISIS

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. We construct wine indices for various wine regions and prices using repeat-sales regressions and find out that fine wine yields higher returns and has a lower volatility compared to stocks especially in times of economic crises. Forming portfolios for typical investors and taking risk aversion, different financial assets and various wine indices into consideration we confirm that the addition of wine to a portfolio as a separate asset-class is beneficial for private investors. Not only are returns favourably impacted and risk being minimised but skewness and kurtosis are also positively affected. Particularly, during the recent financial crisis these effects are most pronounced and improve portfolio diversification when it is most needed. Most importantly, balancing a portfolio with fine wine has resulted in added return while reducing volatility with the most prestigious and expensive vintages and estates outperforming the General Wine Index (GWI) during the entire research period. Results from the CAPM show that alpha is significantly positive over the period 1996- 2009 while showing a low beta coefficient. The use of a conditional CAPM model allows us to clarify the time-variance of alphas and betas depending on the economic environment that is not generally captured by the traditional CAPM. The time-varying dynamics of alphas and betas are in particular best explained by the spread between BAA- and AAA-rated bonds and the USD/EUR foreign exchange rate. Our findings confirm that wine returns are primarily related to economic conditions and not to the market risk.wine, alternative assets, financial contagion, portfolio diversification, conditional CAPM, Financial Economics, Risk and Uncertainty,

What if dividends were tax-exempt?: evidence from a natural experiment

We study the effect of dividend taxes on the payout and investment policy of listed firms and discuss their implications for agency problems. To do so, we exploit a unique setting in Switzerland where some, but not all, firms were suddenly able to pay tax-exempted dividends to their shareholders following the corporate tax reform of 2011. Using a difference-in-differences specification, we show that treated firms increased their payout much more than control firms after the tax cut. Differently, treated firms did not concurrently or subsequently increase investment. We show that the tax-inelasticity of investment was due to a significant drop in retained earnings - as the rise in dividends was not compensated by an equally-sized reduction in share repurchases. Furthermore, treated firms did not raise more equity and/or did not reduce their cash holdings to compensate for the contraction in retained earnings. Finally, we show that an unintended consequence of cutting dividend taxes is to mitigate the agency problems that arise between insiders and minority shareholders

Assumption without representation: the unacknowledged abstraction from communities and social goods

We have not clearly acknowledged the abstraction from unpriceable “social goods” (derived from communities) which, different from private and public goods, simply disappear if it is attempted to market them. Separability from markets and economics has not been argued, much less established. Acknowledging communities would reinforce rather than undermine them, and thus facilitate the production of social goods. But it would also help economics by facilitating our understanding of – and response to – financial crises as well as environmental destruction and many social problems, and by reducing the alienation from economics often felt by students and the public

Are Founding Families Special Blockholders ? An Investigation of Controlling Shareholder Influence on Firm Performance

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 hypothesise that only family shareholders have a real incentive to reduce agency costs whereas non-family blockholders are similar to widely held companies. Our results show that family firms are more profitable and sometimes display better market valuations as opposed to companies that are widely held or have a non-family blockholder. We investigate the impact of different features of family firms on performance, and document that the generation of the family, active involvement of the family and contestability of family control play an important role

Do not wake sleeping dogs: Pay-out policies in founding family firms

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 such as active involvement of family members, the presence of only one or multiple family members or the existence of a second blockholder play an important role for pay-out policies in family firms. Firms using control enhancing mechanisms do not have significantly lower pay-outs. We propose three possible explanations for the observed pay-out policies: private benefit extraction, reputation building, and family legacy. Our findings appear to be consistent with the reputation building hypothesis

Breaking bad ::an investment in cannabis

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 coefficients with regard to overall stock markets, other sin industries or cryptocurrencies. This makes it an interesting addition to financial portfolios

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 and generate abnormal returns for investors. Their results show that fund managers’ overall selectivity and market-timing abilities appear to be limited. Only one fund offers positive risk-adjusted returns and two funds show a tendency for market timing. Considering non-quantifiable risks, wine funds thus do not appear to be interesting investments

The appetite of restaurants for good wine

This paper examines the pricing and selection of wines in restaurants. Based on a sample of restaurants in the Swiss Gault&Millau guide, we show that restaurants located in the German part of Switzerland are more likely to publish their wine list online. The highest prices are equally found in the German part, where lists are also the most diverse. Restaurants in the Michelin guide and reporting a higher number of Gault&Millau points are applying higher prices. The length of the wine list and the presence of other restaurants in the vicinity also increase prices. Fourteen interviews further deepen the analysis. The professionals employ various selection criteria for their wine offerings. They favour local products, consider consumer preferences and do not employ advanced software. Moreover, they exclude the possibility of outsourcing and witnessed increased consumer expenses related to wine afterCOVID-19

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) display better returns than U.S. equity, fixed income, and real estate. Volatilities are, overall, low but increase once returns are adjusted for the inherent illiquidity on collectible markets. In a CAPM framework, only classic cars yield significant risk-adjusted returns with an annualized alpha of 5%. At the same time, correlations and systematic risk are low for all collectibles. This diversification benefit is confirmed by a 7% portfolio risk reduction following the inclusion of collectibles in a traditional financial portfolio. The authors further document that the inherent segmentation of collectible classes extends the benefits of cross-asset to intra-asset class diversification. Finally, they find that collectibles have performed slightly less well since the Global Financial Crisis

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 1914 before dropping with the outbreak of First World War (WWI). Casual restaurants offered a narrower wine selection. Special menus displayed a significantly higher probability of containing wine but with a more limited choice indicating that wine was especially appreciated on special occasions. French wines, especially from Bordeaux and Champagne, were the most represented on menus followed by wines from Germany. The average selling price of a bottle of wine was around US$40 in 2018 terms. Prices, however, fluctuated widely over time and wine type. Notably, American wines were about 50% less expensive than French or German wines