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Do Female and Male Judges Assign the Same Ratings to the Same Wines? Large Sample Results

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 November 2018

Jeff Bodington
Affiliation:
Bodington & Company, 50 California St., San Francisco, CA, 94111; e-mail: [email protected].
Manuel Malfeito-Ferreira
Affiliation:
Linking Landscape, Environment, Agriculture and Food Research Centre (LEAF), Instituto Superior de Agronomia, University of Lisbon, Tapada da Ajuda, 1349-017 Lisboa, Portugal; e-mail: [email protected].

Abstract

Much research shows that women and men have different taste acuities and preferences. If female and male judges tend to assign different ratings to the same wines, then the gender balances of the judge panels will bias awards. Existing research supports the null hypothesis, however, that finding is based on small sample sizes. This article presents the results for a large sample; 260 wines and 1,736 wine-score observations. Subject to the strong qualification that non-gender-related variation is material, the results affirm that female and male judges do assign about the same ratings to the same wines. The expected value of the difference in their mean ratings is zero. (JEL Classifications: A10, C00, C10, C12, D12)

Type
Articles
Copyright
Copyright © American Association of Wine Economists 2018 

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Footnotes

The authors thank anonymous reviewers for their insightful and constructive comments. The authors also thank Mr. Frederico Falcão, President of the Instituto da Vinha e do Vinho, for his support of this research. All remaining errors are the responsibility of the authors.

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