In Vino Veritas: The Effects of Different Management Configurations in German Viniculture

Different management configurations have distinct performance effects. In particular, this is examined for vine-growing estates in Germany. For several reasons managers will prefer higher quality over quantity, thus producing better wines at higher prices in lower volume than self-managing owners do. Conversely, members of cooperatives have diverse incentives to sell more and cheaper bottles of lower quality than independent winegrowers. These hypotheses are theoretically derived and empirically tested as well as confirmed for German viniculture.