Understanding how experts rate cigars: a 'havanometric' analysis.

Summary Drawing on data from an annual French guidebook published in 2004, this paper focuses on the determinants of experts' ratings on Cuban cigars. Interestingly, we find that high quality cigars are more likely to be recommended to more experienced cigar lovers. Both the self-assessed quality and recommendation depend on the length and diameter of the cigars, but also on more subjective characteristics like number and type of aromas. Results from a Fields decomposition show that the quality of cigars is much more sensitive to the presence of a default and number of aromas than the expert's recommendation, which is more influenced by the rarity of cigars. Finally, these are essentially the objective characteristics of the cigars that have an influence on their prices, meaning that consumers truly benefit from additional qualitative information when reading experts' advice and ratings.