IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/gro/rugccs/200305.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Expert judgment versus public opinion : evidence from the Eurovision Song Contest

Author

Listed:
  • Haan, Marco
  • Dijkstra, Gerhard
  • Dijkstra, Peter

    (Groningen University)

Abstract

For centuries, there have been discussions as to whether only experts can judge the quality of cultural output, or whether the taste of the public also has merit. This paper tries to resolve that question empirically, using national finals of the Eurovision Song Contest. We show that experts are better judges of quality: the outcome of finals judged by experts is less sensitive to factors unrelated to quality than the outcome of finals judged by public opinion. Yet, experts are not perfect: their judgment does still depend on such factors. This is also the case in the European finals of the contest

Suggested Citation

  • Haan, Marco & Dijkstra, Gerhard & Dijkstra, Peter, 2003. "Expert judgment versus public opinion : evidence from the Eurovision Song Contest," CCSO Working Papers 200305, University of Groningen, CCSO Centre for Economic Research.
    • Handle: RePEc:gro:rugccs:200305
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://irs.ub.rug.nl/ppn/249568942
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Stewart, Jennifer M. & O'Shea, Eamon & Donaldson, Cam & Shackley, Phil, 2002. "Do ordering effects matter in willingness-to-pay studies of health care?," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 21(4), pages 585-599, July.
    2. Victor A. Ginsburgh & Jan C. van Ours, 2003. "Expert Opinion and Compensation: Evidence from a Musical Competition," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 93(1), pages 289-296, March.
    3. Victor Ginsburgh & Sheila Weyers, 1999. "On the Perceived Quality of Movies," Journal of Cultural Economics, Springer;The Association for Cultural Economics International, vol. 23(4), pages 269-283, November.
    4. Vergin, Roger C. & Sosik, John J., 1999. "No place like home: an examination of the home field advantage in gambling strategies in NFL football," Journal of Economics and Business, Elsevier, vol. 51(1), pages 21-31, January.
    5. Victor Ginsburgh, 2003. "Awards, Success and Aesthetic Quality in the Arts," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 17(2), pages 99-111, Spring.
    6. Herbert Glejser & Bruno Heyndels, 2001. "Efficiency and Inefficiency in the Ranking in Competitions: the Case of the Queen Elisabeth Music Contest," Journal of Cultural Economics, Springer;The Association for Cultural Economics International, vol. 25(2), pages 109-129, May.
    7. Nachoem M. Wijnberg & Gerda Gemser, 2000. "Adding Value to Innovation: Impressionism and the Transformation of the Selection System in Visual Arts," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 11(3), pages 323-329, June.
    8. Holbrook, Morris B, 1999. "Popular Appeal versus Expert Judgments of Motion Pictures," Journal of Consumer Research, Oxford University Press, vol. 26(2), pages 144-155, September.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Felbermayr, Gabriel J. & Toubal, Farid, 2010. "Cultural proximity and trade," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 54(2), pages 279-293, February.
    2. Pannicke, Julia, 2015. "Abstimmungsverhalten im Bundesvision Song Contest: Regionale Nähe versus Qualität der Musik," Ilmenau Economics Discussion Papers 95, Ilmenau University of Technology, Institute of Economics.
    3. GINSBURGH, Victor & NOURY, Abdul, 2005. "Cultural voting : The Eurovision Song Contest," LIDAM Discussion Papers CORE 2005006, Université catholique de Louvain, Center for Operations Research and Econometrics (CORE).
    4. Dogru, Bülent, 2013. "Modeling Voting Behavior in the Eurovision Song Contest," MPRA Paper 42801, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    5. Stefan D. Haigner & Stefan Jenewein & Hans-Christian Müller & Florian Wakolbinger, 2010. "The first shall be last: Serial position effects in the case contestants evaluate each other," Economics Bulletin, AccessEcon, vol. 30(4), pages 3170-3176.
    6. Krzysztof Kontek & Honorata Sosnowska, 2020. "Specific Tastes or Cliques of Jurors? How to Reduce the Level of Manipulation in Group Decisions?," Group Decision and Negotiation, Springer, vol. 29(6), pages 1057-1084, December.
    7. Sofronis Clerides & Thanasis Stengos, 2012. "Love thy Neighbour, Love Thy Kin: Strategy and Bias in the Eurovision Song Contest," Ekonomia, Cyprus Economic Society and University of Cyprus, vol. 15(1), pages 22-44, Summer.
    8. Ari Kokko & Patrik Gustavsson Tingvall, 2014. "Distance, Transaction Costs, and Preferences in European Trade," The International Trade Journal, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 28(2), pages 87-120, June.
    9. Budzinski, Oliver & Kohlschreiber, Marie & Kuchinke, Björn & Pannicke, Julia, 2019. "Does music quality matter for audience voters in a music contest?," Ilmenau Economics Discussion Papers 122, Ilmenau University of Technology, Institute of Economics.
    10. Harris, Mark N. & Novarese, Marco & Wilson, Chris M., 2022. "Being in the right place: A natural field experiment on the causes of position effects in individual choice," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 194(C), pages 24-40.
    11. Alexander V. Mantzaris & Samuel R. Rein & Alexander D. Hopkins, 2018. "Preference and neglect amongst countries in the Eurovision Song Contest," Journal of Computational Social Science, Springer, vol. 1(2), pages 377-390, September.
    12. Aloys Prinz, 2017. "Rankings as coordination games: the Dutch Top 2000 pop song ranking," Journal of Cultural Economics, Springer;The Association for Cultural Economics International, vol. 41(4), pages 379-401, November.
    13. Budzinski, Oliver & Pannicke, Julia, 2017. "Does popularity matter in a TV song competition? Evidence from a national music contest," Ilmenau Economics Discussion Papers 106, Ilmenau University of Technology, Institute of Economics.
    14. Victor Ginsburgh, 2005. "Languages, Genes, and Cultures," Journal of Cultural Economics, Springer;The Association for Cultural Economics International, vol. 29(1), pages 1-17, February.
    15. Ginsburgh, Victor & Noury, Abdul G., 2008. "The Eurovision Song Contest. Is voting political or cultural?," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 24(1), pages 41-52, March.
    16. Budzinski, Oliver & Pannicke, Julia, 2016. "Do preferences for pop music converge across countries? Empirical evidence from the Eurovision Song Contest," Ilmenau Economics Discussion Papers 101, Ilmenau University of Technology, Institute of Economics.
    17. Sofronis Clerides & Thanasis Stengos, 2006. "Love thy Neighbor, Love thy Kin: Voting Biases in the Eurovision Song Contest," University of Cyprus Working Papers in Economics 1-2006, University of Cyprus Department of Economics.
    18. Brinja Meiseberg, 2014. "Trust the artist versus trust the tale: performance implications of talent and self-marketing in folk music," Journal of Cultural Economics, Springer;The Association for Cultural Economics International, vol. 38(1), pages 9-42, February.
    19. Oliver Budzinski & Julia Pannicke, 2017. "Culturally biased voting in the Eurovision Song Contest: Do national contests differ?," Journal of Cultural Economics, Springer;The Association for Cultural Economics International, vol. 41(4), pages 343-378, November.
    20. Novarese, Marco & Wilson, Chris M., 2013. "Being in the Right Place: A Natural Field Experiment on List Position and Consumer Choice," MPRA Paper 48074, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    21. Darren Grant, 2021. "Uncovering Bias in Order Assignment," Papers 2103.11952, arXiv.org, revised May 2021.
    22. Evgeny A. Antipov & Elena B. Pokryshevskaya, 2017. "Order effects in the results of song contests: Evidence from the Eurovision and the New Wave," Judgment and Decision Making, Society for Judgment and Decision Making, vol. 12(4), pages 415-419, July.
    23. Saavedra, Serguei & Efstathiou, Janet & Reed-Tsochas, Felix, 2007. "Identifying the underlying structure and dynamic interactions in a voting network," Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, Elsevier, vol. 377(2), pages 672-688.
    24. Derek Gatherer, 2006. "Comparison of Eurovision Song Contest Simulation with Actual Results Reveals Shifting Patterns of Collusive Voting Alliances," Journal of Artificial Societies and Social Simulation, Journal of Artificial Societies and Social Simulation, vol. 9(2), pages 1-1.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Francesco Angelini & Massimiliano Castellani, 2019. "Cultural and economic value: a critical review," Journal of Cultural Economics, Springer;The Association for Cultural Economics International, vol. 43(2), pages 173-188, June.
    2. Ho Fai Chan & Bruno S. Frey & Jana Gallus & Benno Torgler, 2013. "Does the John Bates Clark Medal boost subsequent productivity and citation success?," ECON - Working Papers 111, Department of Economics - University of Zurich.
    3. repec:dgr:rugsom:03f12 is not listed on IDEAS
    4. John Ashworth & Bruno Heyndels & Kristien Werck, 2010. "Expert judgements and the demand for novels in Flanders," Journal of Cultural Economics, Springer;The Association for Cultural Economics International, vol. 34(3), pages 197-218, August.
    5. repec:dgr:rugccs:200305 is not listed on IDEAS
    6. Chan, Ho Fai & Frey, Bruno S. & Gallus, Jana & Torgler, Benno, 2014. "Academic honors and performance," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 31(C), pages 188-204.
    7. Wallentin, Erik, 2016. "Demand for cinema and diverging tastes of critics and audiences," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 33(C), pages 72-81.
    8. Allègre Hadida, 2010. "Commercial success and artistic recognition of motion picture projects," Journal of Cultural Economics, Springer;The Association for Cultural Economics International, vol. 34(1), pages 45-80, February.
    9. GINSBURGH, Victor & NOURY, Abdul, 2005. "Cultural voting : The Eurovision Song Contest," LIDAM Discussion Papers CORE 2005006, Université catholique de Louvain, Center for Operations Research and Econometrics (CORE).
    10. Victor Ginsburgh & Sheila Weyers, 2008. "Quantitative approaches to valuation in the arts, with an application to movies," ULB Institutional Repository 2013/7292, ULB -- Universite Libre de Bruxelles.
    11. Michela Ponzo & Vincenzo Scoppa, 2015. "Experts’ awards and economic success: evidence from an Italian literary prize," Journal of Cultural Economics, Springer;The Association for Cultural Economics International, vol. 39(4), pages 341-367, November.
    12. Sanne J. Joustra & Ruud H. Koning & Alex Krumer, 2021. "Order Effects in Elite Gymnastics," De Economist, Springer, vol. 169(1), pages 21-35, February.
    13. Victor Ginsburgh, 2016. "On Judging Art and Wine," Working Papers ECARES ECARES 2016-21, ULB -- Universite Libre de Bruxelles.
    14. V. Ginsburgh & Sheila Weyers, 2014. "Nominees, winners, and losers," Journal of Cultural Economics, Springer;The Association for Cultural Economics International, vol. 38(4), pages 291-313, November.
    15. Nicolas G鲡rd Vaillant & François-Charles Wolff, 2013. "Understanding how experts rate cigars: a ‘havanometric’ analysis," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 45(1), pages 99-109, January.
    16. Natalia Gmerek, 2015. "The determinants of Polish movies’ box office performance in Poland," Journal of Marketing and Consumer Behaviour in Emerging Markets, University of Warsaw, Faculty of Management, vol. 1(1), pages 15-35.
    17. Stefan D. Haigner & Stefan Jenewein & Hans-Christian Müller & Florian Wakolbinger, 2010. "The first shall be last: Serial position effects in the case contestants evaluate each other," Economics Bulletin, AccessEcon, vol. 30(4), pages 3170-3176.
    18. Azuela Flores José Ignacio & Fernandez Blanco Víctor & Sanzo Pérez María José, 2012. "The effects of critics reviews on movie demand," Contaduría y Administración, Accounting and Management, vol. 57(2), pages 201-222, abril-jun.
    19. Brian Goff & Dennis Wilson & David Zimmer, 2017. "Movies, Mass Consumers, And Critics: Economics And Politics Of A Two-Sided Market," Contemporary Economic Policy, Western Economic Association International, vol. 35(2), pages 269-277, April.
    20. Ethan Mollick & Ramana Nanda, 2016. "Wisdom or Madness? Comparing Crowds with Expert Evaluation in Funding the Arts," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 62(6), pages 1533-1553, June.
    21. Bruno S. Frey, "undated". "Knight Fever towards an Economics of Awards," IEW - Working Papers 239, Institute for Empirical Research in Economics - University of Zurich.
    22. Bruno S. Frey & Susanne Neckermann, 2013. "Prizes and awards," Chapters, in: Luigino Bruni & Stefano Zamagni (ed.), Handbook on the Economics of Reciprocity and Social Enterprise, chapter 27, pages 271-276, Edward Elgar Publishing.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gro:rugccs:200305. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: . General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/ferugnl.html .

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Hanneke Tamling (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/ferugnl.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service hosted by the Research Division of the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis . RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.