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on Cultural Economics |
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Issue of 2006‒07‒02
one paper chosen by Roberto Zanola Universita degli Studi del Piemonte Orientale |
| By: | Anne-Célia Disdier (INRA-INAPG, UMR Economie Publique); Keith Head (Sauder School of Business, University of British Columbia); Thierry Mayer (Université de Paris Sud, CEP II, PSE, and CEPR) |
| Abstract: | Free trade in audio-visual services has faced opposition on the grounds that foreign media undermine domestic culture, and ultimately, global diversity. We assess the media-culture link using name frequencies as a measure of tastes. Using a 47-year panel of French birth registries, we first show that names appearing on television shows, movies, or in songs are about five times more popular than other names. Most, but not all, of this relationship arises from endogeneity: song and script writers, as well as performers and their parents, select names that would be popular anyway. Using name attributes, fixed effects, and lagged popularity as controls, our regression results suggest that media affect choices by informing parents of unfamiliar names. |
| Keywords: | Endogenous Tastes, Cultural transmission, Television, Cinema, Popular Music |
| JEL: | F15 D19 Z10 |
| Date: | 2006 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:csl:devewp:213&r=cul |