nep-cul New Economics Papers
on Cultural Economics
Issue of 2007‒10‒20
seven papers chosen by
Roberto Zanola
University of the Piemonte Orientale

  1. "Lost" on the Web: Does Web Distribution Stimulate or Depress Television Viewing? By Joel Waldfogel
  2. Impact of Cultural Tourism upon Urban Economies: An Econometric Exercise By Elena Bellini; Ugo Gasparino; Barbara Del Corpo; William Malizia
  3. Spatial Competition and Agglomeration: An Application to Motion Pictures By Darlene C. Chisholm; George Norman
  4. Product Line Rivalry: How Box Office Revenue Cycles Influence Movie Exhibition Variety By Darlene C. Chisholm; George Norman
  5. The Geography of the European Creative Class: A Rank-Size Analysis By Mark Lorenzen; Kristina Vaarst Andersen
  6. Rational Ignorance and Negative News in the Information Market By Jill McCluskey; Johan F.M. Swinnen
  7. The global wine market in the decade to 2015 with a focus on Australia and Chile By Glyn Wittwer

  1. By: Joel Waldfogel
    Abstract: In the past few years, YouTube and other sites for sharing video files over the Internet have vaulted from obscurity to places of centrality in the media landscape. The files available at YouTube include a mix of user-generated video and clips from network television shows. Networks fear that availability of their clips on YouTube will depress television viewing. But unauthorized clips are also free advertising for television shows. As YouTube has grown quickly, major networks have responded by making their content available at their own sites. This paper examines the effects of authorized and unauthorized web distribution on television viewing between 2005 and 2007 using a survey of Penn students on their tendencies to watch television series on television as well as on the web. The results provide a glimpse of the way young, Internet-connected people use YouTube and related sites. While I find some evidence of substitution of web viewing for conventional television viewing, time spent viewing programming on the web -- 4 hours per week -- far exceeds the reduction in weekly traditional television viewing of about 25 minutes. Overall time spent on network-controlled viewing (television plus network websites) increased by 1.5 hours per week.
    JEL: L1 L82
    Date: 2007–10
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:13497&r=cul
  2. By: Elena Bellini (Fondazione Eni Enrico Mattei); Ugo Gasparino (Fondazione Eni Enrico Mattei); Barbara Del Corpo (Fondazione Eni Enrico Mattei); William Malizia (Fondazione Eni Enrico Mattei)
    Abstract: In recent years, interest in tourism has spread rapidly throughout many small and medium European cities, which previously have not necessarily considered themselves as tourist destinations. Tourism is increasingly seen as a potential lever towards high economic growth, measured both in terms of income and employment. In the present Working Paper we report the analysis on the economic impact undertaken in the framework of the PICTURE Project, showing the results of a novel econometric exercise to statistically assess the impacts of cultural tourism upon European municipalities. More precisely the analysis aims at estimating the effects of tourism specialisation on local income and prices. The Working Paper is built as follows. Section 1 presents and discusses secondary data about tourism facts and figures, including the economic impact of tourism upon European economies, with a focus on cultural tourism. An extensive review of literature, which identifies the main categories of impacts and the currently available methodologies to assess them, is undertaken. Section 2 focuses on the state of the art. Section 3 describes the database built for the analysis, sources and variables. In order to visually represent the spatial variability of the main parameters, a series of thematic maps at NUTS 3 level(“Maps of European tourism”), using GIS (Geographical Information System) are also included in the Working Paper. Section 4 shows the results of the econometric analysis of European panel data for the estimation of the effects of tourism specialisation on both local incomes and prices. Section 5 concludes.
    Keywords: Cultural Tourism, Economic Growth
    JEL: O4 R0 L83
    Date: 2007–09
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fem:femwpa:2007.85&r=cul
  3. By: Darlene C. Chisholm; George Norman
    Abstract: This paper presents an empirical assessment of movie theatre attendance in two major metropolitan markets and provides strong support for the importance of spatial characteristics in determining attendance. We consider the hypothesis that attendance at a particular movie theatre reflects a tension between two effects: a competition effect and an agglomeration effect. We find evidence that the agglomeration effect dominates. Further, we identify a pattern of systematic spatial decay in the benefits deriving from agglomeration.
    JEL: L11 D43 L82
    Date: 2007
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:tuf:tuftec:0711&r=cul
  4. By: Darlene C. Chisholm; George Norman
    Abstract: We analyze how product line rivalry by multi-product oligopolists is affected by market product substitutability. We show that the width and degree of overlap in competing lines is determined by the tension between two effects: the drive to “be where the demand and the desire to weaken competition and intra-firm product cannibalization. Product shown to be wider and more overlapped in large markets and when product substitutability weak. We provide econometric support for our main hypotheses using data on weekly programming choices by first-run movie theatres in a large US metropolitan market.
    Keywords: Product line rivalry; market size; product substitutability; movie exhibition
    JEL: D21 D43 L13 L82
    Date: 2007
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:tuf:tuftec:0709&r=cul
  5. By: Mark Lorenzen; Kristina Vaarst Andersen
    Abstract: Using novel statistical data, the paper analyzes the geographical distribution of Richard Florida’s creative class among 445 European cities. The paper demonstrates that size matters, i.e. cities with a high proportion of creative class tend to get more creative through attraction of still more creative labor. More specifically, the distribution of the European creative class falls into three phases, each approximating a rank-size rule, with different exponents (i.e., inequality). The exponent for the smallest cities is profoundly more negative than for the middle-sized cities, and this tendency is stronger for the creative class than for the general population. Furthermore, the exponent of the largest cities is slightly less negative than the middle-sized cities, and this tendency is also stronger for the creative class. In order to explain this, the paper presents four propositions about how effects of large and small population sizes of cities may be more detrimental to attracting the creative class than attracting the population in general. Below a population size of approximately 70,000 inhabitants, there is a rapid drop of attractiveness to the creative class with decreasing city size. We propose that this may be because below this size, cities begin to drop below minimum efficient market sizes for particular creative services, below minimum labor market sizes for particular creative job types, and below minimum levels of political representation by the creative class. Above a European city population size of approximately 1,2 million inhabitants, the attractiveness of increasing city size for the creative class drops, and we propose that the creative class may respond particularly adversely to urban congestion.
    Date: 2007
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:aal:abbswp:07-17&r=cul
  6. By: Jill McCluskey; Johan F.M. Swinnen
    Abstract: While the availability of information has increased rapidly, the public is still considered poorly informed. This paper contributes to the emerging field of media economics by studying how the demand side of the media market affects news production and consumption. We show that consumers are likely to remain imperfectly informed on most issues and that negative news coverage is likely to dominate positive news stories because of demand side effects.
    Keywords: Media, bias, rational ignorance, negative news coverage
    JEL: L82 D83
    Date: 2007
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:lic:licosd:19107&r=cul
  7. By: Glyn Wittwer
    Abstract: The share of global wine supplied by New World producers has increased dramatically since the late 1980s. Australia and Chile have emerged as major exporters of wine. USA has also increased production sharply though its sales have grown mainly in the domestic rather than export markets. This paper uses the World Wine Model to project the wine markets of the world from 2005 to 2015. The model includes different types of wine, so as to distinguish the growing premium segment of the market from the non-premium segment. USA is set to become the largest consumer and importer of wine in the world. Hence, growth prospects for wine exporting nations will centre increasingly on the US market. The Chinese market is likely to follow the pattern set by the Japanese market, in which per capita consumption of wine has remained relatively low despite real income growth. Nevertheless, exports to China of non-premium wine will grow over the next decade. Paper prepared for a seminar in Chile in August 2007. Research funded by the Grape and Wine Research and Development Corporation (GWRDC) of Australia.
    Keywords: CGE modelling, wine consumption
    JEL: C68 Q13
    Date: 2007–07
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cop:wpaper:g-166&r=cul

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