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on Cultural Economics |
| By: | Kind, Hans Jarle (Dept. of Economics, Norwegian School of Economics and Business Administration); Koethenbuerger, Marko (Dept. of Economics, University of Copenhagen); Schjelderup, Guttorm (Dept. of Finance and Management Science, Norwegian School of Economics and Business Administration) |
| Abstract: | Empirical evidence suggests that people dislike ads in TV programs and other media products. In such situations standard economic theory prescribes that the advertising volume can be optimally reduced by levying a tax on ads. However, making use of recent advances in the theory of firm behavior in two-sided markets, we show that taxation of ads may be counterproductive. In particular, we identify a number of situations in which ad-adverse consumers are negatively affected by the tax, and we even show that the tax may lead to higher ad volumes. This unorthodox reaction to a tax may arise when consumers significantly dislike ads, i.e. in situations where traditional arguments for corrective taxes are strongest. |
| Keywords: | Two-sided markets; media market; pricing strategy; taxation |
| JEL: | H20 |
| Date: | 2011–02–21 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:nhhfms:2011_003&r=cul |
| By: | Maria De Paola; Vincenzo Scoppa (Dipartimento di Economia e Statistica, Università della Calabria) |
| Abstract: | To what extent individual choices are influenced by media exposure? We try to provide evidence on this issue considering how the sales of lotto tickets are determined by the size of the top prize (the jackpot) compared to the amount of attention that media devote to the game. We use data on the Italian SuperEnalotto (2003- 2010) and estimate tickets sales in relation to the jackpot size and to several measures of lotto media coverage. To take into account that media attention may be affected by the amount of tickets sold we instrument media coverage with the availability of other newsworthy material (sport events and disasters). It emerges that media attention to the game is inversely related to the availability of other news. Two-Stage-Least Squares Estimations show that, given the jackpot size, players spend more on lotto when media attention to the game is higher. |
| Keywords: | Media Influence, Media Exposure, Psychology and Economics, Lottery, Instrumental Variables |
| JEL: | D83 D1 D81 |
| Date: | 2011–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:clb:wpaper:201102&r=cul |
| By: | Lena Dräger (University of Hamburg, Deutchland, and KOF Swiss Economic Institute, ETH Zurich, Switzerland) |
| Abstract: | Using quantitative survey data from the Swedish Consumer Tendency Survey as well as a unique data set on media reports about inflation, we analyze the formation process of inflation perceptions and expectations as well as interrelations between the variables. Throughout the analysis, the role of media reports about inflation is emphasized and results for the low inflation period January 1998 to December 2007 are compared to those including the high inflation year 2008. Rejecting rationality, we find that perceptions, but not expectations, are affected asymmetrically by news, where media effects are generally stronger in times of high and volatile inflation. For the low inflation sample period, inflation expectations are more affected by shocks to perceptions than vice versa, but Granger causality runs from expectations to perceptions. Including more volatile inflation, we find more feed-back between the variables and a strong media effect especially on perceptions. |
| Keywords: | Inflation expectations, inflation perceptions, media reports |
| JEL: | C32 E31 E37 |
| Date: | 2011–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:kof:wpskof:11-273&r=cul |
| By: | Falck, Oliver; Heblich, Stephan; Lameli, Alfred; Südekum, Jens |
| Abstract: | We study the effect of cultural ties on economic exchange using a novel measure for cultural identity: dialect similarity across regions of the same country. We evaluate linguistic micro-data from a unique language survey conducted between 1879 and 1888 in about 45,000 German schools. The recorded geography of dialects comprehensively portrays local cultural ties that have been evolving for centuries, and provides an ideal opportunity to measure cul-tural barriers to economic exchange. In a gravity analysis, we then show that cross-regional migration flows in the period 2000-2006 are positively affected by historical dialect similari-ty. Using different empirical strategies, we show that this finding indicates highly time-persistent cultural borders that impede economic exchange even at a fine geographical scale. |
| Keywords: | Germany; Gravity; Internal migration; Culture; Language; Dialects |
| Date: | 2011–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:stl:stledp:2011-01&r=cul |
| By: | Samà, Danilo |
| Abstract: | Since its origin, ecotourism development has been at the centre of controversial and heated debates within the environmental and scientific society. On one hand, it has been considered as a model of responsible and sustainable tourism with the capacity to guarantee the conservation of the current biodiversity level and cultural identity, to educate the tourists about preservation and to improve the economic activity and the standard of living of the populations affected. On the other hand, it has been criticized for actually being a mere instrument in the hands of capitalist and western firms to commercially exploit the natural resources available in the less developed countries. Thus, are the ecotourism projects more likely to be profitable and successful in territories where the common resources are controlled by the state or managed by private firms? Considered the most frequent and spontaneous solution noticed in the ordinary daily life of the emerging countries, meaning natural resources owned communally by local institutions, does ecotourism impede or reinforce this management function of coordinating and controlling? The empirical researches conducted in literature tried to answer to some of the above-mentioned questions and offered the opportunity for a Law and Economics assessment of the problem related to the common-pool resources. |
| Keywords: | Common-Pool Resources; Commons Management; Development; Ecology; Environment; Governance; Property Rights; Sustainability; Tragedy of the Commons |
| JEL: | K32 K11 Q57 |
| Date: | 2011 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:28978&r=cul |