| By: |
Karol Jan BOROWIECKI (Department of Economics, Trinity College Dublin) |
| Abstract: |
I investigate the consequences of long-run persistence of a societies’
preference towards cultural goods. Historical cultural activity is
approximated with the frequency of births of classical composers during the
Renaissance and is linked with contemporary supply of cultural activities in
Italian provinces. Areas with a one-standard-deviation higher number of
composer births expose nowadays up to 0.4 standard deviations higher supply of
cultural activities (such as concerts or theater performances). Those
provinces seem to exhibit today also a somewhat lower supply of non-cultural
activities. The results point at a tantalising divergence in societies’
cultural preferences which is attributable to events rooted long in the past.
Furthermore, the findings imply a remarkable persistency of the geography of
artistic activity. While human capital is found to be potentially a driver for
spill-over effects across different cultural disciplines over time, other
unobservable factors, such as societies’ preference traits, determine the
persistency within most closely related cultural areas. |
| Keywords: |
Economic development, Culture, Institutions, Path Dependence, Endogenous preferences |
| JEL: |
N33 N34 O10 Z1 Z10 |
| Date: |
2012–08 |
| URL: |
http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:tcd:tcduee:tep0312&r=cul |