nep-cul 2012-09-16 papers

on Cultural Economics

Issue of 2012‒09‒16
two papers chosen by
Roberto Zanola
University Amedeo Avogadro

The Causal Effect of Watching TV on Material Aspirations: Evidence from the “Valley of the Innocent” By Walter Hyll; Lutz Schneider
The Intellectual Influence of Economic Journals: Quality versus Quantity By Kóczy László; Nichifor Alexandru

The Causal Effect of Watching TV on Material Aspirations: Evidence from the “Valley of the Innocent”

By:	Walter Hyll; Lutz Schneider
Abstract:	The paper addresses the question of whether TV consumption has an impact on material aspirations. We exploit a natural experiment that took place during the period in which Germany was divided. Owing to geographical reasons, TV programs from the Federal Republic of Germany could not be received in all parts of the German Democratic Republic. Therefore, a natural variation occurred in exposure to West German television. We find robust evidence that watching TV is positively correlated with aspirations. Our identification strategy implies a causal relationship running from TV to aspirations. This conclusion resists various sets of alternative specifications and samples.
Keywords:	natural experiment, TV consumption, material aspirations
JEL:	C26 D12 I31
Date:	2012–09
URL:	http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iwh:dispap:8-12&r=cul

The Intellectual Influence of Economic Journals: Quality versus Quantity

By:	Kóczy László; Nichifor Alexandru (METEOR)
Abstract:	The evaluation of scientific output has a key role in the allocation of research funds andacademic positions. Decisions are often based on quality indicators for academic journals and overthe years a handful of scoring methods have been proposed for this purpose. Discussing the mostprominent methods (de facto standards) we show that they do not distinguish quality from quantityat article level. The systematic bias we find is analytically tractable and implies that themethods are manipulable. We introduce modified methods that correct for this bias, and use themto provide rankings of economic journals. Our methodology is transparent; our results are replicable.
Keywords:	mathematical economics;
Date:	2012
URL:	http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:dgr:umamet:2012025&r=cul

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