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on Cultural Economics |
| By: | Anja Koebrich Leon (Institute of Economics, Leuphana University Lueneburg, Germany) |
| Abstract: | The participation rate of women in the labor market shows a sizeable variation across countries and across time. Following studies conducted for North America, this section tests the hypothesis whether, next to structural conditions, cultural norms with regard to existing role models within society about working women influence a woman’s participation decision. While using the epidemiological approach to economics, which aims to compare economic outcomes between immigrant groups to assess the role cultural factors may play, the persistence of heterogeneity in labor market outcomes across immigrant groups is used to assess the role cultural norms regarding working women may play in explaining differences in labor market outcomes between immigrant groups for first and second generation women in Germany. To overcome the problems associated with a qualitative proxy of culture, such as religiosity or ethnicity, the impact of culture on women working behavior is proxied by past female labor force participation (LFP) rates from the woman’s country of origin or their parents, respectively. Using data from the GSOEP for the years 2001 to 2011, compared to findings from Fernández and Fogli (2009) and Gevrek et al 2011, which use large census data sets, I find statistically significant results for the association between cultural norms towards labor market behavior of women, as measured either by past female LFP in country of origin, country of origin indicator variables or attitudes towards working women prevalent in their home country, merely for first generation immigrants in Germany. However, while cultural heritage was found to play an inferior role for second generation immigrant women, religious identity, as a specific cultural trait, exhibits a strong negative relation with Muslim labor market behavior for both generations. |
| Keywords: | female labor force participation; cultural norms; ethnicity; ethnic identity; religious identity |
| JEL: | J15 J21 Z10 |
| Date: | 2013–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:lue:wpaper:270&r=cul |
| By: | Isabel Mendes |
| Abstract: | This article approaches the values underpinning derelict mining rehabilitation plans, their assessment in monetary terms, and reviews the empirical studies literature on this theme. The paper correspondingly contains four main aims. The first involves putting into perspective the thematic content on the rehabilitation of derelict and depressed mining areas, transforming them into mining heritage tourism products designed to trigger sustainable regional development. The second aim, concerns defining the range of benefits and values potentially arising. The third seeks to demonstrate and discuss why and how the theoretical frameworks of Total Economic Value (TEV) and economic valuation, taken together with the contingent valuation approach, enable the monetary estimation of the range of non-market individual values, through eliciting the individual’s willingness to pay (WTP) for the rehabilitation. And the fourth objective incorporates reviewing the literature on empirical studies estimating the monetary values of mining rehabilitation plans through recourse to the Contingent Valuation (CV) approach. We proceed by demonstrating that TEV, the economic valuation concept and CV are approaches appropriate to estimating the aforementioned benefits; we defend their utility as important inputs to raising the efficiency of political decision making processes and ensure local populations actively comply and participate in the rehabilitation process. Finally, we conclude that the empirical studies hitherto applied for estimating the monetary values of mining rehabilitation and remediation through recourse to CV remain very few despite the fact that this estimation type is increasingly recognised as an important tool in decision making processes on the rehabilitation of industrial cultural heritage in general, and mining heritage in particular. |
| Keywords: | Mining, Rehabilitation, Benefits, Cultural Heritage, Tourism, Contingent Valuation |
| JEL: | R11 O29 L83 Q53 L72 |
| Date: | 2013–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:soc:wpaper:wp032013&r=cul |
| By: | Anja Koebrich Leon (Institute of Economics, Leuphana University Lueneburg, Germany) |
| Abstract: | Assuming that certain religious beliefs, as a proxy for one’s cultural background, may inhibit wealth accumulation, individual savings behavior in the USA with its vital religious market is examined. Using data from the US Panel Study of Income Dynamics (PSID), I found notable differences in saving rates and in the amount saved between religious and non-religious individuals as well as across religious groups. However, neither the fixed-effects approach nor the instrumental variables estimation, where the religious composition of the region of ancestry origin is used as an instrument for individual religious belief, support the findings from cross-sectional analysis. The longitudinal analysis yields no effect of religious belief on savings choices. Frequent religious church attendance, however, positively affects savings decisions. Further, based on the exogenous variation in religious composition of ancestry region, the instrumental variables approach shows that religious affiliation determines the binary savings decision negatively. However, the instrument is not valid for the continuous savings decision. |
| Keywords: | savings behavior; cultural origin; religion |
| JEL: | D14 G11 Z12 |
| Date: | 2013–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:lue:wpaper:268&r=cul |