nep-cul New Economics Papers
on Cultural Economics
Issue of 2013‒08‒05
six papers chosen by
Roberto Zanola
University Amedeo Avogadro

  1. The Market for Paintings in the Netherlands during the Seventeenth Century By Federico Etro; Elena Stepanova
  2. Sport Talent, Media Value and Equal Prize Policies in Tennis By Pedro Garcia-del-Barrio; Francesc Pujol
  3. A nonlinear product differentiation model à la Cournot: a new look to the newspapers industry By Mercedes Esteban Bravo; José Manuel Vidal-Sanz
  4. Voting Alone? The Political and Cultural Consequences of Commercial TV By Ruben Durante; Paolo Pinotti; Andrea Tesei
  5. The Impact of Cultural Symbols and Spokesperson Identity on Attitudes and Intentions By Lenoir, A-S.I.; Puntoni, S.; Reed II, A.; Verlegh, P.W.J.
  6. Copyright-Protected Assets in the National Accounts By Rachel Soloveichik; David Wasshausen

  1. By: Federico Etro (Department of Economics, University Of Venice Cà Foscari); Elena Stepanova (S. Anna School of Advanced Studies, Pisa)
    Abstract: We analyze the price of paintings in Dutch inventories and auctions of the Golden Age. The econometric investigation emphasizes correlations between prices adjusted for inflation and characteristics of the paintings, of the painters, of the owners (job, religion, size of the house) and, in case of auctions, also of the buyers. Price differentials for alternative genres, for the characteristics of the traders and the purpose of the inventory tend to disappear after con-trolling for the unobservable quality of paintings with artists fixed effects. The real price of a representative painting declined over the XVII century. We argue that initial high prices were the fruit of the large increase in demand by the Dutch middle class, which attracted endogenous entry of painters. This led to intense competition and the development of cost-saving innovations for mass production (high specialization in genres, smaller paintings, monochromatic styles) so as to gradually reduce prices. We also run a multinomial probit model to verify the Montias hypothesis on the location of paintings between rooms of Dutch houses.
    Keywords: Art market, Endogenous entry, Dutch Golden Age, Hedonic pricing analysis
    JEL: Z11 N0 D4
    Date: 2013
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ven:wpaper:2013:16&r=cul
  2. By: Pedro Garcia-del-Barrio (Economia i Organització d'Empresas Universitat Internacional de Catalunya); Francesc Pujol (School of Economics and Business AdministrationUniversity of Navarra)
    Abstract: Given the economic and commercial implications of sports, the media value of players and teams is considered a major asset in professional sports businesses. This paper aims to assess the economic value of intangible assets in the tennis industry. In order to rank the media value of professional tennis players (both men and women), we measure the intangible talent of players based on their exposure in the mass media. We use the ESI (Economics, Sports and Intangibles) methodology to examine some issues related to the competitive structure of tennis. Then, we explore whether policies regarding prize money could be more efficiently designed to account for the economic contribution of the players. The paper uses weekly data on the media presence and popularity of 1,400 professional tennis players (700 women and 700 men competing in 2007, espectively, in the WTA and ATP).
    Keywords: discrimination, pay and performance, professional tennis, media value, evaluation of intangible assets
    JEL: J24 J33 J71
    Date: 2013–02–01
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:una:unccee:wp2712&r=cul
  3. By: Mercedes Esteban Bravo; José Manuel Vidal-Sanz
    Abstract: In this work, we develop a new model for competition in markets with differentiated products. In addition, we present a consumer model designed to produce a flexible nonlinear inverse demand system that resembles the classical Multinomial Logit model, and discuss several extensions. We characterize firms competition in quantities based on the inverse demand system. The model is applied to the Spanish newspaper industry. This is a highly competitive two-sided market whose revenues are generated from sales and to a larger extent from advertising driven by its circulation. We then characterize the Perfect Equilibrium by conditional moment conditions, and estimate the parameters using the Generalized Method of Moments
    Keywords: Newspapers, Differentiated products, Dynamic equilibrium, Generalized method of moments, Advertising expenditure, Time series, Persistence, Cointegration, Structural changes
    Date: 2013–07
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cte:wbrepe:wb132002&r=cul
  4. By: Ruben Durante (Département d'économie); Paolo Pinotti; Andrea Tesei
    Abstract: We investigate the long-term impact of early exposure to Berlusconi’s commercial TV network, Mediaset, on voting behavior and civic engagement in Italy. To do so, we exploit differences in Mediaset signal reception across Italian municipalities due to the network’s staggered introduction over the national territory and to idiosyncratic geomorphological factors. We find that municipalities exposed to Mediaset prior to 1985 exhibit greater electoral support for Berlusconi’s party in 1994, when he first ran for office, relative to municipalities that were exposed only later on. This difference, estimated between 1 and 2 percentage points, is extremely robust and tends to persist in the following four elections. This effect can hardly be attributed to differential exposure to partisan news bias since, prior to 1985, content on Mediaset channels was dominated by light-entertainment programs and no news programs were broadcast until 1991, by which time the network was accessible to the entire population. Instead, we present evidence that early exposure to commercial TV was associated with a substantial decline in social capital consistent with the diffusion of a culture of individualism and civic disengagement that favored the political success of Berlusconi.
    Keywords: mass media, voting, civic engagement
    JEL: L82 D72 Z13
    Date: 2013–06
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:spo:wpecon:info:hdl:2441/7o52iohb7k6srk09n8t4pad92&r=cul
  5. By: Lenoir, A-S.I.; Puntoni, S.; Reed II, A.; Verlegh, P.W.J.
    Abstract: In today’s multicultural societies, ethnic targeting is increasingly important for marketing. Two main approaches to target ethnic minorities have emerged: messaging consumers when their ethnic identity is most salient, and featuring spokespeople who have the same heritage as the target. We conduct replications of two articles representative of these research streams: Forehand and Deshpandé (2001) and Deshpandé and Stayman (1994). Our findings identify generational status as an important boundary condition for these ethnic targeting strategies.
    Keywords: advertising;ethnicity;identity;minority targeting
    Date: 2013–07–23
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:dgr:eureri:1765040663&r=cul
  6. By: Rachel Soloveichik; David Wasshausen (Bureau of Economic Analysis)
    Date: 2013–07
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:bea:wpaper:0102&r=cul

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