| Abstract: |
This study investigates agglomeration effects for classical music production
in a wide range of cities for a global sample of composers born between 1750
and 1899. Theory suggests a trade-off between agglomeration economies (peer
effects) and diseconomies (peer crowding). I test this hypothesis using
historical data on composers and employ a unique instrumental variable – a
measure of birth centrality, calculated as the average distance between a
composer’s birthplace and the birthplace of his peers. I find a strong causal
impact of peer group size on the number of important compositions written in a
given year. Consistent with theory, the productivity gain eventually decreases
and is characterized by an inverted U-shaped relationship. These results are
robust to a large series of tests, including checks for quality of peers, city
characteristics, various measures of composers’ productivity, and across
different estimations in which also time-varying birth centrality measures are
used as instrumental variables. |