|
on Cultural Economics |
|
Issue of 2014‒07‒05
three papers chosen by Roberto Zanola Universita' del Piemonte Orientale Amedeo Avogadro |
| By: | Stefan Bauernschuster; Oliver Falck |
| Abstract: | We document the spatial diffusion of Friedrich Froebel's radical invention of kindergartens in 19th-century Germany. The first kindergarten was founded at Froebel's birthplace. Early spatial diffusion can be explained by cultural proximity, measured by historical dialect similarity, to Froebel's birthplace. This result is robust to the inclusion of higher order polynomials in geographic distance and similarity measures with respect to industry, geography or religion. Our findings suggest that a common cultural basis facilitates the spill-over of ideas. We further show that the contemporaneous spatial pattern of child care coverage is still correlated with cultural similarity to Froebel's place of birth. |
| Keywords: | Culture, spatial diffusion, public child care |
| JEL: | N33 J13 Z13 |
| Date: | 2014 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:diw:diwsop:diw_sp659&r=cul |
| By: | Noemí Pulido Pavón (University of Seville, Spain); Luis Palma Martos (University of Seville, Spain) |
| Abstract: | The analysis and implications of copyright provide the foundation for copyright economics, where an array of different streams of thought coexist feeding a number of controversies that at the same time both hinder and enrich the research agenda. One of the keenest debates concerns the relation between copyright and competition policy. The goal of the current work is to explore to what extent competition policy determines the level of protection afforded to copyright. The paper also analyses the effect of other variables such as education, innovation, culture and national wealth. Panel data techniques are applied for a sample of eight countries over the period 2006 to 2011. Findings show that copyright protection is more intense in countries which have more effective competition policy laws, and which perform better in education, innovation and wealth. The link with regard to spending on culture does not prove significant, opening up a range of hypotheses for formulating cultural policy goals and instruments. In terms of countries, those in the Mediterranean area display the weakest regimes for protecting intellectual property. |
| Keywords: | Intellectual Property Rights, Copyright Economics, Competition Policy, Panel Data Techniques. |
| JEL: | D4 L5 Z1 |
| Date: | 2014–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:gmf:wpaper:2014-12.&r=cul |
| By: | Viola Angelini; Laura Casi; Luca Corazzini |
| Abstract: | We empirically assess the relationship between cultural assimilation and subjective well-being of immigrants by using the German Socio-Economic Panel, a longitudinal dataset including information on both the economic and non-economic conditions of the respondents. We find that the more immigrants identify with the German culture and fluently speak the national language, the more they report to be satisfied with their lives. This result is robust to several potential confounding factors, including a large number of individual variables (demographic, educational, social, economic and health), labour market outcomes and the external social conditions of the immigrant. |
| Keywords: | assimilation, identity, life-satisfaction, immigration |
| JEL: | J15 I31 Z10 F22 |
| Date: | 2014 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:diw:diwsop:diw_sp654&r=cul |