|
on Cultural Economics |
|
Issue of 2015‒06‒27
ten papers chosen by Roberto Zanola Università degli Studi del Piemonte Orientale “Amedeo Avogadro” |
| By: | Noémi Berlin (University of Edinburgh - School of Economics - University of Edinburgh); Anna Bernard (CES - Centre d'économie de la Sorbonne - UP1 - Université Panthéon-Sorbonne - CNRS, EEP-PSE - Ecole d'Économie de Paris - Paris School of Economics); Guillaume Fürst (University of Geneva - Department of Psychology and Educational Sciences - University of Geneva) |
| Abstract: | The stardom system characterizes creative industries: the demand and revenues are concentrated on a few bestselling books, movies or music. In this paper, we study the demand structure between bestsellers and new artists' productions in the music industry. We set up an experiment where participants face real choices situations. We crate three treatments to isolate the effect of information and incentives on diversity. In a first treatment, music is consumed for free without information. In a second one, subjects receive a prior information on others' evaluation of songs to study the effect of word-of-mouth. Finally, in a third one, a real market is introduced and music is bought. Significant evidence shows that word-of-mouth lowers diversity, while price incentives tend to lift it. In both treatments, subjects also react to the information or incentives nature. |
| Date: | 2015–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:cesptp:halshs-01163907&r=cul |
| By: | dilek çukul (Anadolu University) |
| Abstract: | Social media has become an important tool for the business of marketers. Increasing exposure and traffics are the main two benefits of social media marketing. Most marketers are using social media to develop loyal fans and gain marketplace intelligence. Marketers reported increased benefits across all categories since 2013 and trademarks increased the number of loyal fans and sales [1]. Therefore, 2013 was a significant year for social media. Feeling the power of Instagram may be one of the most interesting cases. Social media is an effective key for fashion brands as they allow them to communicate directly with their consumers, promote various events and initiatives, and build brand awareness. As the increasing use of visual info graphic and marketing practices in social media, trademarks has begun to show more interest in Instagram. There is also no language barriers in Instagram and provides visuals which are very crucial for fashion industry. The purpose of this study is to determine and contrast the content sharing types of 10 well-known fashion brands (5 Turkish brands and 5 international brands), and to explain their attitude in Instagram. Hence, the content of Instagram accounts of those brands were examined according to post type (photo/video), content type (9 elements), number of likes and reviews, photo type (amateur/professional), shooting place (studio/outdoor/shops/etc.), and brand comments on their posts. This study provides a snapshot of how fashion brands utilize Instagram in their efforts of marketing. |
| Keywords: | Social media, instagram, social media marketing, fashion brand |
| JEL: | M31 |
| Date: | 2015–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:sek:ibmpro:2304324&r=cul |
| By: | Pabilonia, Sabrina Wulff (U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics) |
| Abstract: | Homework is an important part of the academic production function, but often students are studying while doing another activity. Using the nationally representative Panel Study of Income Dynamics-Child Development Supplement time diaries, this chapter explores changes over the period 1997–2008 in homework time for U.S. children in 1st through 12th grade when homework is done as a sole activity versus simultaneously with another activity. It documents with which technologies and media homework is done simultaneously and how the share of multitasking time differs by gender. This chapter also examines the correlation between childhood attention difficulties and multitasking while studying. |
| Keywords: | multitasking, homework, human capital |
| JEL: | J24 |
| Date: | 2015–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp9126&r=cul |
| By: | Ruben Durante (Sciences Po); Paolo Pinotti (Università Bocconi); Andrea Tesei (Queen Mary University of London) |
| Abstract: | We investigate the political impact of entertainment television in Italy over the past thirty years by exploiting the staggered introduction of Silvio Berlusconi's commercial TV network, Mediaset, in the early 1980s. We find that individuals in municipalities that had access to Mediaset prior to 1985 - when the network only featured light entertainment programs - were significantly more likely to vote for Berlusconi's party in 1994, when he first ran for office. This effect persists for almost two decades and five elections, and is especially pronounced for heavy TV viewers, namely the very young and the old. We relate the extreme persistence of the effect to the relative incidence of these age groups in the voting population, and explore different mechanisms through which early exposure to entertainment content may have influenced their political attitudes. |
| Keywords: | Television; Entertainment; Voting; Political participation |
| JEL: | L82 D72 Z13 |
| Date: | 2015–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:spo:wpmain:info:hdl:2441/gjf8d7tah8ah9mq53gkdj73cq&r=cul |
| By: | Della Vigna, Stefano; La Ferrara, Eliana |
| Abstract: | We review the literature on the impact of exposure to the media. We cast a wide net and cover media impacts on education, family choices, labor and migration decisions, environmental choices, health, crime, public economics, attitudes, consumption and savings, and development economics. We stress five themes. First, the demand for entertainment plays a key role, with the economic impacts emerging largely as by-products. Second, to understand the media effects one cannot just focus on the direct effect of exposure but one needs to take into account the crowding-out of alternative activities (substitution effect). Third, the sources of identification play a critical role in determining what is known: credible estimates of short- and long run effects are available for some topics and some media but not for others. Fourth, most of the evidence on social and economic impacts is for exposure to the entertainment media such as television, as opposed to the printed press. Fifth, for the policy impacts both the substitution effect of media exposure and the demand for entertainment play an important role. |
| Keywords: | edutainment; imitation; internet; media economics; persuasion; radio; television |
| JEL: | A13 D01 H4 I10 I20 J00 K42 L82 L96 O10 |
| Date: | 2015–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:10667&r=cul |
| By: | Ruben Durante (Sciences Po); Ekaterina Zhuravskaya (Paris School of Economics, Université Paris I and CEPII) |
| Abstract: | Governments often take unpopular measures. To minimize the political cost of such measures policy makers may strategically time them to coincide with other newsworthy events, which distract the media and the public. We test this hypothesis using data on the recurrent Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Combining daily data on attacks on both sides of the conflict with data on the content of evening news for top U.S. TV networks, we show that Israeli attacks are more likely to be carried out when the U.S. news are expected to be dominated by important (non-Israel-related) events on the following day. In contrast, we find no evidence of strategic timing for Palestinian attacks. The timing of Israeli attacks minimizes the next-day news coverage which, as confirmed by comprehensive video content analysis, is especially charged with negative emotional content. We also find that: i) strategic timing is applied to retaliation only in periods of less intense fighting, when the urgency of retaliation is lower; ii) strategic timing is present only for the Israeli attacks that bear risk of civilians being affected; and iii) Israeli attacks are timed to newsworthy events that are predictable. |
| Keywords: | Conflict; Media; News Pressure; Strategic Timing; Israel; Palestine |
| JEL: | D74 L82 N4 D72 |
| Date: | 2015–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:spo:wpmain:info:hdl:2441/6l0phu0dat8eg98t75kpqihcid&r=cul |
| By: | Obschonka, Martin; Stuetzer, Michael; Gosling, Samuel D.; Rentfrow, Peter J.; Lamb, Michael E.; Potter, Jeff; Audretsch, David B. |
| Abstract: | In recent years, modern economies have shifted away from being based on physical capital and towards being based on new knowledge (e.g., new ideas and inventions). Consequently, contemporary economic theorizing and key public policies have been based on the assumption that resources for generating knowledge (e.g., education, diversity of industries) are essential for regional economic vitality. However, policy makers and scholars have discovered that, contrary to expectations, the mere presence of, and investments in, new knowledge does not guarantee a high level of regional economic performance (e.g., high entrepreneurship rates). To date, this “knowledge paradox” has resisted resolution. We take an interdisciplinary perspective to offer a new explanation, hypothesizing that “hidden” regional culture differences serve as a crucial factor that is missing from conventional economic analyses and public policy strategies. Focusing on entrepreneurial activity, we hypothesize that the statistical relation between knowledge resources and entrepreneurial vitality (i.e., high entrepreneurship rates) in a region will depend on “hidden” regional differences in entrepreneurial culture. To capture such “hidden” regional differences, we derive measures of entrepreneurship-prone culture from two large personality datasets from the United States (N = 935,858) and Great Britain (N = 417,217). In both countries, the findings were consistent with the knowledge-culture-interaction hypothesis. A series of nine additional robustness checks underscored the robustness of these results. Naturally, these purely correlational findings cannot provide direct evidence for causal processes, but the results nonetheless yield a remarkably consistent and robust picture in the two countries. In doing so, the findings raise the idea of regional culture serving as a new causal candidate, potentially driving the knowledge paradox; such an explanation would be consistent with research on the psychological characteristics of entrepreneurs. |
| Keywords: | Innovation, Personality, Knowledge, Culture, Entrepreneurship, Psychology, Regions, Cities |
| JEL: | L26 M13 O3 O30 |
| Date: | 2015 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:65202&r=cul |
| By: | Pauline Grosjean (School of Economics, Australian School of Business, the University of New South Wales); Rose Khattar (School of Economics, Australian School of Business, the University of New South Wales) |
| Abstract: | We document the implications of missing women in the short and long run. We exploit a natural historical experiment, which sent large numbers of male convicts and far fewer female convicts to Australia in the 18th and 19th century. In areas with higher sex ratios, women historically married more, worked less, and were less likely to occupy high-rank occupations. Today, people have more conservative attitudes towards women working, women are still less likely to have high-ranking occupations and earn a lower wage income. We document the role of vertical cultural transmission and of marriage homogamy in sustaining cultural persistence. |
| Keywords: | Culture, gender roles, sex ratio, natural experiment, Australia |
| JEL: | I31 N37 J16 |
| Date: | 2014–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:swe:wpaper:2014-29c&r=cul |
| By: | Heidi Tworek |
| Abstract: | This article compares American, German, and British radio policy in the interwar period. The three countries ended up in different places by the 1930s, but there were surprising parallels in institutions and attitudes to radio in the 1920s. By taking examples generally seen as representing three different radio systems, this article shows both why media content and national institutional arrangements briefly resembled one another, as well as how political and cultural factors led to divergent paths. Content in these three countries paralleled one another, as did ambitions for radio as a public and private space in the 1920s. The 1930s saw radio trajectories deviate. But they did so over the same issues of news provision, state intervention, and radio?s place in each nation?s international ambitions. Engineers and intellectuals were disappointed by radio?s inability to deliver universal peace. State officials? visions turned international by 1930, but they too would mostly be disappointed by broadcasting?s inefficacy in influencing foreign populations and global politics. Finally, content creators moved from seeing radio as a medium of elevation through music and education to attempting to cater to more ?popular? tastes. Utopianism gave way to pragmatism and propaganda. |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:qsh:wpaper:268016&r=cul |
| By: | Willson, Richard |
| Keywords: | Architecture, Arts and Humanities, Engineering |
| Date: | 2015–04–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cdl:uctcwp:qt2zz1q0j1&r=cul |