nep-cul New Economics Papers
on Cultural Economics
Issue of 2017‒02‒26
four papers chosen by
Roberto Zanola
Università degli Studi del Piemonte Orientale

  1. Quality in museums as a way to increase sustainability By Pop, Izabela Luiza; Borza, Anca
  2. Ways of increasing the visibility of the Romanian rural tourism By Avram, Daniel
  3. Media content's role in the making of a democrat: Evidence from East Germany By Tim Friehe; Helge Muller; Florian Neumeier
  4. The effect of Western TV on crime: Evidence from East Germany By Tim Friehe; Helge Muller; Florian Neumeier

  1. By: Pop, Izabela Luiza; Borza, Anca
    Abstract: Due to the high accent put on sustainable development of communities and on the role played by cultural organisations in this development process, this research starts from the hypothesis that quality may represent a path through which museums can achieve a higher level of sustainability. This hypothesis was tested through semi-structured interviews with experts from museums. The qualitative research showed that museums sustainability has to be measured through quantitative indicators but also through some quality-related indicators. Despite the fact that all experts pointed out a connection between sustainability measurement and quality, they argued that very few Romanian museums are carrying out such studies. Often, museums see quality measurement as something expensive, and thus unaffordable. Based on these facts, the second part of the paper seeks to highlight that quality is a much simpler tool than it is considered and museums can use this tool for improving their sustainability. Thus, the concept of museum quality is clarified by presenting the factors influencing it and some practical models which can be used by museums for measuring quality. By combining empirical and theoretical research, this paper may be of interest for other scholars studying museums sustainability and quality, but also for people working in museums.
    Keywords: museum quality; sustainability; development; improvement; SERVQUAL; HISTOQUAL
    JEL: M10 Q01
    Date: 2016–09–16
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:76898&r=cul
  2. By: Avram, Daniel
    Abstract: Romania has a remarkable natural heritage, with landscapes that are unique in the world and with villages still preserving the habits and traditions unaltered. Country’s potential for the practising the rural tourism is high, with fair chances of transforming villages that are less visible at the international level into actual emblematic destinations. As the urban pollution and organisational stress rise, the vacations in the rural area may be a plausible way of reinvigorating the spirit. However, the lack of visibility of the Romanian destinations requires that new promoting methods be identified. By the quality analysis carried out by the author in this article, new ways to increase the Romanian tourism visibility and to attract new tourists are argued. Aspects such as promotion by art, by thematic museums, with the help of opinion makers or by means of popular literature pieces have been considered. Thus, the potential methods of promoting the authentic Romanian village have been identified, assuming that each reference in the foreign press, cinema or other communication channel must be identified and exploited for the benefit of the Romanian tourism.
    Keywords: rural tourism; Romanian rural tourism; promotion by art; promotion of rural tourism; promotion in tourism
    JEL: L83
    Date: 2016–11
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:76894&r=cul
  3. By: Tim Friehe (University of Marburg); Helge Muller (University of Marburg); Florian Neumeier (CESifo)
    Abstract: This paper explores the causal infl uence of access to Western television programming on voting behavior. We exploit a natural experiment involving access to West German TV within the German Democratic Republic in which only geography and topography determined the allocation of individuals to treatment and control groups. Focusing on both the shares of extremist parties and voter turnout, we find that in the post-reuni cation decade in which TV content was harmonized, regions that already had access to Western TV broadcasts before reunification experience lower vote shares of extremist parties and higher voter turnout.
    Keywords: Voting; Television; Media; Natural experiment; Germany.
    JEL: J22 K42 P37 P39
    Date: 2017
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:mar:magkse:201711&r=cul
  4. By: Tim Friehe (University of Marburg); Helge Muller (University of Marburg); Florian Neumeier (CESifo)
    Abstract: This paper explores the causal infl uence of Western television programming on crime rates. We exploit a natural experiment involving access to West German TV within the German Democratic Republic (GDR) in which only geography and topography determined the allocation of individuals to treatment and control groups. Focusing on violent and property crime (as these domains were most likely to be affected by the marked differences in TV content), we find that in the post-reunification decade in which TV content was harmonized, regions that had access to Western TV broadcasts prior to the reunification experienced lower rates of violent crime, sex crime, and theft, but more fraud.
    Keywords: Crime; Television; Media; Natural experiment; Germany.
    JEL: J22 K42 P37 P39
    Date: 2017
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:mar:magkse:201710&r=cul

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