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on Cultural Economics |
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Issue of 2017‒06‒25
six papers chosen by Roberto Zanola Università degli Studi del Piemonte Orientale |
| By: | Natalia Zugravu-Soilita (University of Versailles Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines); Vincent Geronimi (University of Versailles Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines); Christine Le Gargasson (University of Versailles Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines); Jessy Tsang King Sang (University of Versailles Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines) |
| Abstract: | The relationship between economic specialization in tourism and growth has been extensively explored, both theoretically and empirically. Although results are ambiguous, a general conclusion of nonlinear effects may be drawn. The originality of our work is to suppose the existence of similar nonlinear relationships between specialization in tourism, vulnerability, and sustainability, and to empirically investigate them for island economies. More particularly, beyond certain tourism specialization thresholds, economic growth slows (as shown in the previous studies) while economic vulnerability increases and sustainability decreases (as found in our empirical work). Our analysis is founded on the hypothesis that these thresholds relate to strategic differences in the development of tourism according to the existence and method of mobilizing the heritage resources of insular economies. The level of differentiation of tourist servicesÑevaluated using an indicator of the change in prices charged for tourist services in presence of world heritage sites (UNESCOÕs list)Ñshould moderate the impacts of specializing in tourism on vulnerability and sustainability. We built and explored an original dataset for up to 18 island economies during the period 1990-2008, which are systematically compared with up to 108 non-island countries. By using panel regression analysis, we show that the most suitable strategies for a less vulnerable and a more sustainable development, which may be naturally combined based on each islandÕs specificities, would be: high specialization in heritage tourism, low specialization in luxury tourism, high specialization in mass tourism when there is no valuable heritage, and low specialization in mass tourism in presence of world heritage sites. Illustrative case studies are discussed following a proposed typology of island economies based on their specialization in tourism and the differentiation of the services offered to visitors. |
| Keywords: | insularity, tourism, heritage, vulnerability, sustainability |
| JEL: | Z32 O57 Q01 |
| Date: | 2017–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fae:wpaper:2017.11&r=cul |
| By: | Georgios Alaveras (European Commission – JRC); Estrella Gomez-Herrera (European Commission – JRC); Bertin Martens (European Commission – JRC) |
| Abstract: | This study measures the extent of cross-border geo-blocking and the impact on product availability and pricing for three non-audio-visual digital media products (music, e-books and games) in the EU Digital Single Market. We find that cross-border access to online media stores is generally blocked for the products and distributors surveyed in this study, though it can usually be circumvented. By contrast, cross-border availability is high, reaching around 98.6% for e-books on Amazon, 90% for downloadable music on iTunes, and 81.1% and 90.5% respectively for PS3 and PS4 PlayStation games. We could not directly verify cross-border availability of music in streaming services but a small sample test suggests that it could reach around 96% on Spotify. We find that the frequency of cross-country price differentiation is limited for games in the Sony PlayStation stores (less than 4%) but higher for downloadable music in the Apple iTunes stores (11.5%) and Amazon e-book stores (26%). Much of this price differentiation is driven by exchange rates and rounding off prices in country stores not denominated in Euro. In music, price discrimination is used mostly to extract higher prices from high-income consumers and for more popular songs with a lower price elasticity of demand. Subscription prices for main music streaming services are strongly correlated with country per capita income levels. Geographical market differentiation and geo-blocking in digital media is often attributed to the territoriality of the copyright management regime. In most cases rights holders are in a position to issue multi-territorial licenses. For commercial reasons however they may prefer to exercise their rights on a territorial basis. The welfare effect of geo-blocking on sellers can be safely assumed to be positive otherwise sellers would not apply this commercial strategy. The impact on consumer welfare is a-priori ambiguous. Geo-blocking reduces the extent of product variety available to consumers. Whether it increases or reduces consumer welfare is an empirical question. The data required to empirically estimate the impact of (lifting) geo-blocking restrictions on welfare are held by the private platform operators. A future assessment can only be made if the required data on product prices and sales are made available to independent researchers. Lifting geo-blocking restrictions will induce price arbitrage between country markets. That may put pressure on sellers to reduce price differentiation and push some prices up, others down. The price response of sellers is hard to predict and may have repercussions not only on downstream consumers but also on upstream parts of the supply chain. Price convergence is unlikely to be perfect and some differentiation may continue to exist because trade costs between country stores may not fall to zero (exchange rates, means of payment, linguistic trade barriers, etc.). |
| Keywords: | digital single market, copyright, digital media, audio-visual, music, e-books, online games |
| JEL: | D23 K11 |
| Date: | 2017–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ipt:decwpa:2017-02&r=cul |
| By: | Dutta, Dilip; Fearnley, Nicholas |
| Abstract: | Two factors that have become dominant in the search for the non-economic drivers of economic growth and development are culture and informal institutions. This paper uses Rokeach (1976) to unite both factors under the one conceptual framework of informal institutions. Cultural factors such as Limited Good Syndrome, Achievement Motivation and Generalized Trust from Marini’s study are interpreted as informal institutions. These informal institutions form the core of our panel data analysis investigating the extent to which they contribute to economic growth. The results show no single pattern in their contribution. |
| Keywords: | Informal institutions, economic growth, economic culture, limited good syndrome, achievement motivation, and generalized trust |
| Date: | 2016–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:syd:wpaper:2016-21&r=cul |
| By: | Cristina Alaimo; Jannis Kallinikos |
| Abstract: | We conceive social media platforms as sociotechnical entities that variously shape user platform involvement and participation. Such shaping develops along three fundamental data operations that we subsume under the terms of encoding, aggregation, and computation. Encoding entails the engineering of user platform participation along narrow and standardized activity types (e.g., tagging, liking, sharing, following). This heavily scripted platform participation serves as the basis for the procurement of discrete and calculable data tokens that are possible to aggregate and, subsequently, compute in a variety of ways. We expose these operations by investigating a social media platform for shopping. We contribute to the current debate on social media and digital platforms by describing social media as posttransactional spaces that are predominantly concerned with charting and profiling the online predispositions, habits, and opinions of their user base. Such an orientation sets social media platforms apart from other forms of mediating online interaction. In social media, we claim, platform participation is driven toward an endless online conversation that delivers the data footprint through which a computed sociality is made the source of value creation and monetization. |
| Keywords: | categories; classification; data infrastructures; posttransactional spaces; social data; sociality; social interaction; social media platforms |
| JEL: | L91 L96 |
| Date: | 2017–06–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ehl:lserod:81432&r=cul |
| By: | Brosnan, Stephen |
| Abstract: | This paper estimates the relationship between sports participation and two broad categories of crimes – property crimes and person crimes- in 323 local authorities in England between 2012 and 2015. The aim of this paper is to assess whether participation in sporting activities influences an individual’s decision to engage in crime. Furthermore, the impact of socioeconomic conditions on crime are estimated also. The results of this paper indicate that sport participation reduces crime rates for both property and person crimes in English local authorities between 2012 and 2015. The findings suggest that sports participation has a stronger effect on person crimes as opposed to property crimes. The results show that a 10% increase in sports participation leads to a fall in person crimes of 1.30 and 1.56% while a 10% increase in sports participation rates leads to a fall in property crimes of between 0.64 and 0.73%. |
| Keywords: | sports participation, crime prevention, deterrence, property crime, person crime |
| JEL: | Z10 |
| Date: | 2017–04–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:78596&r=cul |
| By: | Wolfgang Maennig (Chair for Economic Policy, University of Hamburg) |
| Date: | 2017–06–20 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hce:wpaper:057&r=cul |