|
on Cultural Economics |
|
Issue of 2017‒07‒09
three papers chosen by Roberto Zanola Università degli Studi del Piemonte Orientale |
| By: | Ruben Durante; Paolo Pinotti; Andrea Tesei |
| Abstract: | To what extent are the media to blame for the rise of populist political leaders? Andrea Tesei and colleagues explore the impact of the light entertainment served up by Silvio Berlusconi's commercial TV network, Mediaset, on his later electoral success. |
| Keywords: | entertainment TV, voting, cognitive abilities, civic engagement |
| JEL: | L82 D72 Z13 |
| Date: | 2017–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cep:cepcnp:505&r=cul |
| By: | Ralsmark, Hilda (Department of Economics, School of Business, Economics and Law, Göteborg University) |
| Abstract: | I study the impact of media visibility of people of colour on the rate of hate crimes motivated by race or ethnicity in the United States. To do so, I construct a novel measure of state-level media visibility of people of colour between 2007 and 2013. Comparing state-level variation in the hate crime rate with a measure of the one-year lagged state-level variation in media visibility, I find that an increase in media visibility reduces the number of hate crimes. The effect is not larger in states that used to be pro-slavery, but larger in states that are more prone to spontaneous emotional outbursts of hate. The result, which is robust to several checks, is in the line with the argument that "visibility matters." |
| Keywords: | Media; Information and knowledge; Economics of minorities; Crime |
| JEL: | D83 J15 K42 L82 |
| Date: | 2017–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:gunwpe:0703&r=cul |
| By: | Anna Maria Koukal |
| Abstract: | The importance of culture for human behavior is well established in the economic literature. So far, most authors have emphasized the long persistence of cultural traits. In contrast, this paper deals with an important case of a rapid update of culturally rooted beliefs and behavior. Using a newly composed historical dataset (1919-1984), this paper provides evidence that the Second Vatican Council (1962–1965) had a rapid effect on Catholics’ voting behavior pertaining to female enfranchisement in Switzerland. In various difference-in-differences settings, the Second Vatican Council turns out to increase the acceptance of women’s suffrage in Catholic municipalities, when compared to Protestant municipalities. |
| Keywords: | Catholic Church; Second Vatican Council; rapid cultural change; female enfranchisement |
| JEL: | N34 Z12 D72 |
| Date: | 2017–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cra:wpaper:2017-07&r=cul |