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on Cultural Economics |
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Issue of 2018‒02‒05
six papers chosen by Roberto Zanola Università degli Studi del Piemonte Orientale |
| By: | Glenn Ellison; Sara Fisher Ellison |
| Abstract: | This paper examines the effect of the Internet on markets in which match-quality is important, including an analysis of the market for used books. A model in which sellers of unusual objects wait for high-value buyers to arrive brings out match quality and competition effects through which improved search technologies may increase both price dispersion and social welfare. A reduced-form empirical analysis finds support for a number of more nuanced predictions of the model in the context of the used book market, exploiting both cross-sectional differences across books and time-series differences in the wake of Amazon's acquisition and incorporation of a large used book marketplace. The paper develops a framework for structural estimation of a model based on the theory. The estimates suggest that the shift to Internet sales substantially increased both seller profits and consumer surplus. |
| JEL: | D22 L13 L81 |
| Date: | 2018–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:24197&r=cul |
| By: | Chang, Pao-Li (School of Economics, Singapore Management University); Lee, Iona Hyojung (School of Economics, Singapore Management University) |
| Abstract: | The Korean pop culture (TV dramas and K-pop music) has grown immensely popular across the globe over the past two decades. This paper analyzes its impacts on international trade. We compile a cross-country panel dataset of South Korea's TV show exports to over 150 countries for the period of 1998-2014. These variations in exposure to Korean pop cultures are used to identify changes in consumer preferences for Korean merchandise across time, countries, and products (at the HS 4-digit level). First, we find that more Korean TV show exports significantly increase Korean exports of goods for women, while the effects are much smaller on men's merchandise. This strongly supports the demand-side preference mechanism, because supply-side factors can hardly generate such gender bias within the same product category. Second, we find that the TV show effect is much stronger for consumer goods than capital or intermediate goods. Third, we show that there exist significant and positive effects even for goods that are not actively advertised. Together, these findings provide evidence on the importance of cultural preferences and their diffusions in economic exchanges. |
| Keywords: | Korean Wave; Trade; FDI; Gravity Equation; Cultural Preferences |
| JEL: | F14 F21 Z10 |
| Date: | 2017–12–27 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ris:smuesw:2018_005&r=cul |
| By: | Cnossen, Boukje (Tilburg University, School of Economics and Management) |
| Abstract: | Although larger firms have several advantages when it comes to operating in competitive markets, western economies have a growing number of one-person firms or individual entrepreneurs. This creates new relevance for the question of how selfemployed workers can organise themselves in order to capture some of the benefits that come with being part of an organisation. This dissertation looks at this question by using three qualitative case studies, each zooming in on a particular setting where self-employed workers share space and work together. It employs a practicebased approach to organising and borrows from literature on labour in the creative and cultural industries across various disciplines, such as sociology, anthropology, and management. The main theoretical approach adopted in this dissertation sees organisations as temporary results of communicative practices. Such practices are explored in the context of two creative spaces and a network-like organisation of community artists in Amsterdam. Countering the widely-held idea that organisations must have a clear identity, or display unity in how they present themselves to the outside world, it is argued that the organising and organisations discussed in this dissertation all rely on selective modes of appropriation. This term is put forward to capture the fact that the organisations and the modes of organising discussed, make no attempt to appropriate the artistic and creative content their members produce. It is theorized that this allows for flexible modes of membership negotiation and institutional positioning, which better serves the members’ fluctuating strategic needs. |
| Date: | 2018 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:tiu:tiutis:0ed1d5bb-37db-4b92-9f0c-1c29381f633f&r=cul |
| By: | Rey-Biel, Pedro; Sheremeta, Roman; Uler, Neslihan |
| Abstract: | We study how giving depends on income and luck, and how culture and information about the determinants of others’ income affect this relationship. Our data come from an experiment conducted in two countries, the US and Spain – each of which have different beliefs about how income inequality arises. We find that when individuals are informed about the determinants of income, there are no cross-cultural differences in giving. When uninformed, however, Americans give less than the Spanish. This difference persists even after controlling for beliefs, personal characteristics, and values. |
| Keywords: | individual giving; information; culture; beliefs; laboratory experiment |
| JEL: | C91 D64 D83 |
| Date: | 2018–01–15 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:83940&r=cul |
| By: | Thomas Martine (Audencia Business School); François Cooren (LOG - Langage Organisation Gouvernance - Université de Montréal); Gerald Bartels |
| Abstract: | In this paper, we introduce a new approach to creativity assessment. Arguably, one of the main obstacles to creativity assessment is that creativity criteria are likely to change depending on what is assessed and who is making the assessment. We argue that we might be able to solve this problem by adopting a relational ontology, i.e., an ontology according to which beings of the world acquire their properties by relating to other beings. First, we present the main consequences of this ontological approach for creativity assessment: (a) Accounting for the creativity of a given object involves retracing the beings (including criteria) that relate it to its alleged creativity; (b) One can assess the creativity of this object by looking at the number of beings that substantiate this relation, i.e., by looking at what we call the " degree of solidity " of the relation; (c) One can thus account for the specificity of various forms of creativity and, at the same time, compare them in terms of solidity. Building on these ontological assumptions, we then present a new assessment technique, the Objection Counting Technique, before putting it to the test using an excerpt taken from a naturally occurring brainstorming session. |
| Keywords: | relational ontology,creativity assessment,interaction,actor–network theory |
| Date: | 2017 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:journl:hal-01651192&r=cul |
| By: | Grunewald, Andreas (University of Bonn); Kräkel, Matthias (University of Bonn) |
| Abstract: | In the last decade, social media and the Internet have amplified the possibility to spread false information, a.k.a. fake news, which has become a serious threat to the credibility of politicians, organizations, and other decision makers. This paper proposes a framework for investigating the incentives to strategically spread fake news under different institutional configurations and payoff structures. In particular, we show under what conditions institutions that foster transparency in the media cause more fake news. Complementary, we study what kind of environments are particularly susceptible to the production of fake news. |
| Keywords: | campaigning, electoral competition, signal jamming, vertical product differentiation |
| JEL: | D72 D8 H0 L1 |
| Date: | 2017–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp11207&r=cul |