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on Cultural Economics |
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Issue of 2018‒10‒22
twelve papers chosen by Roberto Zanola Università degli Studi del Piemonte Orientale |
| By: | Akihiro ABE (Iwate Prefectural University) |
| Abstract: | In recent years, the business conditions of museums in Japan have been growing increasingly severe as attendance falls and the local governments that operate them are forced to cut budgets. The same is true of open-air museums, which also face the additional pressure of maintenance and management costs for their vast sites and buildings. For this reason, there are reports from across Japan of attempts to increase numbers of visitors at such museums by making them more attractive as tourism resources, by stressing hospitality or strengthening ties with the local community. It is thought that one effective means of overcoming these challenges faced by open-air museums would be through enhancement of information services, which encourage the understanding of and connections with various stakeholders. This study attempted to create new services using wearable devices in order to improve hospitality at open-air museums located on vast sites on hilly land. We implemented an action research approach to gather knowledge on solutions to problems faced in the field, by intervening in activities on site at two open-air museums in Japan. Providing information to support visitors? tours of the museums, integrated with physical information and spatial information, added new value to existing smartphone-based systems intended to support visitors by explaining museum exhibits. Through experiments in the field by proposing ?Physical condition management and barrier-free information provision when viewing cultural heritage? at the Hiraizumi World Heritage Site and a new type of information service characterized by ?Fusion of support for viewing works of art and health promotion activities? at an open-air art museum, we elucidated the expected results and issues involved in practical operation. |
| Keywords: | ICT Service Design, Open-air Museum Management, Action Research |
| Date: | 2018–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:sek:iahpro:6609546&r=cul |
| By: | Daniel P. Gross |
| Abstract: | Though fundamental to innovation and essential to many industries and occupations, individual creativity has received limited attention as an economic behavior and has historically proven difficult to study. This paper studies the incentive effects of competition on individuals' creative production. Using a sample of commercial logo design competitions, and a novel, content-based measure of originality, I find that intensifying competition induces agents to produce original, untested ideas over tweaking their earlier work, but heavy competition drives them to stop investing altogether. The results yield lessons for the management of creative workers and for the implementation of competitive procurement mechanisms for innovation. |
| JEL: | D81 M52 M55 O31 O32 |
| Date: | 2018–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:25057&r=cul |
| By: | Federico Etro; Elena Stepanova |
| Abstract: | We provide evidence of a cubic law of art prices that hints to a general pattern for the distribution of artistic talent. The persistence across heterogeneous markets from historical ones to contemporary art auctions of a power law in the distribution of the average price per artist suggests the possibility of a universal law for talent distribution. We explore scale-free networks of teacher-students to investigate the diffusion of talent over time. |
| Keywords: | Power-Laws in Art. From Renaissance to Contemporary Art |
| Date: | 2018–10–17 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ssa:lemwps:2018/32&r=cul |
| By: | Krishnan Jeesha (Indian Institute of Management Kozhikode); Sumod S D (Indian Institute of Management Kozhikode); Prashant Premkumar (Indian Institute of Management Kozhikode); Shovan Chowdhury (Indian Institute of Management Kozhikode) |
| Abstract: | The objective of the study is to develop a parsimonious model to predict the box office success of a Bollywood movie before its release based on historical data. A movie is considered successful if it is able to generate a ROI (return on investment) higher than the weighted average risk-free rate of return. The performance of a total of 447 movies over a 9 year period were examined. A set of variables that were identified as determinants of a movie’s box office success by previous literature were tested for their applicability in the Indian context. In addition, certain variables that were unique to the Indian movie industry were investigated for their influence on the box office success of movies. The results demonstrate that factors like budget, screen count, genre, and release period all have significant influence on the outcome of a movie at the ticket window. However, contrary to popular belief, the historical box office performance of the lead actor, director or music director, and retelling of an existing narrative in the form of a remake were not found to add footfalls during the release of the movie |
| Keywords: | Movie Industry |
| Date: | 2018–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iik:wpaper:284&r=cul |
| By: | Jeffrey Izzo (California State University Northridge) |
| Abstract: | In the 21st century of sweeping and effortless consumer access to artist performances -- via YouTube, social media, and other digital dissemination methods -- the goal of protecting performers has become both more crucial than in the past and considerably more difficult. The digital landscape has plunged us into an essentially borderless world, where someone in Italy can download a YouTube performance from Japan and do what they wish with it -- without the performer's knowledge. While there are myriad legal schemes addressing this phenomenon both on the international and domestic levels -- for instance, the Rome Convention and the US Copyright Law's music video anti-trafficking provision -- this paper will examine whether such legal protections should be reinforced or perhaps relaxed, based on the notion that current laws have failed to keep pace with the vigorous and rapid expansion of consumer access via digital means. |
| Keywords: | Copyright, Berne Convention, Rome Convention, Trademark, Publicity, Brand, Bootlegging, Performers |
| Date: | 2018–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:sek:iahpro:6609006&r=cul |
| By: | Jaume Garcia Villar; Carles Murillo |
| Abstract: | Research question: This study investigates three issues associated to the growing industry of eSports: the picture of participants in eSports and the correlates of the intensity of this participation; the complementary/substitutability relationship between eSports and traditional sports; and the perception of eSports as sport by the population. Research methods: Discrete choice, two-part and regression models are estimated using a sample of 11,018 individuals from the Survey on Sports Habits in Spain 2015. Results and Findings: The association of the correlates follows different patterns depending on whether considering participation or the intensity of this participation in eSports and also in terms of gender. Using different approaches, a significant degree of complementarity between participation and interest in eSports and traditional sports is estimated. For young people interested in eSports seems to an element influencing the overall interest in sports. Implications: Taking into account the different association of the correlates with the participation and the intensity of participation in eSports, this information could be used by firms in order to define marketing and brand investment strategies. The estimated complementarity between eSports and traditional sports should influence how the actual stakeholders in traditional sports define future strategies to favour the growth of both industries. The fact that eSports is increasingly perceived as a sport should have an influence, among others, in the collection of data on sports habits, in the way these activities are regulated and in the organization of multi-sport events, like the Olympic Games. |
| Keywords: | eSports, discrete choice models, two-part model, complementarity, perception as sport. |
| JEL: | C25 L83 |
| Date: | 2018–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:upf:upfgen:1617&r=cul |
| By: | Francesco Flaviano Russo (Università di Napoli Federico II and CSEF) |
| Abstract: | Increased immigration in Italy has been coupled with a change in the composition of the stock of immigrants by nationality. Migrants that come from different coun- tries and cultures bring with them different languages, habits, norms, religions and, in general, interact differently with the local population, thereby generating different re- sponses to immigration. I study the relationship between this changes in the identity of the migrants and the electoral outcomes in Italy computing several measures of distance between immigrants and natives with respect to the language spoken, to religion and to genetic factors that, being correlated with the vertical transmission of norms and values, proxy for a wide range of both cultural and individual traits. I find that the increased distance between immigrants and natives is associated with more votes for nationalist, anti-immigration political parties. |
| Keywords: | Elections, Culture, Language, Religion. |
| JEL: | D72 J61 |
| Date: | 2018–10–13 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:sef:csefwp:511&r=cul |
| By: | Chasapopoulos, Panagiotis (Tilburg University, School of Economics and Management) |
| Abstract: | The dissertation consists of three empirical studies in the field of International Immigration. The first chapter examines whether the effect of cultural diversity on economic performance of European regions is influenced by the level of generalized social trust and individuals’ trust in public institutions. The second chapter investigates how the origin and the skill level of immigrants in European regions affect natives’ attitudes toward them. The last chapter examines the impact of international immigration on electoral support for the radical right in Dutch municipalities. |
| Date: | 2018 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:tiu:tiutis:d4a10f2a-c1a2-4edd-9887-203d697a5560&r=cul |
| By: | Babur De los Santos (John E. Walker Department of Economics, Clemson University); Daniel P. O'Brien (Compass Lexecon); Matthijs R. Wildenbeest (Kelley School of Business, Indiana University) |
| Abstract: | This paper examines the relationship between two types of vertical contracts and retail prices under bilateral bargaining. In contrast to traditional wholesale contracts, in agency contracts upstream suppliers set retail prices directly while downstream retailers act as agents who receive a sales royalty. Our model shows that whether agency contracts lead to higher or lower retail prices (vs. wholesale contracts) depends on the distribution of bargaining power between upstream and downstream firms. We propose a methodology to structurally estimate a demand and supply model that allows for both vertical contracting models and uses the Nash-in-Nash bargaining solution to capture competition between upstream and downstream firms. We apply our model to the e-book industry, which has experienced several transitions between agency and wholesale contracts. Our analysis studies the latest transition from wholesale to agency contracts after the expiration of a two-year ban on agency pricing following the settlement of a lawsuit brought by the U.S. Department of Justice against major publishers in the industry. This ban allowed us to observe new agency contracts after a rarely seen restart of bilateral bargaining between publishers and retailers. Using a unique dataset of e-book prices both before and after the change in selling method, we show that prices increased substantially at Amazon following the shift to agency but remained relatively flat at Barnes & Noble. Structural estimates show that our bargaining model gives a better fit to the data than a model with take-it-or-leave-it input contracts. Counterfactual simulations indicate that reinstitution of most favored nation clauses, which were banned in 2012 for a period of five years, would lead to price increases of close to nine percent for non-fiction books. |
| Keywords: | e-books, agency agreements, vertical restraints, bargaining, most favored nation |
| JEL: | C14 D83 L13 |
| Date: | 2018–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:net:wpaper:1814&r=cul |
| By: | Liang, Jiaji; Hu, Wuyang |
| Keywords: | Food and Agricultural Marketing, Agribusiness Economics and Management, Production Economics |
| Date: | 2018–06–20 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:aaea18:274050&r=cul |
| By: | WU, Qianyan; Bi, Xiang |
| Keywords: | Environmental and Nonmarket Valuation, Natural Resource Economics, Resource and Environmental Policy Analysis |
| Date: | 2018–06–20 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:aaea18:273999&r=cul |
| By: | Bo Cowgill (Columbia University); Cosmina Dorobantu (Columbia University, Oxford University and The Alan Turing Institute) |
| Abstract: | How should market designers tradeoff liquidity and specificity? We study a natural experiment in the release of a new ad targeting feature by an ad exchange. The platform introduced new targeting into select geographic markets using a regression discontinuity. The experiment affects the specificity advertising assets in the markets (ie, the availability of targeting a city or a zip code). We find evidence that additional specificity reduces the total number of ad impressions delivered by the platform, as advertisers concentrate bidding into fewer, targeted markets. Despite this, we find an overall positive effects on revenue growth in the treated areas. This appears to be driven mainly by increases in clickthrough rates and not through increases in average prices (which actually decreased), and by entry of new advertisers. |
| Keywords: | fixed-to-mobile substitution; incumbency advantage; broadband access |
| JEL: | L13 L43 L96 |
| Date: | 2018–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:net:wpaper:1809&r=cul |