nep-cul New Economics Papers
on Cultural Economics
Issue of 2020‒02‒03
eight papers chosen by
Roberto Zanola
Università degli Studi del Piemonte Orientale

  1. Artworks without names: an insight into the market for anonymous paintings By Anne-Sophie Radermecker
  2. The art world’s response to the challenge of inequality By Kolbe, Kristina; Upton-Hansen, Chris; Savage, Mike; Lacey, Nicola; Cant, Sarah
  3. Adoption of social media as distribution channels in tourism marketing: A qualitative analysis of consumers’ experiences By Chatzigeorgiou, Chryssoula; Christou, Evangelos
  4. The Production of Information in an Online World By Julia Cage; Nicolas Hervé; Marie-Luce Viaud
  5. Examples of Good Practices in the Field of Museology. Case Study – ASTRA Museum By Astrid Isabela Bogdan
  6. Service quality, visitor satisfaction and future behavior in the museum sector By Daskalaki, Vasiliki V.; Voutsa, Maria C.; Boutsouki, Christina; Hatzithomas, Leonidas
  7. Who are the champions? Inequality, economic freedom and the olympics By Kufenko, Vadim; Geloso, Vincent
  8. Social Media and Xenophobia: Evidence from Russia By Leonardo Bursztyn; Georgy Egorov; Ruben Enikolopov; Maria Petrova

  1. By: Anne-Sophie Radermecker
    Abstract: This paper explores the market for indeterminate works of art. Our data set includes 1578 sales of fifteenth and sixteenth-century anonymous Flemish paintings, mainly collected from the Blouin Art Sales Index over the period 1955–2015. After a brief introductory section to the issue of anonymity in early modern art, and the different situations of information failure generated by anonymous paintings, the empirical part examines the supply and demand for paintings by unrecorded artists, using a hedonic pricing model. We find evidence that the degree of specification of the spatio-temporal designations given to the paintings (e.g. Flemish school, sixteenth century) affect prices differently (H1). The more specific the designation is in time and space, the more it tends to make up for the lack of information, and to positively affect the market value of anonymous paintings. When the artist name is missing, we also argue that purchasers pay greater attention to other quality signals. Four other hypotheses, which are expected to influence the buyer’s willingness to pay, are successively tested: H2) the physical condition of the painting; H3) oral or written interventions by an expert; H4) the length of the lot essay; and H5) previous attributions to named artists. The results suggest that most of these variables operate as significant pricing characteristics. We finally compare price indices of named artists, indirect names and spatio-temporal designations.
    Keywords: Anonymous art; Art market; Branding strategy; Hedonic regression; Indeterminate goods; Information failure; Old masters
    Date: 2019–09–01
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ulb:ulbeco:2013/296529&r=all
  2. By: Kolbe, Kristina; Upton-Hansen, Chris; Savage, Mike; Lacey, Nicola; Cant, Sarah
    Abstract: This paper considers the challenges which rising economic inequality poses to the art world with a special focus on museums and galleries in the UK. Based on interviews with artists, curators and managers of leading art institutions in London, we discuss how issues of economic inequality are reflected in their thinking about cultural work and how these relate to questions of spatial power, post-colonial sensibilities and diversity issues. We show how increasing economic inequality brings about deep-seated, systematic and sustained challenges which extend well beyond public funding cuts associated with austerity politics to a wider re-positioning of the arts away from its location in a distinctive public sphere and towards elite private privilege. Against this backdrop, we put forward the term ‘the artistic politics of regionalism’ and suggest that the most promising approaches to addressing contemporary inequalities lie in institutions’ reconsideration of spatial dynamics which can link concerns with decolonisation and representation to a recognition of how economic inequality takes a highly spatialised form.
    Keywords: economic; inequality; colonial; art; privilege
    JEL: D31
    Date: 2020–01
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ehl:lserod:103146&r=all
  3. By: Chatzigeorgiou, Chryssoula; Christou, Evangelos
    Abstract: The study reported in this paper explores consumers’ experiences with technology-assisted service encounters by investigating the applicability of Mick and Fournier’s paradoxes of technology adoption to the social media as distribution channel in tourism scenario. In-depth interviews were conducted to explore consumers’ experiences when using social media distribution services and the results were compared to those of Mick and Fournier. The findings are similar, suggesting that when consumers adopt online technology like social media, they can simultaneously develop positive and negative attitudes. The findings of this study also suggest that the nature of some of the paradoxes experienced by consumers may depend on the industry (tourism in this study) and the technology (social media in this study) being investigated.
    Keywords: adoption of technological innovations, social media, distribution channels, consumer attitudes, tourism marketing
    JEL: L83 M1 O14
    Date: 2020–01–30
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:98175&r=all
  4. By: Julia Cage (Département d'économie); Nicolas Hervé (Institut national de l'audiovisuel); Marie-Luce Viaud (Institut national de l'audiovisuel)
    Abstract: News production requires investment, and competitors’ ability to appropriate a story may reduce a media’s incentives to provide original content. Yet, there is little legal protection of intellectual property rights in online news production, which raises the issue of the extent of copying online and the incentives to provide original content. In this article, we build a unique dataset combining all the online content produced by French news media during the year 2013 with new micro audience data. We develop a topic detection algorithm that identifies each news event, trace the timeline of each story, and study news propagation. We provide new evidence on online news production. First, we document high reactivity of online media: one quarter of the news stories are reproduced online in under 4 min. We show that this is accompanied by substantial copying, both at the extensive and at the intensive margins, which may constitute a severe threat to the commercial viability of the news media. Next, we estimate the returns to originality in online news production. Using article-level variations and media-level daily audience combined with article-level social media statistics, we find that original content producers tend to receive more viewers, thereby mitigating the newsgathering incentive problem raised by copying.
    Keywords: Internet; Information Sharing; Copyright; Social Media; Reputation
    JEL: L11 L15 L82 L86
    Date: 2019–12
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:spo:wpmain:info:hdl:2441/52cps7rdns8iv8fr3f1kqm7iuv&r=all
  5. By: Astrid Isabela Bogdan (University of Architecture and Urbanism, "Ion Mincu")
    Abstract: From the nomadic to the sedentary people, human communities have always wanted to make unique elements, specific to their identity, although they often received major influences from other neighbouring or most powerful communities. For example, archaeology reveals the identical geometrical elements found on ceramic vessels in peoples that were at some distance in time to each other or even geographically. Thus, we can see that not all elements of a civilization are authentic and that many times a motive formed by a group can become a leitmotif for many peoples. However, since ancient times, every community has tried to preserve at least one original element to help it differentiate among other peoples. In contemporary times, these elements are gradually extinguished, but there are still some places where the custom is preserved, and perhaps the most edifying example in this regard is the open air museum. Basically, this study will focus on this type of exhibition, approaching an edifying example, in this case, the ASTRA Museum in Romania, the largest open air museum in south-east Europe.
    Keywords: art, museum, sustainability, vernacular architecture, tradition
    Date: 2019–11
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:smo:ipaper:037ab&r=all
  6. By: Daskalaki, Vasiliki V.; Voutsa, Maria C.; Boutsouki, Christina; Hatzithomas, Leonidas
    Abstract: The present study investigates the factors that affect visitors’ satisfaction and their future behavior. A survey based on the dimensions of SERVPERF among 632 visitors in two distinct in terms of atmosphere, exhibits and activities museums, the Archaeological Museum and the Museum for Science and Technology in Thessaloniki (Greece) provides the empirical evidence. The results indicate that the five dimensions of SERVPERF can successfully determine the degree of visitors’ satisfaction and predict future behavior. Future behavior is often subject to visitors’ place of residence. The type of museum is also a significant factor affecting satisfaction and future behavior. on and loyalty.
    Keywords: Service Quality, Museums, Satisfaction, Future Behavior, SERVPERF
    JEL: L15 L8 L83
    Date: 2020–01–30
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:98246&r=all
  7. By: Kufenko, Vadim; Geloso, Vincent
    Abstract: Does a countrys level of inequality affect its ability to win Olympic medals? If it does, is it conditional on institutional factors? We argue that the ability of economically free societies to win medals will not be affected by inequality. In these societies, institutions generate incentives to invest in the talent pool of individuals at the bottom of the income distribution (people who are otherwise constrained in the ability to expend resources on athletic training). These effects cancel out those of inequality. In unfree societies, the incentives that promote investments in skills across the income distribution are weaker. Consequently, the effects of inequality on the ability to win are stronger. Using the Olympics of 2012 and 2016 in combination with the Economic Freedom of the World Index, we find that inequality only matters in determining medal numbers for unfree countries. We link these results to the debates on inequality.
    Keywords: Olympics,Inequality,Economic Freedom,Institutions
    JEL: D63 E02 O43
    Date: 2019
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:hohdps:132019&r=all
  8. By: Leonardo Bursztyn; Georgy Egorov; Ruben Enikolopov; Maria Petrova
    Abstract: We study the causal effect of social media on ethnic hate crimes and xenophobic attitudes in Russia using quasi-exogenous variation in social media penetration across cities. Higher penetration of social media led to more ethnic hate crimes, but only in cities with a high pre-existing level of nationalist sentiment. Consistent with a mechanism of coordination of crimes, the effects are stronger for crimes with multiple perpetrators. We implement a national survey experiment and show that social media persuaded young and low-educated individuals to hold more xenophobic attitudes, but did not increase respondents' openness to expressing these views. Our results are consistent with a simple model of social learning where penetration of social networks increases individuals' propensity to meet like-minded people.
    JEL: D7 H0 J15
    Date: 2019–12
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:26567&r=all

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