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on Cultural Economics |
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Issue of 2021‒06‒21
four papers chosen by Roberto Zanola Università degli Studi del Piemonte Orientale |
| By: | Genter, Robert |
| Abstract: | Review of “Making Art Work: How Cold War Engineers and Artists Forged a New Creative Culture” by W. Patrick McCray |
| Date: | 2021–05–26 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:osf:osfxxx:er72x&r= |
| By: | Matthieu Nadini; Laura Alessandretti; Flavio Di Giacinto; Mauro Martino; Luca Maria Aiello; Andrea Baronchelli |
| Abstract: | Non Fungible Tokens (NFTs) are digital assets that represent objects like art, videos, in-game items and music. They are traded online, often with cryptocurrency, and they are generally encoded as smart contracts on a blockchain. Media and public attention towards NFTs has exploded in 2021, when the NFT art market has experienced record sales while celebrated new star artists. However, little is known about the overall structure and evolution of the NFT market. Here, we analyse data concerning 6.1 million trades of 4.7 million NFTs generating a total trading volume of 935 millions US dollars. Our data are obtained primarily from the Ethereum and WAX blockchains and cover the period between June 23, 2017 and April 27, 2021. First, we characterize the statistical properties of the market. Second, we build the network of interactions and show that traders have bursts of activity followed by inactive periods, and typically specialize on NFTs associated to similar objects. Third, we cluster objects associated to NFTs according to their visual features and show that NFTs within the same category tend to be visually homogeneous. Finally, we investigate the predictability of NFT sales. We use simple machine learning algorithms and find that prices can be best predicted by the sale history of the NFT collection, but also by some features describing the properties of the associated object (e.g., visual features of digital images). We anticipate that our analysis will be of interest to both researchers and practitioners and will spark further research on the NFT production, adoption and trading in different contexts. |
| Date: | 2021–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:arx:papers:2106.00647&r= |
| By: | Bursztyn, Leonardo; Egorov, Georgy; Enikolopov, Ruben; Petrova, Maria |
| Abstract: | We study the causal effect of social media on ethnic hate crimes and xenophobic attitudes in Rus- sia and the mechanisms underlying this effect, using quasi-exogenous variation in social media penetration across cities. Higher penetration of social media led to more hate crimes 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. Using a national survey experiment, we also find evidence of a mechanism of persuasion: social media led individuals (especially young, male, and less-educated ones) to hold more xenophobic attitudes. |
| Keywords: | Hate crime; Russia; social media; Xenophobia |
| JEL: | D7 H0 J15 |
| Date: | 2020–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:14877&r= |
| By: | Joël Bellassen; Charlotte Wang |
| Abstract: | This paper focuses on the media representation of Chinese language and culture through examining the coverage of linguistic education in the French press. It shows first that the media coverage of Chinese language teaching in recent years was much greater than could be predicted from the still small share of French pupils learning Chinese (less than 1%). Secondly, it reveals that the tone used by press articles was far more positive than could have been expected given the tense nature of economic and strategic interactions between China and the West. Overall it appears that the Chinese language and culture are still perceived in France, and perhaps in other European countries, as a source of richness and openness that go far beyond narrowly economic benefits. |
| Keywords: | representation; media coverage, Chinese language; culture, education |
| Date: | 2021–01–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ipg:wpaper:2021-007&r= |