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on Cultural Economics |
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Issue of 2022‒02‒14
five papers chosen by Roberto Zanola Università degli Studi del Piemonte Orientale |
| By: | Samah Nassar (October University for Modern Sciences and Arts, Faculty of Arts and Design, Cairo, Egypt) |
| Abstract: | Digital technologies have revolutionized the normal practices in various industries. The short films industry has equally experienced innumerable changes since its first inception in 1910. The industry has seen changes ranging from noble changes from creative processes, ideas or script writing, and featuring and characterization. This paper sets out to assess the historical development of short films from the early 19th Century until the present age, and the future prospects in the film industry. With new ways of sharing the short films varying from social media platforms, direct media, theatres and live performances, filmmakers have multiple opportunities to craft and showcase their talents in short films. Besides, short films strongly influence society as they impact the audience’s future interactions and thinking patterns, especially using the themes or content relayed in the short films. Therefore, short films play a great role in shaping society’s morals and people’s behaviors. Recently, short films were explored to showcase the United Nations’ universal goals to promote social cohesion among the global population. The paper concludes by analyzing the challenges and future potential of the short films industry, especially educating and entertaining the masses. |
| Keywords: | short films, global awareness, UN SDG’s, future, humanity |
| Date: | 2021–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:smo:lpaper:0077&r= |
| By: | Laura Urgelles (University of Paderborn); Bernd Frick (University of Paderborn) |
| Abstract: | This paper analyzes the effect of the participation in different leisure activities on university and college students’ average grade. In a first step, we calculate an OLS regression and find that for male students being a member in a fraternity is negatively related with the average grade. Contrarily, being an active member of a political or religious group is posi-tively correlated with the average grade. In a second step we analyze the influence of the two leisure activities most popular among students (music & arts and sports) in more detail. Using an instrumental variables approach, this study finds that the participation in music and arts positively affects female students’ grades. The participation in sports is negatively related with the average grade, although these results are not significant for the female and male subsamples. This paper contributes to the existing knowledge on the subject by providing empirical evidence for the involvement of students in higher education in a range of leisure activities (e.g. music & arts, sports, fraternities, involvement in the university administration, and activity in political and religious groups). Based on these findings, causal inferences about music and arts can be made as well as inferences about participation in sports. As a result, students may rethink their decisions on leisure time allocations. Higher education institutions might also be able to use this information to adapt their funding decisions in order to support academically beneficial activities such as orchestras, theater groups, or musical bands. |
| Keywords: | leisure activities, higher education, academic performance, instrumental variable regression |
| JEL: | Z20 Z29 I23 J22 J24 L83 C21 C26 |
| Date: | 2022–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pdn:dispap:88&r= |
| By: | Rapone, Tancredi |
| Abstract: | This paper uses optical character recognition (OCR) to analyze the production of books in the US over 1790 to 1870 using copyright title pages taken from the online archives of the Library of Congress. We construct national time series of book production over this period which show an uptake in per-capita terms in 1830, around the starting point of the US’ industrial revolution. We break down the production of books into topics using keywords for 8 topics: science, religion, novel, invention, diffusion, business, philosophy and textbook. On this basis we show that the composition of book production by topics is stable over time, except for textbooks and novels which show a persistent increase over the whole period both in relative and absolute terms. This pushes back the beginning of the growth in US human capital before the first reliable data on schooling and literacy starting in 1870. We thus offer mild support to an interpretation of US growth over the 19th century based on the expansion of knowledge and capabilities, while conceding that the link between the content of books and industrialization is tenuous. |
| JEL: | R14 J01 N0 |
| Date: | 2022–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ehl:lserod:113448&r= |
| By: | Giuberti Coutinho, Lorena (UNU-MERIT, Maastricht) |
| Abstract: | Influential scholars have pointed to the Internet and social media as a reason for the recent political divide in many countries. Greater exposure to imbalanced information in these environments would reinforce previous political positions leading voters to develop more extreme positions or greater animosity towards candidates of the opposing political group, a phenomenon known as affective polarization. This study investigates the impact of Internet and social media use on Brazil's recent affective polarization, exploring the historical peculiarities in the layout of pre-existing infrastructure that causes exogenous variation in Internet and social media usage. There is no empirical evidence that access to this new media environment explains affective polarization within the population under this study. Findings are consistent with the strand of literature suggesting that the recent phenomena of political polarization in some countries cannot be attributed to Internet and social media use |
| Keywords: | political polarization, broadband internet, Brazil |
| JEL: | D12 D72 L82 L86 |
| Date: | 2021–08–30 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:unm:unumer:2021032&r= |
| By: | Bogdan Radu (Dimitrie Cantemir Christian University, Bucharest, Romania) |
| Abstract: | This article aims at presenting the strengths and weaknesses of the Romanian legislation towards non-fungible tokens (NFTs). We start by recognizing that there is no active legislation that deals with cryptocurrency, NFTs or any other digital asset using a digital ledger of transactions (DLT). The starting point is the analysis of the legal characteristics of an NFT through the classical qualification and distinction made for goods by the Romanian Civil code. Further, we raise some issues regarding establishing a clear tax regime and the correlation between NFTs and intellectual property rights, and finally conclude that when it comes to qualifying crypto-assets, we need to adopt a ‘substance over form' approach, in order to avoid regulatory unpredictability. |
| Keywords: | Non-fungible tokens, NFT, cryptocurrency, DLT, blockchain |
| Date: | 2021–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:smo:lpaper:0102&r= |