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on Cultural Economics |
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Issue of 2023‒03‒20
four papers chosen by Roberto Zanola Università degli Studi del Piemonte Orientale |
| By: | Budzinski, Oliver; Gänßle, Sophia; Weimar, Daniel |
| Abstract: | The Eurovision Song Contest is one of the worldwide biggest live media events and the world's leading broadcast of an international music competition. The countries of the European Broadcasting Union participate by sending an artist (or a group of artists) to the contest and both expert juries and the television audience of all participating countries vote in a special ranking and points system to determine the eventual winner. A substantial list of cultural economics papers empirically analyzed the voting behavior of juries (consisting of music industry professionals) and audiences to identify voting biases because of cultural and political influences on the voting bodies. Due to limited data availability, this literature suffered from having to treat the national juries as a black box even though they are composed of individuals with different demographic characteristics (age, gender, etc.) and expert backgrounds (industry managers, musicians, composers, music journalists, etc.). Our analysis benefits from utilizing new data about each individual member of the jury including their role within the jury (e.g., the chairperson) as well as about their individual votes in the ESC. Therefore, for the first time, we can disentangle the voting behavior of the juries and track the voting behavior of individual jury members. Based upon a rich dataset including personal characteristics (gender, age, career/professional background, nationality, cultural heritage, etc.) of both jury members (voters) and performing artists in the contest (voting objects), we analyze whether the increasing similarity between voter (jury member) and voting object (contest performer) correlates with upward biases in terms of awarded points. In doing so, we employ the concept of Mahalanobis distance to measure similarity and employ modern econometric regression methods to derive our results. Inter alia, we identify conditions under which the similarity of jury members with contestants leads to a pro-bias in voting (across different countries). Interestingly, the professional background of jury members also significantly influences the individual voting bias, for instance, experts with classical music backgrounds display significantly less bias than presenters of radio or television programs or music journalists. Altogether, our analysis allows us to look beyond the hitherto dominating 'country X is biased for/against country Y' conclusions and track voting biases on an individual level, based on personal characteristics. |
| Keywords: | voting bias, jury voting, Eurovision Song Contest, media economics, cultural economics |
| JEL: | Z10 L82 C01 |
| Date: | 2023 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:tuiedp:171&r=cul |
| By: | Johari H.N. Amar; Tanja Tyvimaa |
| Abstract: | The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the impact of beneficial externality generated by the World Heritage List (WHL) on residential property values in order to offer new insights into heritage discourses. The study uses the hedonic price model to estimate empirically the difference in prices for residential properties located in the Old Rauma World Heritage. The study uses residential sales transaction data from the City of Rauma from January 2005 to September 2012 drawn from an online database called KVKL Hintaseurantapalvelu managed by the Central Federation of Finnish Real Estate Agencies. The research results indicate a positive, but insignificant, relationship between the property sale prices (Euros/sqm) and heritage designation. However, the total sale prices are higher in Old Rauma as the residential properties are significantly larger in Old Rauma compared to other properties in Rauma. |
| Keywords: | Property Values; Residential Property; UNESCO; world heritage designation |
| JEL: | R3 |
| Date: | 2022–01–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:arz:wpaper:2022_21&r=cul |
| By: | Joel Waldfogel |
| Abstract: | Women have traditionally participated in intellectual property creation at depressed rates relative to men. Book authorship is now an exception. In 1970, women published a third as many books as men. By 2020, women produced the majority of books. Adding new products can have significant welfare benefits, particularly when product quality is unpredictable. Using data on sales of 8.9 million individual titles at Amazon, 2018-2021, along with information on 200 million ratings of 1.8 million books by 800, 000 Goodreads users, I develop measures of both the supply of new books by male and female authors, as well as their usage by heterogeneous consumers. I show that growth in female-authored books has delivered a roughly equal proportionate increase in the female-authored shares of consumption, book awards, and other measures of success, indicating both that the additional female-authored books are useful to consumers and that product quality is unpredictable. I calibrate a simple structural model of demand with unpredictable product quality to quantify the welfare benefit from the additional female-authored books. While revenue gains to female authors come partly at the expense of male authors, gains to consumers from inclusive innovation are experienced by a wide range of consumers. |
| JEL: | J16 L82 O3 |
| Date: | 2023–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:30987&r=cul |
| By: | Gilles Pache (CERGAM - Centre d'Études et de Recherche en Gestion d'Aix-Marseille - AMU - Aix Marseille Université - UTLN - Université de Toulon) |
| Abstract: | Religious tourism refers to travel for religious or spiritual purposes, such as pilgrimages or visits to sacred places. It is not a new concept, especially as far as pilgrimages are concerned, since the first of them would have taken place as early as the 10th century BC in Jerusalem, with the construction of Solomon's temple. If pilgrimages were for a long time reserved for people from the highest spheres of society, who then combined religion, culture, and leisure to enjoy their travel, this is no longer the case today. The democratization of religious tourism generates increasingly massive flows of pilgrims, which poses huge logistical problems, but also security, in the sacred places of reception. This article uses the example of the Hajj in Mecca to highlight these problems and the technological and managerial innovations that can be used to solve them and suggests important research avenues. |
| Abstract: | Le tourisme religieux désigne les voyages effectués à des fins religieuses ou spirituelles, comme les pèlerinages ou les visites de lieux sacrés. Il ne s'agit pas d'un concept nouveau, notamment en ce qui concerne les pèlerinages, puisque les premiers d'entre eux auraient eu lieu dès le X e siècle avant J.-C. à Jérusalem, avec la construction du temple de Salomon. Si les pèlerinages furent longtemps réservés aux personnes issues des plus hautes sphères de la société, qui associaient alors religion, culture et loisirs pour profiter de leur voyage, ce n'est plus le cas aujourd'hui. La démocratisation du tourisme religieux induit des flux de plus en plus massifs de pèlerins, ce qui pose de redoutables problèmes logistiques, mais aussi sécuritaires, sur les lieux d'accueil. L'article prend l'exemple du Hajj à La Mecque pour mettre en lumière lesdits problèmes et les innovations technologiques et managériales envisageables pour les résoudre, en suggérant des avenues de recherche de première importance. |
| Keywords: | Flux, Hajj, Innovation, La Mecque, Logistique urbaine, Pèlerinage, Sécurité, Tourisme religieux, Transport |
| Date: | 2023–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:journl:hal-03973981&r=cul |