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on Cultural Economics |
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Issue of 2025–06–23
six papers chosen by Roberto Zanola, Università degli Studi del Piemonte Orientale |
| By: | Gilles Paché (CERGAM - Centre d'Études et de Recherche en Gestion d'Aix-Marseille - AMU - Aix Marseille Université - UTLN - Université de Toulon) |
| Abstract: | The 1980s marked a turning point in the pop music industry, with increasing tensions between artistic experimentation and corporate control. Amid this shift, synth-pop emerged as a space where aesthetic evolution often clashed with commercial imperatives. From this point of view, the trajectory of the German band Propaganda (1983-1990) offers a compelling lens through which to explore the tensions between artistic ambition and managerial constraint within the 1980s music industry. Signed by the British label ZTT Records, the band operated under an innovative yet tightly controlled regime of technological production and promotional strategy. While this centralized and hierarchical framework fostered a distinctive sonic identity, it simultaneously curtailed the band's creative autonomy and strained internal cohesion. Unequal distribution of roles and resources contributed to organizational fragmentation, exposing a core paradox: a project framed as a collective endeavor, yet driven by top-down perspective of control. This article analyzes Propaganda's evolution to illuminate the ambivalent consequences of the industrialization of pop music-where formal professionalization and curated aesthetic experimentation often come at the expense of collaborative artistic agency. |
| Keywords: | Aesthetics, Commercial strategy, Creativity, Label politics, Music industry, Propaganda, Synth-pop, ZTT Records |
| Date: | 2025–05 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:journl:hal-05094648 |
| By: | Anastasia Litina (University of Macedonia, GR); Georgios Mavropoulos (University of Macedonia, GR); Skerdilajda Zanaj (DEM, Université du Luxembourg) |
| Abstract: | The movie industry provides a unique setting to analyze consumer-driven gender biases, as it allows clear identification of how the gender of leading actors, directors and producers influences movie performance outcomes. Using a hand-collected dataset of over 5, 000 globally produced movies from 1998 to 2008, we document a distinct non-linear relationship between female representation in leading roles and audience ratings. Specifically, ratings initially decline significantly as the number of female leads increases, reaching a turning point at approximately two female leads, beyond which ratings stabilize or slightly improve (convex pattern). This negative impact on audience ratings is primarily driven by male viewers, whose proportional presence diminishes as female representation grows. In contrast, professional film awards exhibit an opposite, concave pattern, peaking significantly at two female leads. Employing a Heckman- like selection test, we further reveal that audience gender biases persist even after accounting for the selective attrition of male viewers from movies featuring female leads. |
| Keywords: | gender diversity, gender biases, movie industry. |
| JEL: | J16 L82 Z1 M31 |
| Date: | 2025 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:luc:wpaper:25-12 |
| By: | Carolina Castaldi; Nicola Cortinovis; Milene S. Tessarin |
| Abstract: | Economic geography has offered several insights to understand the role of geography in shaping creativity, innovation and the way they are connected in space. Unfortunately, most attention has been devoted to analyzing cities and urban regions as the ideal context where creativity and innovation come together. Emerging counter-narratives are challenging this urban perspective and proposing that creativity-led innovation can also thrive in rural, often more peripheral, places. Theoretically, different arguments have been proposed, yet a clear conceptualization is lacking. We propose to link these arguments to two complementary ways in which creativity-led innovation might be at play, either as innovation in creative industries or as creative workers contributing to innovation across industries. Methodologically, most evidence comes from intriguing case studies and country-specific surveys, yet comparative quantitative evidence is missing or misleading. In this study, we propose to use trademarks as an alternative indicator to patents, better fitting creativity-led innovation. We illustrate the opportunities from our conceptualization and measurement with a comparative study of European regions. Using a database combining large scale occupational data with patent and trademark activity for the period 2011-2019, we analyze the relationship between creative occupations and innovation activity in rural regions. Our findings suggest that creativity-led innovation processes operate in rural regions but can only be uncovered when using trademarks as innovation indicators. These findings bear key policy implications, as they inform efforts towards formulating and monitoring the role of creativity and innovation for rural contexts. |
| Keywords: | creativity, innovation, regions, rural, urban, creative occupations, patents, trademarks |
| Date: | 2025–06 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:egu:wpaper:2517 |
| By: | Leïla Damak (LEGO - Laboratoire d'Economie et de Gestion de l'Ouest - UBS - Université de Bretagne Sud - UBO - Université de Brest - IMT - Institut Mines-Télécom [Paris] - IBSHS - Institut Brestois des Sciences de l'Homme et de la Société - UBO - Université de Brest - UBL - Université Bretagne Loire - IMT Atlantique - IMT Atlantique - IMT - Institut Mines-Télécom [Paris]); Danielle Pailler (LEMNA - Laboratoire d'économie et de management de Nantes Atlantique - Nantes Univ - IAE Nantes - Nantes Université - Institut d'Administration des Entreprises - Nantes - Nantes Université - pôle Sociétés - Nantes Univ - Nantes Université) |
| Abstract: | Our research aims to explore the conceptual and methodological potential of the intersections between care theories and cultural rights in the context of island tourism development. It seeks to highlight the relevance of such an approach to valorize the value of often invisible local resources, whether tangible or intangible. |
| Abstract: | Notre recherche propose d'explorer le potentiel conceptuel et méthodologique que pourraient présenter les intersections entre les théories du care et les droits culturels dans le contexte du développement du tourisme dans les îles. Elle cherche à mettre en évidence la pertinence d'une telle approche pour valoriser les ressources locales souvent invisibilisées, qu'elles soient matérielles ou immatérielles. |
| Keywords: | care theories, cultural rights, sustainable tourism development on islands, citizen participation, valorization of local resources, care theories cultural rights sustainable tourism development on islands citizen participation valorization of local resources |
| Date: | 2024–11–22 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:journl:halshs-05088786 |
| By: | Mori, Tomoya; Wrona, Jens |
| Abstract: | To test the localized tastes hypothesis, we use historical dialect similarity as an instrument to predict the persistent component of regional taste differences. Analyzing wholesale markets for fruits and vegetables in Japan, we find that predicted taste differences have a strong, statistically significant effect, explaining approximately 9% of the mean volatility in law-of-one-price deviations. Our findings are robust across extensive validity checks, which scrutinize and relax our exclusion restriction, distinguishing between various sources of endogeneity, and confirm our baseline results based on alternative instruments, which exploit exogenous differences in agro-climatic endowments. |
| Abstract: | Zur Überprüfung der Hypothese der lokalisierten Geschmacksvorlieben verwenden wir historische Dialektähnlichkeiten als Instrument zur Vorhersage der beständigen Komponente regionaler Geschmacksunterschiede. Bei der Analyse von Großmärkten für Obst und Gemüse in Japan stellten wir fest, dass die vorhergesagten Geschmacksunterschiede einen starken, statistisch signifikanten Effekt haben und etwa 9 % der mittleren Volatilität der Abweichungen vom Einpreisgesetz erklären. Unsere Ergebnisse sind robust gegenüber umfassenden Validitätsprüfungen. Dabei hinterfragen und lockern wir unsere Ausschlussbeschränkung, unterscheiden zwischen verschiedenen Endogenitätsquellen und bestätigen unsere Basisergebnisse anhand alternativer Instrumente, die exogene Unterschiede in den agroklimatischen Gegebenheiten nutzen. |
| Keywords: | Market integration, tastes, culture, dialects |
| JEL: | D12 F15 N75 Q11 R22 Z13 |
| Date: | 2025 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:rwirep:319077 |
| By: | Vasiliki Fouka; Marco Tabellini |
| Abstract: | This chapter reviews the literature on the relationship between culture and political preferences. We distinguish conceptually between the direct cultural transmission of political ideology and the transmission of more primitive preferences and beliefs that influence preferences over policies, parties, and forms of government. While there is substantial evidence that political preferences persist across generations and within communities, the literature often does not specify which primitive values and beliefs drive this persistence. A growing body of work points to a multifaceted mapping from underlying preferences and beliefs over the material world and social relations to political ideology. In this chapter, we summarize these studies, organize their findings in a coherent framework, and suggest possible directions for future research. |
| JEL: | D72 N30 P0 Z1 |
| Date: | 2025–05 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:33786 |