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on Cultural Economics |
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Issue of 2026–01–12
eight papers chosen by Roberto Zanola, Università degli Studi del Piemonte Orientale |
| By: | Federico Etro |
| Abstract: | We analyze the economic dynamics of art markets through workshops that transmit artistic tradition to apprentices and invest in innovations that shape art history. Initial innovations are more radical and associated with low prices and increasing profitability, but the subsequent evolution implies a gradual convergence toward a steady state with stable quality and prices. The equilibrium involves under-investment in creativity, a problem that can be solved through institutions setting payments for apprenticeship, such as art guilds. Heterogeneous talent can generate a highly skewed distribution of art prices with superstar effects. We analyze the role of principal-agent contracts between patrons and artists when quality is not verifiable, cost-saving innovations and mass production, price-setting artists and dealers, endogenous entry of artists and networks of interdependent artistic traditions. |
| Keywords: | Art history, Artistic innovation, Art prices, Patron-artist contracts |
| JEL: | Z11 |
| Date: | 2025 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:frz:wpaper:wp2025_21.rdf |
| By: | Ruixue Jia; David Strömberg |
| Abstract: | Moral regulation is widespread across societies, yet its consequences have seldom been examined empirically. We study the Hays Code (July 1934–1960s), which imposed systematic moral guidelines on American cinema. Using a regression-discontinuity design, with non-U.S. films providing a comparison group, we find that the moral compliance of U.S. films rose sharply after 1935 and remained high for two decades. The Code also reshaped protagonists and political tone: protagonists became less likely to be women or working class, and political tones grew more conservative. Filmmakers adapted both by increasing compliance within genres and by shifting across them: less-compliant Drama declined while more-compliant Western and Action rose. Companies with a larger market size and immigrant film directors exhibited stronger responses. These findings reveal how moral constraint, market, and identity jointly shape cultural production and how well-intentioned moral regulation can generate broad and often unintended spillovers. |
| JEL: | L51 L82 N72 P16 Z11 |
| Date: | 2025–12 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:34539 |
| By: | Nicolas Berman (Aix-Marseille Univ., CNRS, AMSE, Marseille, France); Mathieu Couttenier (ENS de Lyon, Center for Economic Research on Governance, Inequality and Conflict, CNRS and CEPR); Raphael Soubeyran (CEE-M, Univ. Montpellier, CNRS, INRAE, Institut Agro, Montpellier, France) |
| Abstract: | We study the relationship between culture and environmental conservation through the lens of deforestation. Focusing on Sub-Saharan Africa over the period 2001- 2021, we show that changes of national leaders affect deforestation in a way that depends on the environmental culture of their ethnic group’s. We use data on folklore to measure the importance of forests in group-specific culture. We find that deforestation and land-intensive activities increase in the ethnic homelands of leaders whose ethnic groups have no or little forest-related culture. These patterns are reversed when the leader’s group has a salient forest culture. Our results suggest that culture is an important lever for environmental conservation in Africa. |
| Keywords: | Culture, Deforestation, Politics, Folklore, ethnicity, Africa |
| JEL: | Z1 Q5 D7 J15 |
| Date: | 2025–12 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:aim:wpaimx:2537 |
| By: | Jianping Mei; Michael Moses; Jan Waelty; Yucheng Yang |
| Abstract: | We study how deep learning can improve valuation in the art market by incorporating the visual content of artworks into predictive models. Using a large repeated-sales dataset from major auction houses, we benchmark classical hedonic regressions and tree-based methods against modern deep architectures, including multi-modal models that fuse tabular and image data. We find that while artist identity and prior transaction history dominate overall predictive power, visual embeddings provide a distinct and economically meaningful contribution for fresh-to-market works where historical anchors are absent. Interpretability analyses using Grad-CAM and embedding visualizations show that models attend to compositional and stylistic cues. Our findings demonstrate that multi-modal deep learning delivers significant value precisely when valuation is hardest, namely first-time sales, and thus offers new insights for both academic research and practice in art market valuation. |
| Date: | 2025–12 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:arx:papers:2512.23078 |
| By: | Christos Makridis; Christos A. Makridis |
| Abstract: | Technological change has repeatedly disrupted creative labor markets, raising concerns about whether new tools substitute for artists or shift the organization of creative work. This paper studies how occupational exposure to generative AI (genAI) maps into employment and earnings outcomes for U.S. artists following the unanticipated release of ChatGPT. I combine an occupation-level LLM task exposure index with establishment-based occupational outcomes from the Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS) and individual microdata from the American Community Survey (ACS), estimating event-study specifications that compare more versus less exposed artistic occupations from 2017 to 2024. Across datasets, I find little evidence of short-run earnings declines associated with LLM exposure through 2023, with point estimates near zero and in some specifications modestly positive. Evidence on employment is more mixed, with weaker employment growth in 2023 for more exposed artistic occupations in some specifications. To investigate mechanisms, I use the Gallup Workplace Panel from 2023 to 2025 to measure AI use directly and relate changes in AI use to job satisfaction and burnout. Within-person estimates show limited average well-being effects of adoption, but suggest heterogeneous responses for artists and a use pattern concentrated in ideation and creative-support tasks. The results are consistent with early task reallocation than immediate labor-market harm, while leaving open the possibility of medium-run adjustment as adoption deepens and complementary investments accumulate. |
| Keywords: | artificial intelligence, arts, culture, creative economy, large language models, generative AI, skills dynamics, workforce |
| JEL: | J23 J24 L82 O33 |
| Date: | 2025 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ces:ceswps:_12368 |
| By: | Henrekson, Magnus (Research Institute of Industrial Economics); Persson, Lars (IFN - Research Institute of Industrial Economics) |
| Abstract: | The European football (soccer) market increasingly funnels rents to superstar players and intermediaries while weakening competitive balance. We trace this dynamic to two forces: (a) technological innovation that globalized broadcasting and magnified superstar returns, and (b) legal rulings boosting player mobility and causing bidding wars. The 2024 Diarra ruling by the Court of Justice of the European Union further loosens transfer constraints and will likely intensify talent concentration at “superclubs”. The result is soaring salaries and transfer fees, persistent financial fragility among non-elite clubs, and growing predictability of match outcomes. We evaluate reform options that preserve Europe’s open-league tradition yet borrow from North American competitive-balance tools: greater revenue sharing, hard/soft salary caps, and draft-like mechanisms. These should be complemented by a “cartel tax” to fund youth sport, and club-governance codes plus credible financial-sustainability rules. |
| Keywords: | sports industry, market integration, Diarra ruling, competitive balance, Bosman ruling, talent development |
| JEL: | D33 D43 D63 J44 L50 L83 Z28 |
| Date: | 2025–12 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp18354 |
| By: | Francesca Checchinato (Venice School of Management, Ca’ Foscari University of Venice); Paolo Cunico (Venice School of Management, Ca’ Foscari University of Venice); Vladi Finotto (Venice School of Management, Ca’ Foscari University of Venice) |
| Abstract: | This study examines how restaurants convey authenticity in destinations not renowned for their gastronomy, with a particular focus on the impact of overtourism. Drawing on a supply-side perspective, it examines restaurateurs’ strategies for conveying authenticity through a thematic analysis of 21 in-depth, semi-structured interviews conducted in Venice, an overtourism hotspot, and the nearby Euganean Hills†, a more tranquil, locally visited destination. Using thematic analysis and set theory, the study identifies three intersecting components of authenticity—commitment, community, and territory—that collectively characterise restaurateurs’ approaches. The findings reveal the importance of workers’ dedication to family traditions, engagement with local communities, and connection to the territory in shaping authentic gastronomic experiences. This research advances the destination marketing literature by elucidating the managerial and social dynamics behind authentic food offerings. It provides practical insights for restaurateurs seeking to maintain authenticity amid varying tourist flows and highlights investment directions for policymakers to mitigate overtourism. |
| Keywords: | Food Tourism, Culinary Authenticity, Overtourism, Cultural Diversity, Restaurant Strategy, Thematic analysis. |
| Date: | 2025–10 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:vnm:wpdman:228 |
| By: | Mark van Oldeniel; Christopher M. Snyder; Adriaan R. Soetevent |
| Abstract: | Our analysis of novel data from hundreds of thousands of online auctions on a large platform operating in the Netherlands uncovers a tendency to bid round numbers. Round winning bids are higher than average for a given item and are eschewed by bidders as they gain experience. These findings lead us to hypothesize that, rather than delivering a strategic benefit (say, adding salience to a jump bid), round bidding is a symptom of a behavioral bias. We construct a structural model of behavioral bidding in auctions, estimated for each of a subsample of the most frequently auctioned items. Our median estimate is that 21% of bidders are prone to round-number bias, reducing their expected surplus by nearly 10%. |
| JEL: | D44 D83 D91 L11 |
| Date: | 2025–12 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:34564 |