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on Cultural Economics |
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Issue of 2026–08–10
six papers chosen by Roberto Zanola, Università degli Studi del Piemonte Orientale |
| By: | W. Addessi; I. Etzo; A. Tidu; S. Usai |
| Abstract: | Given the Cultural and Creative Industries' (CCIs) growing contribution to Italy's GDP and their fragmented structure of small-medium enterprises, this paper explores the impact of agglomeration on Italian province productivity. To overcome the Modifiable Areal Unit Problem (MAUP) inherent in administrative boundaries, we employ a distance-based specialization index to assess whether firms benefit from operating in close proximity to peers within the same industry. We replicate this analysis at both the domain level (Cultural vs Creative) and the macro-sector level (e.g., Architecture and Design, Performing Arts). Our findings reveal a positive effect of agglomeration on Total Factor Productivity (TFP) across all levels of aggregation. However, when utilizing value added per employee as a metric for productivity, the positive impact is exclusively significant at the macro-sector level, dissipating at more aggregated domain classifications. These results underscore the necessity of facilitating co-location policies for CCIs, particularly given their SME-dominated nature. |
| Keywords: | Cultural and Creative Industries, spatial concentration, agglomeration economies, total factor productivity, M-index |
| JEL: | D24 L25 R12 Z11 |
| Date: | 2026 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cns:cnscwp:202612 |
| By: | Becker, Sascha O.; Panin, Amma; Pfaff, Steven; Rubin, Jared |
| Abstract: | This chapter examines the role of religion in economic development, both historically and today. Religion's influence varies globally, with high religiosity in countries like Pakistan and low rates in China. Despite declines in some Western countries, religion remains influential worldwide, with projected growth in Muslim populations due to higher fertility rates. Religion continues to shape societal norms and institutions, such as education and politics, even after its direct influence fades. The chapter explores how religious institutions and norms have impacted economic outcomes, focusing on both persistence and decline. It also examines cultural transmission, institutional entrenchment, networks, and religious competition as mechanisms sustaining religion's influence. We explore the relationship between religion and secularization, showing that economic development does not always reduce religiosity. Lastly, the chapter highlights gaps in the literature and suggests future research areas on the evolving role of religion in economic development. |
| Keywords: | Religion; Religiosity; Secularization |
| JEL: | D85 I25 J10 N30 O33 O43 P48 Z10 Z12 |
| Date: | 2025–03 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:20027 |
| By: | Fouka, Vasiliki; Serlin, Theo |
| Abstract: | How does economic modernization affect group identity? Modernization theory emphasizes how labor migration led to the adoption of common identities. Yet economic development may reduce incentives to emigrate, preserving local cultures. We study England and Wales during the Second Industrial Revolution, a period characterized by the development of new industries and declines in transportation and communication costs. Using microdata on individuals’ names and migration decisions, we quantify identity change and its variation across space. We develop and estimate a quantitative spatial model in which migration and cultural identities are inter-dependent. Different components of economic modernization had different effects on identity change. Falling migration costs homogenized peripheral regions. In contrast, industrial development led to heterogeneity, increasing the overall prevalence of the culture of London, while also creating local identity holdouts by reducing out-migration from industrializing peripheries. Modernization promotes both national identities and persistent local identities in peripheral regions that industrialize. |
| Date: | 2025–05 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:20193 |
| By: | Michalopoulos, Stelios |
| Abstract: | In this Handbook chapter, I examine how integrating ethnographic and folklore records has shaped research on culture and economics in the 21st century. Advances in text analysis techniques and the incorporation of historical and satellite data have transformed the field. I explore how George Peter Murdock's ethnographic contributions and Yuri Berezkin's seminal folklore motif index have been utilized to shed light on the roots of comparative development. I conclude by proposing a methodology for leveraging Large Language Models to extract cultural insights from folklore motifs, demonstrating how ancestral narratives can complement ethnographic records and offer valuable perspectives on societal norms and the historical forces shaping economic behavior today |
| Keywords: | Folklore; Culture; Development; History |
| JEL: | O10 Z10 Z13 |
| Date: | 2025–04 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:20137 |
| By: | Radoslaw Stefanski (University of St Andrews; University of Stavanger) |
| Abstract: | Long-run growth is driven by new ideas, yet the cultural environment shaping their production is difficult to measure over time. We use large language models to read 23, 000 books from the Western canon and score whether each endorses, rejects, or merely depicts six dimensions of culture. We accumulate the scores into inherited stocks and summarize them with an Innovation Wedge measuring cultural resistance to new ideas. Between 1000 and 1920 the wedge falls by 51 percent. Blinded expert readings and modern surveys validate the measure. An independent 5, 000-book archive reproduces the decline. In a calibrated semi-endogenous growth model, the falling wedge raises 1920 productivity to 1.78 times its counterfactual level, explains two-thirds of the first sustained acceleration in productivity growth between 1500 and 1700, and accounts for 38.7 percent of productivity growth in 1920. |
| Keywords: | culture and growth; ideas production; growth accounting; innovation barriers; text as data |
| JEL: | O41 O31 N13 Z10 |
| Date: | 2026–07–23 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:san:econdp:2602 |
| By: | Zhang, Linzhi |
| Abstract: | Amidst the growing interest in Chinese women artists’ feminist interventions, this article delves into a less-explored theme in their artistic practices: labour. Through a close examination of two artists’ critical engagement with women’s labour in China, I highlight their Marxist feminist concerns. The first artist, Hu Yinping, creates a work utopia that ensures work autonomy for her mother who had taken on precarious part-time jobs after being laid off. The second artist, Feng Lin, appropriates ready-mades derived from a housewife’s life for her critical enquiry into whether domestic labour or home truly shields women from capitalist relations. It is argued that the two artists make women’s problems with work visible in a post-socialist China, where women’s labour becomes increasingly devalued, less conspicuous, and more precarious. Furthermore, both artists experiment with alternatives to capitalist commodified labour. However, it becomes apparent that Hu Yinping cannot sustain her utopian vision without selling her labour as an artist, and Feng Lin demonstrates that a housewife cannot fully escape the capitalist imposition of work. Ultimately, the interventions of these artists serve as a dual critique of capitalist labour and a revelation of its totality. |
| Keywords: | artistic labour;contemporary Chinese art;gender;labour;Marxist feminism;women artists |
| JEL: | R14 J01 |
| Date: | 2024–12–25 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ehl:lserod:140272 |