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on Cultural Economics |
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Issue of 2026–10–05
two papers chosen by Roberto Zanola, Università degli Studi del Piemonte Orientale |
| By: | Anouck Butraud-Assathian (PcEn - Chaire Pluralisme culturel et Ethique du numérique (Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne), CES - Centre d'économie de la Sorbonne - UP1 - Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique); Joëlle Farchy (PcEn - Chaire Pluralisme culturel et Ethique du numérique (Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne)); Léna Laqueyrerie (PcEn - Chaire Pluralisme culturel et Ethique du numérique (Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne), CES - Centre d'économie de la Sorbonne - UP1 - Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique) |
| Abstract: | The article examines the shift in the digital cultural ecosystem triggered by the widespread adoption of Generative AI. Historically, the platformization of cultural industries established an attention economy, where recommendation algorithms were essential for guiding users through overwhelming content catalogs. However, the recent influx of synthetic media has disrupted the dynamic, creating a synthetic tsunami that threatens cultural diversity, undermines user trust, and jeopardizes the livelihoods of human creators. Furthermore, this unchecked proliferation risks model degeneration for the AI systems themselves. To mitigate these economic and social tensions, Digital Service Providers are evolving their algorithmic policies. We analyze how platforms handle AI detection tools, transparent labeling, and adjusted recommendation guidelines to filter and distinguish human creations from automated content. Ultimately, this paper argues that platforms transition from a pure attention economy to a trust economy, actively protecting and highlighting human-made works to preserve the integrity and sustainability of the cultural value chain. |
| Keywords: | trust economy, digitization, recommender systems, GenAI, cultural industries, attention economy |
| Date: | 2026 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:journl:hal-05751501 |
| By: | Guarnieri, Eleonora (University of Bristol, CEPR, CESifo); Tur-Prats, Ana (University of California, Merced) |
| Abstract: | Why do some cultures go extinct while others prevail? We show that a society’s risk of cultural extinction, proxied by language loss, is shaped by its ancestral gender norms and by how these differ from those of competing cultures. Using the Ethnologue and the Male Dominance Index for a global sample of languages, we first show that languages from more gender-equal societies are likelier to go extinct. In our framework, male-dominant societies are more expansionist through two channels, military capacity sustained by surplus extraction and demographic pressure from women's specialization in domestic and reproductive labor, and therefore expand at the expense of gender-egalitarian groups. We test this in two settings. Under European colonization, we find that Indigenous groups more gender-equal than their colonizers are more vulnerable to extinction, which is best explained by asymmetries in male dominance rather than dominance more broadly. Exploiting local variation in neighbors' gender structure across Africa, we show that languages from more gender-egalitarian societies are less likely to survive in cells located close to male-dominant neighbors, with military capacity and population pressure predicting language expansion. |
| Keywords: | cultural diversity, language extinction, gender norms, inter-group contact |
| JEL: | Z10 O10 F54 J16 |
| Date: | 2026–09 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp18947 |