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on Cultural Economics |
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Issue of 2025–10–27
seven papers chosen by Roberto Zanola, Università degli Studi del Piemonte Orientale |
| By: | Aussant, Abel (CRIS, Sciences Po) |
| Abstract: | Over the last decade, states throughout Europe have begun implementing universal culture vouchers for young adults to boost cultural participation. Little is known about the effects of these large-scale subsidies, specifically whether they are truly an effective means of widening participation. This article addresses this question by evaluating the French ‘pass Culture’, a €300 stipend for cultural consumption offered to all 18-year-olds. Drawing from the fields of the sociology of culture and cultural economics, this study aims to determine whether an increase in purchasing power for cultural goods can influence participation. The empirical analysis is based on an econometric examination of a large-scale survey examining cultural participation and the use of ‘pass Culture’. The results reveal that while the voucher does not affect participation in institutional highbrow cultural activities like museum visits, theater, or opera attendance, it significantly increases engagement with commercial popular culture, including cinema and comic book reading. These findings suggest that financial barriers are not the primary obstacle to consumption in cultural capital-intensive activities. However, financial constraints do appear to contribute to non-participation in popular cultural life among certain youth demographics. The article then discusses the theoretical implications of these findings for our understanding of the relationship between cultural consumption, cultural policies, and social inequalities. |
| Date: | 2025–10–14 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:osf:socarx:pmdvy_v1 |
| By: | Ryan Macdonald; Josip Lesica; Jenny Watt; Rupert Allen |
| Abstract: | Technological change has led to opportunities and challenges for firms in cultural industries, prompting questions about how these industries have been impacted in Canada. However, there is a lack of information about firms operating in cultural domains. This study attempts to fill this information gap by identifying firms in Canada’s cultural supply chain using administrative data from 2008 to 2020. |
| Keywords: | culture, cultural institutions, firm dynamics |
| JEL: | J23 M21 |
| Date: | 2025–04–23 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:stc:stcp8e:202500400005e |
| By: | Clément Gorin; Stephan Heblich; Yanos Zylberberg |
| Abstract: | This paper analyzes 630, 000 paintings from 1400 onward to uncover how visual art reflects its socioeconomic context. We develop a learning algorithm to predict nine basic emotions conveyed in each painting and isolate a context effect—the emotional signal shared across artworks created in the same location and year—controlling for artist, genre, and epoch-specific influences. These emotion distributions encode subtle but meaningful information about the living standards, uncertainty, or inequality characterizing the context in which the artworks were produced. We propose this emotion-based measure, derived from historical artworks, as a novel lens to examine how societies experienced major socioeconomic transformations, including climate variability, trade dynamics, technological change, shifts in knowledge production, and political transitions |
| Date: | 2025–04–02 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:bri:uobdis:25/793 |
| By: | Stephan Heblich; Dávid Krisztián Nagy; Alex Trew; Yanos Zylberberg |
| Abstract: | Does industrial concentration shape the life and death of cities? We identify settlements from historical maps of England and Wales (1790–1820), isolate exogenous variation in their late 19th-century size and industrial concentration, and estimate the causal impact of size and concentration on later dynamics. Industrial concentration has a negative effect on long-run productivity—independent of industry trends and consistent with cross-industry Jacobs externalities. A spatial model quantifies the role of fundamentals, industry trends, and Jacobs externalities in shaping industry-city dynamics and isolates a new, dynamic trade-off in the design of place-based policies. |
| Date: | 2025–04–02 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:bri:uobdis:25/797 |
| By: | Charles Hodgson; Shilong Sun |
| Abstract: | How do vertically integrated firms' pricing and product provision decisions change with upstream and downstream competition? We answer this question in the context of the Chinese film industry. Theaters allocate significantly fewer showings to non-integrated films. This foreclosure effect is particularly pronounced in two scenarios: when an integrated theater faces limited spatial competition, and when an integrated film is similar to competing films. To measure welfare effects, we estimate a model of consumer preferences and theater showings choice using a novel method that combines standard demand data with film ratings data. Our results show that integrated theaters internalize a substantial portion of their upstream profits, driving foreclosure behavior that distorts showings. Counterfactual simulations show that vertical integration increases consumer welfare by 2.4% in the median market, but reduces consumer welfare in 7% of markets. The welfare effects of foreclosure vary with upstream competition between films and downstream competition between theaters, and we show that targeted antitrust policy that removes of integration based on measures of market competition can substantially increase welfare. |
| JEL: | L0 L13 L40 L42 L82 |
| Date: | 2025–10 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:34390 |
| By: | Paul C. Behler (University of Bonn); Paulina Schröder (Rockwool Foundation Berlin & Humboldt University of Berlin) |
| Abstract: | This paper studies ecospirituality - spiritual views that people have about the natural world. First, utilizing folklore data from around 1, 000 pre-industrial societies, we present the first comprehensive global measurement of ecospirituality. Our analysis reveals systematic cultural variation: ecospirituality is most prevalent in South America and least prevalent in Europe. Additionally, we find a strong negative correlation between ecospirituality and belief in high gods. Second, we study the potential impact of historical ecospirituality on current environmental attitudes. Combining data from the Integrated Values Survey with folklore, we find no statistically significant relationship between contemporary environmental attitudes and the prevalence of ecospirituality in the folklore of ones ancestors. |
| Keywords: | Environmental Attitudes, Ecospirituality, Folklore |
| JEL: | Q50 Z12 Z13 |
| Date: | 2025–10 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ajk:ajkdps:377 |
| By: | Chaudhary, Latika (Naval Postgraduate School); Dupraz, Yannick (Paris Dauphine University, PSL University, LEDA, CNRS, IRD); Fenske, James (Department of Economics, University of Warwick) |
| Abstract: | Combining detailed data on language and migration across colonial Indian districts in 1901 with a gravity model, we find origin and destination districts separated by more dissimilar languages saw less migration. We control for the physical distance between origin-destination pairs, several measures of dissimilarity in geographic characteristics, as well as origin and destination fixed effects. The results are robust to a regression discontinuity design that exploits spatial boundaries across language groups. We also find linguistic differences predict lower migration in 2001. Cultural channels are a small part of the link from linguistic diversity to lower migration. Rather, the evidence suggests communication and information channels are more important. |
| Keywords: | Migration ; Linguistic Diversity ; India JEL Codes: N35 ; O15 ; Z13 |
| Date: | 2025 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wrk:warwec:1580 |