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on Cultural Economics |
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Issue of 2025–06–30
six papers chosen by Roberto Zanola, Università degli Studi del Piemonte Orientale |
| By: | Tomoya Mori; Jens Wrona |
| 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. |
| Keywords: | market integration, tastes, culture, dialects |
| JEL: | D12 F15 N75 Q11 R22 Z13 |
| Date: | 2025 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ces:ceswps:_11872 |
| By: | Tambini, Damian |
| Abstract: | This article examines the interplay between the ‘Netflix effect’ of media globalisation and the reassertion of ‘digital sovereignty’ through national competition, content, and industrial policy. Taking a case study approach the study is based on analysis of laws, codes and policy documents along with expert interviews and secondary data. The study finds that whilst OTT video has undermined revenues and audiences for national broadcasters in all the countries studied, there are differences in the nature of the impact and the response. Policymakers are reasserting digital sovereignty using a variety of broadcasting policy tools. All the countries feature policies including protection of domestic producers, consumers and public service media as well as competition law-based interventions. In some countries such as Australia and the UK, public service media protections have been updated. In others, such as Japan and Korea, policy has focused more on promotion of domestic content exports abroad. The article closes with discussion of the wider significance of these developments for media globalisation, soft power and digital sovereignty. |
| JEL: | R14 J01 |
| Date: | 2025–06–30 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ehl:lserod:127739 |
| By: | Amponsah, Senyo Obed |
| Abstract: | This study explores the strategic potential of city branding in African urban contexts through a case study of Accra, Ghana. Drawing on Hankinson’s Relational Network Model and Herstein’s Country–City–Region Branding Matrix, the research assesses how Accra can be positioned as a distinct and competitive urban brand within Ghana’s multicultural national framework. The analysis, based on secondary data, reveals significant opportunities in Accra’s cultural assets, diaspora engagement, and sustainability initiatives. However, it also highlights fragmentation in governance, limited stakeholder coordination, and the absence of a coherent brand architecture. Comparative insights from Seoul, Barcelona, and Cape Town demonstrate how city branding can be effectively institutionalized through participatory governance, strategic communication, and cultural investment. The paper concludes with policy recommendations aimed at integrating branding into Accra’s urban planning and development agenda. It argues that a stakeholder-driven, contextually grounded branding strategy could enhance Accra’s global visibility while complementing Ghana’s broader national identity goals. |
| Date: | 2025–06–12 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:osf:socarx:sjn7e_v1 |
| By: | Kim, Jungkeun; Cho, Areum; Baek, Tae Hyun; Park, Jooyoung; Bae, Joonheui |
| Abstract: | Luxury brands creating non-fungible tokens (NFTs) often face technical constraints that compromise visual aesthetics, potentially conflicting with their high-end image. This study investigates how the visual quality of NFTs and the presence of price information influence consumer perceptions of luxury goods in the metaverse across three experimental studies. Study 1 compared consumer evaluations across three conditions: good-quality NFT, poor-quality NFT, and no NFT. The findings revealed that poor NFT visual quality negatively influenced evaluations of the original product, with perceived authenticity identified as the key underlying mechanism. Study 2 examined whether this negative effect could be mitigated by the presence of price information. The results showed that a poor-quality NFT accompanied by price information resulted in more favorable evaluations of the original bag, regardless of style similarity. Study 3 replicated these findings using a three-condition design (low-price NFT, high-price NFT, and no NFT), demonstrating that the mitigating role of price information. Together, these findings contribute to the emerging digital fashion literature by highlighting the importance of visual quality and price transparency in NFT-based luxury marketing strategies within the metaverse. |
| Keywords: | metaverse; NFT; luxury goods; visual quality; perceived authenticity; price information; AAM requested |
| JEL: | L81 |
| Date: | 2025–10–31 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ehl:lserod:128334 |
| By: | Bernardina Algieri; Leonardo Iania; Arturo Leccadito; Giulia Meloni |
| Abstract: | Can we predict fine wine and alcohol prices? Yes, but it depends on the forecasting horizon. We make this point by considering the Liv-ex Fine Wine 100 and 50 Indices, the retail and wholesale alcohol prices in the United States for the period going from January 1992 to March 2022. We use rich and diverse datasets of economic, survey, and financial variables as potential price drivers and adopt several combination/dimension reduction techniques to extract the most relevant determinants. We build a comprehensive set of models and compare forecast performances across different selling levels and alcohol categories. We show that it is possible to predict fine wine prices for the 2-year horizon and retail/wholesale alcohol prices at horizons ranging from 1 month to 2 years. Our findings stress the importance of including consumer survey data and macroeconomic factors, such as international economic factors and developed markets equity risk factors, to enhance the precision of predictions of retail/wholesale (fine wine) prices. |
| Keywords: | alcohol retail and wholesale prices; dimensionality reduction; forecasting models; Liv-ex Fine Wine Indices |
| Date: | 2024–02 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ulb:ulbeco:2013/374676 |
| By: | Fabio Gatti (University of Bern, Switzerland & Baffi Center, Bocconi University, Italy); Joel Huesler (University of Bern, Switzerland) |
| Abstract: | The correspondence of historical personalities serves as a rich source of psychological, social, and economic information. Letters were indeed used as means of communication within the family circles but also a primary method for exchanging information with colleagues, subordinates, and employers. A quantitative analysis of such material enables scholars to reconstruct both the internal psychology and the relational networks of historical figures, ultimately providing deeper insights into the socio-economic systems in which they were embedded. In this study, we analyze the outgoing correspondence of Michelangelo Buonarroti, a prominent Renaissance artist, using a collection of 523 letters as the basis for a structured text analysis. Our methodological approach compares three distinct Natural Language Processing Methods: an Augmented Dictionary Approach, which relies on static lexicon analysis and Latent Dirichlet Allocation (LDA) for topic modeling, a Supervised Machine Learning Approach that utilizes BERT-generated letter embeddings combined with a Random Forest classifier trained by the authors, and an Unsupervised Machine Learning Method. The comparison of these three methods, benchmarked to biographic knowledge, allows us to construct a robust understanding of Michelangelo’s emotional association to monetary, thematic, and social factors. Furthermore, it highlights how the Supervised Machine Learning method, by incorporating the authors’ domain knowledge and understanding of documents and background, can provide, in the context of Renaissance multi-themed letters, a more nuanced interpretation of contextual meanings, enabling the detection of subtle (positive or negative) sentimental variations due to a variety of factors that other methods can overlook. |
| Keywords: | Text Analysis, Natural Language Processing, Art History, Economic History |
| JEL: | N33 C55 Z11 |
| Date: | 2025–06 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hes:wpaper:0279 |