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on Cultural Economics |
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Issue of 2005‒05‒14
three papers chosen by Roberto Zanola Universita degli Studi del Piemonte Orientale |
| By: | Braunerhjelm, Pontus (CESIS - Centre of Excellence for Science and Innovation Studies, Royal Institute of Technology) |
| Abstract: | The issue addressed in this paper concerns the emergence and dynamics of a regional cluster in the music industry. Whereas mainstream economic geography models explain agglomeration of existing economic activities, an evolutionary approach is necessary to understand the emergence of genuinely new clusters. Based on an empirical analysis of the major Swedish music cluster, it is shown how cognitive features, the institutional and organizational framework, as well as economic incentives, were interlinked in the process of cluster emergence. A multitude of forces thus coincided in time and space to support the emerging music cluster. A latent knowledge base, language skill and path-dependence all played a significant role. It is also shown how mobile and densely located agents, displaying a high degree of connectivity, together with external impulses through immigrants, contributed to the dynamics and re-vitalization of the Stockholm music cluster. |
| Keywords: | genesis; evolution; dynamics; heterogeneity |
| JEL: | D83 L22 Z11 |
| Date: | 2005–05–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:cesisp:0029&r=cul |
| By: | Loek Groot (Utrecht School of Economics) |
| Abstract: | The point of departure in this paper is the diagnosis of Hoehn and Szymanski (1999) that the interlocking system of European football creates an unbalanced system. To secure competitive balance at both the European and the national level, they recommend to reform European football into a closed superleague American-style. In this paper I argue for a radically different route. Instead of giving up dominant traditions of European football, like promotion-relegation and the interlocking system, it is possible to maintain the defining characteristics of European football by returning to the state of affairs in the 1950s, before the commercialisation of football through the media started. This requires the free of charge distribution of football matches on TV, which can be justified by standard economic welfare analysis. |
| Keywords: | interlocking system; of European football; commercialization; Americanization; broadcasting rights |
| JEL: | D42 D60 L41 L83 |
| Date: | 2005–05–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wpa:wuwpio:0505003&r=cul |
| By: | Arthur Zillante (ICES, George Mason University) |
| Abstract: | The baseball card industry provides a case study of survival in a declining industry. The case study shows how manufacturers have varied their strategic behavior in response to changes that have occurred within the industry in the last 20 years. This is in stark contrast to most of the existing theoretical literature on behavior in declining industries, which assumes that behavior remains constant throughout the decline phase of an industry. |
| Keywords: | Declining industry, case study, baseball cards |
| JEL: | L |
| Date: | 2005–05–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wpa:wuwpio:0505004&r=cul |