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on Cultural Economics |
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Issue of 2005‒12‒09
six papers chosen by Roberto Zanola Universita degli Studi del Piemonte Orientale |
| By: | Anna Alberini (University of Maryland); Alberto Longo (University of Bath) |
| Abstract: | This paper applies the travel cost method to visits to cultural sites in Armenia by domestic visitors. Respondents intercepted at four cultural monuments provided information on their visitation patterns, experience at the site, perception of the state of conservation of the monuments, and rating of the quality of the services and infrastructures. We combine actual trips with stated trips under hypothetical programs that would enhance the conservation of the monuments and improve one of (i) the cultural experience at the site, (ii) the quality of the infrastructure, or (iii) the quality of the services, and use the combined actual and stated trips to fit a panel data model. Our investigation shows that that there are significant use values associated with the four study monuments, and that conservation programs and initiatives that improve the cultural experience, or simply make it easier for the respondent to reach and spend time at the monument, are valued by domestic visitors and would encourage higher visitation rates. |
| Keywords: | Valuation of cultural heritage sites, Non-market valuation, Travel cost, Consumer surplus, Contingent behavior |
| JEL: | Z10 |
| Date: | 2005–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fem:femwpa:2005.112&r=cul |
| By: | Allen J. Scott (UCLA) |
| Abstract: | The cultural economy is defined in terms of a set of sectors ranging from certain traditional artisanal industries like clothing or jewelry on the one side, to newer media industries like sound recording or television program production on the other. I provide an overview of the industrial dynamic of French society since the Second World War and I assess its (inimical) effects on segments of the cultural economy. An empirical description of the cultural-products industries of Paris is offered, with special reference to their locational structure and their competitive advantages and disadvantages. The entire institutional and policy environment within which these industries operate is then subject to analysis, and I seek to show how many of them have become locked in to dysfunctional competitive strategies. I conclude by suggesting that despite their current difficulties, the cultural-products industries of Paris remain a potential focus of significant new growth and development. |
| Keywords: | Cultural products, agglomeration, industrial clusters, creative industries |
| JEL: | R |
| Date: | 2005–11–28 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wpa:wuwpur:0511014&r=cul |
| By: | Vitor Trindade (Department of Economics, University of Missouri-Columbia); James E. Rauch |
| Abstract: | Some cultural goods, like clothes and films, are consumed socially and are thus characterized by the same consumption network externalities as languages. At the same time, producers of new cultural goods in any one country draw on the stock of ideas generated by previous cultural production in all countries. For such goods, costless trade and communication tend to lead to the dominance of one cultural style, increasing utility in the short run but reducing quality and generating cultural stagnation in the long run. Increasing trade costs while keeping communication costs low may reduce welfare by stimulating production of cultural goods that are “compatible” with the dominant style, thereby capturing consumption network externalities, but that add little to the stock of usable ideas. Our two-country analysis suggests a reform of cultural policy whereby import restrictions in the smaller country are removed, and are replaced by subsidies to the fixed costs of production of new cultural goods in its traditional style. |
| Keywords: | consumption network externalities, home market effect, globalization, cultural policy |
| JEL: | F12 F13 F15 Z10 |
| Date: | 2005–11–30 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:umc:wpaper:0517&r=cul |
| By: | Claude Crampes; Carole Haritchabalet; Bruno Jullien |
| Abstract: | This paper presents a model of media competition with free entry when media operators are financed both from advertisers and customers. The relation between advertising receipts and sales receipts, which are both complementary and antagonist, is different if media operators impose a price or a quantity to advertisers. When consumers dislike advertising, media operators are better off setting an advertising price than an advertising quantity. We establish a relationship between the equilibrium levels (advertising and entry) and the advertising technology. In particular, media operators’ profit is not affected by the introduction of advertising when they impose advertising quantities and when advertising exhibits constant returns to scale in the audience size. Under constant or increasing returns to scale in the audience size, we find an excessive level of entry and an insufficient level of advertising. |
| Keywords: | media, advertising, free entry, two-sided markets |
| JEL: | L13 L82 |
| Date: | 2005 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ces:ceswps:_1591&r=cul |
| By: | Allen J. Scott (UCLA) |
| Abstract: | A general outline of the functional and spatial characteristics of the clothing industry in Southern California is sketched out. Two important trends are noted: (a) the increasing design- and knowledge-intensive structure of the industry and (b) the marked increase in offshore subcontracting by local manufacturers that has occurred in recent years. The predicaments and promises of this situation are explored. Will the industry simply continue to lose its employment base in the region? Will it succeed in making the transition to the status of a major world center of fashion? I argue that the Southern California clothing industry is potentially capable of rising to the latter challenge, though it remains strongly over-shadowed by the New York industry in terms of both fashion significance and commercial reach, and it also retains strong elements of its traditional underbelly of sweatshops. I further argue that considerable effort needs to be invested in building social infrastructures to reinforce current positive trends in the industry. Given the right kinds of private and public responses, I submit that Southern California is capable of becoming an international fashion center on a par with New York, Paris, London, or Milan. |
| Keywords: | Apparel, agglomeration, outsourcing, industrial clusters |
| JEL: | R |
| Date: | 2005–11–28 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wpa:wuwpur:0511015&r=cul |
| By: | Nakatani, Tomoaki (Dept. of Economic Statistics, Stockholm School of Economics); Sato, Kazuo (Dept. of Dairy Science, Rakuno Gakuen University) |
| Abstract: | This paper extends the truncated and endogenously stratified Poisson and negative binomial models to three alternative discrete distributions, namely the generalized Poisson, geometric, and Borel distributions. Our primary intention here is to demonstrate how improper treatment of the data generates divergent outcomes by applying those distributions to recreation trip data gathered from surveys of visitors to an indigenous horse park in Japan. <p> Our empirical application shows that failure to account for overdispersion, truncation, and endogenous stratification leads to substantial changes in parameter estimates and their standard errors. The parameter on the travel cost tends to be underestimated in absolute value in the standard setups. This results in serious overestimation of the economic benefit that the recreation site offers to society. Even when the endogenous stratification is incorporated, ignoring overdispersion causes the per capita per trip consumer's surplus to be over seven times larger than that obtained when endogenous stratification and overdispersion are considered. |
| Keywords: | Count data models; Endogenous stratification; Overdispersion; Recreation demand analysis; Consumer's surplus |
| JEL: | C34 C35 D12 Q26 |
| Date: | 2005–11–30 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:hastef:0615&r=cul |