nep-cul New Economics Papers
on Cultural Economics
Issue of 2008‒12‒01
four papers chosen by
Roberto Zanola
University of the Piemonte Orientale

  1. Afrikaanse musiek en die model van rasionele verslawing By Ansie de Wet
  2. The Cultural Roots of Institutions By Mariko Klasing
  3. Culturally Risk Averse? – A Model of Economic Growth with Endogenous Culture By Mariko Klasing
  4. Modelling smoothly the joint effect of several advertising media on sales in a homogeneous market By Annamaria Sorato; Bruno Viscolani

  1. By: Ansie de Wet (Departement Ekonomie, Universiteit Van Stellenbosch)
    Abstract: Oor die afgelope paar jaar was daar sterk groei in die vraag na Suid-Afrikaanse musiek, in besonder Afrikaanse musiek. Die artikel poog om die groei te verduidelik deur die model van rasionele verslawing van Stickler en Becker te kombineer met die bandwagon effek. In die model lei die verbruik van musiekwaardering in een periode tot ‘n groter verbruik in die volgende periode. Musiekwaardering word deur faktore soos musiekkapitaal, musiekprodukte asook sosiale faktore deur die verbruiker geproduseer. Die faktore word binne die konteks van die Afrikaanse musiekbedryf bespreek om sodoende die model toe te pas en die groei in vraag te verduidelik.
    Keywords: Rasionele verslawing, bandwagon effek, musiekindustrie, Afrikaanse musiek, huishoudelike produksiefunksie, Advertensie
    JEL: D11 L82 M37 Z11
    Date: 2008
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:sza:wpaper:wpapers68&r=cul
  2. By: Mariko Klasing
    Abstract: Do political institutions have cultural roots? Using a novel data set of cultural values we show that culture, defined as a society's collective beliefs and values, is an important determinant of institutions. We argue that the traditional proxies for culture used in the existing literature suffer from conceptual problems and find that they do not survive several robustness checks. Our results suggest, that individualist societies and societies with preference for a more equal distribution of power set up institutions that better protect individual property rights, place more constraints on governments and have more effective governments. We find that our measures of culture are robust to the inclusion of other control variables and across different samples and that they always dominate the effects of the traditional proxies.
    Keywords: Institutions, political institutions, culture, cultural values
    JEL: D02 O17 P00 P51
    Date: 2008–11
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:usg:dp2008:2008-24&r=cul
  3. By: Mariko Klasing
    Abstract: This research studies the dynamic interplay between the evolution of cultural traits and the process of economic development. In particular, this paper shows how cultural attitudes, in this case differences in risk attitudes, influence economic decision making while at the same time illustrating how these attitudes endogenously change over time. In order to study this joint evolution of cultural and economic variables, an endogenous growth model is integrated with a cultural transmission mechanism along the lines of Bisin & Verdier. This provides us with a framework for the analysis of cultural attitudes that is both general and flexible so that it could be adapted for the study of culture in its full multidimensionality. The model predicts that higher economic success of more risk tolerant agents will over time lead to an increase in their representation in the society, which in turn will speed up economic growth. At the same time, though, the more risk averse type will not be completely eliminated. Using individual level data on risk attitudes across Chinese provinces, empirical evidence supporting this relationship between economic incentives and risk attitudes is provided.
    Keywords: Economic growth, cultural change, cultural transmission, risk aversion
    JEL: A14 J24 O11 O15 O33 O41 Z10
    Date: 2008–11
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:usg:dp2008:2008-23&r=cul
  4. By: Annamaria Sorato (Department of Applied Mathematics, University of Venice); Bruno Viscolani (Department of Pure and Applied Mathematics, University of Padua)
    Abstract: Decision on the use of different advertising media is a critical issue in marketing. Drawing on some literature related to the dynamic Nerlove-Arrow model, we propose a nonlinear programming framework for discussing how different advertising media may jointly affect the demand for a good. Starting from the idea that different advertising efforts may not simply add (linearly) to produce the demand result, we examine a few special media combination mechanisms which can be represented by smooth functions.
    Keywords: Marketing, Advertising, Production, Nonlinear programming
    JEL: M37 M31 C61
    Date: 2008–11
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:vnm:wpaper:176&r=cul

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