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on Cultural Economics |
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Issue of 2015‒11‒07
four papers chosen by Roberto Zanola Università degli Studi del Piemonte Orientale “Amedeo Avogadro” |
| By: | Luis Aguiar (European Commission - JRC - IPTS); Joel Waldfogel (University of Minnesota - Carlson School of Management) |
| Abstract: | Streaming music services have exploded in popularity in the past few years, variously raising optimism and concern about their impacts on recorded music revenue. On the one hand, streaming services allow sellers to engage in bundling with the promise of increasing revenues, pro_ts, and consumer surplus. Successful bundling would indeed translate some of the interest in music not generating revenue through individual track sales - unpaid consumption and deadweight loss - into willingness to pay for the bundled o_ering. On the other hand, streaming may displace traditional individual track sales. Even if they displace sales, streams may however still raise overall revenue if the streaming payment is large enough in relation to the extent of sales displacement. We make use of the growth in Spotify use during the years 2013-2015 to measure its impact on unpaid consumption and on the sales of recorded music. We find that Spotify use displaces permanent downloads. In particular, 137 Spotify streams appear to reduce track sales by 1 unit. Consistent with the existing literature, our analysis also shows that Spotify displaces music piracy. Given the current industry's revenue from track sales ($0.82 per sale) and the average payment received per stream ($0.007 per stream), our sales displacement estimates show that the losses from displaced sales are roughly outweighed by the gains in streaming revenue. In other words, our analysis shows that interactive streaming appears to be revenue-neutral for the recorded music industry. |
| Keywords: | Music Streaming, Music Industry, Copyright |
| JEL: | K42 L82 O34 O38 |
| Date: | 2015–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ipt:decwpa:2015-05&r=cul |
| By: | Antonio Bariletti (University of Cassino and Lazio Meridionale); Eleonora Sanfilippo (University of Cassino and Lazio Meridionale) |
| Abstract: | The notion of “creativity” has assumed a growing importance in the recent economic literature on happiness, motivations and life-satisfaction. Starting from the seminal contribution of Scitovsky, the effects of “creative goods” and “creative activities” on consumers’ well-being, in connection with cultural, sociological, psychological and educational aspects, have been analyzed. An increasing interest in these concepts has also been shown recently by policy-makers and international institutions (see, e.g., the UNCTAD Reports on Creative Economy, 2010, 2013), in particular in relation to economic growth. On the other hand, a clear and rigorous analytical definition of this category of goods and activities and deep investigation of its peculiarity in comparison with other types of products and activities, broadly defined as comfort or defensive ones, is still lacking in the economic literature. This is why, despite its wide use in economics, the nature of the distinction still remains somehow vague and not univocal. The aim of this paper is to provide a contribution to help clarify this distinction by reconstructing its meaning and scope in the works of Scitovsky (1976, 1992) and Hawtrey (1925) – the first economists who have tried to provide an analytical content to the notion of creative goods and activities in their theoretical frameworks. |
| JEL: | B31 B41 D01 D11 |
| Date: | 2015–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:csn:wpaper:2015-02&r=cul |
| By: | Ceren Ozgen (VU University Amsterdam); Peter Nijkamp (VU University Amsterdam); Jacques Poot (University of Waikato) |
| Abstract: | An important question for firms and policymakers is whether the recruitment of foreign workers can boost innovation. Migration studies have demonstrated positive economic impacts of cultural diversity on productivity and innovation at the regional level, but the impacts at firm level are less well known. Merging data from four different sources, provided by Statistics Netherlands, we construct and analyze a unique linked employer-employee micro dataset of 4582 firms that includes qualitative information on firm innovation. We consider both the number of immigrants these firms employ and their cultural diversity. Potential endogeneity of migrant employment is addressed by an instrumental variables approach that accounts for the past geographic distribution of immigrants and the past culinary diversity of the municipality the firm is located in. We find robust evidence that firms employing relatively more migrants are less innovative. However, there is evidence of integration in that this effect is generall less strong or even absent for second generation immigrants. Moreover, firms employing a more diverse foreign workforce are more innovative, particularly in terms of product innovations. The benefits of diversity for innovation are more apparent in sectors employing relatively more skilled immigrants. |
| Keywords: | Immigration,Innovation,Cultural diversity, Knowledge spillovers,Netherlands |
| JEL: | D22 F22 O31 |
| Date: | 2013–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nor:wpaper:2013026&r=cul |
| By: | Ceren Ozgen (VU University Amsterdam); Cornelius Peters (IAB); Annekatrin Niebuhr (Christian-Albrechts-Universitat zu Kiel); Peter Nijkamp (VU University Amsterdam); Jacques Poot (University of Waikato) |
| Abstract: | Increasing international labor migration has important effects on the workforce composition of firms in all migrant-receiving countries. The consequences of these changes for firm performance have attracted growing attention in recent years. In this paper, we focus explicitly on the impact of cultural diversity among migrant employees on the innovativeness of firms. We briefly synthesize empirical evidence from a range of contexts across Europe, North America, and New Zealand. We then utilize two unique and harmonized linked employer–employee datasets to provide comparative microeconometric evidence for Germany and the Netherlands. Our panel datasets contain detailed information on the generation of new products and services, determinants of innovation success, and the composition of employment in establishments of firms over the period 1999 to 2006. We find that innovation in both countries is predominantly determined by establishment size and industry. Moreover, obstacles encountered and organizational changes faced by firms drive innovation too. With respect to the composition of employment, the presence of high-skilled staff is most important. Cultural diversity of employees has a positive partial correlation with product innovation. The size and statistical significance of this effect depends on the econometric model specification and the country considered. We conclude from the literature synthesis and the new comparative evidence that cultural diversity of employees can make a positive, but modest and context dependent, contribution to innovation. |
| Date: | 2014–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nor:wpaper:2014009&r=cul |