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on Cultural Economics |
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Issue of 2016‒04‒04
five papers chosen by Roberto Zanola Università degli Studi del Piemonte Orientale |
| By: | Caruso, Raul; Addesa, Francesco; Di Domizio, Marco |
| Abstract: | This paper investigates the determinants of TV audience for Italian soccer. After a review of the literature concerning the key factors driving the demand for sport, we analyse SKY’s audience figures for 7 Serie A seasons (from 2008-09 to 2014-15). Applying different OLS specifications, we show that Italian viewers have a committed behaviour and outcome uncertainty does not have a significant impact on TV audience. In addition, when choosing whether to watch a match of teams other than their favourite team, Italian consumers appear to be particularly attracted by both the aggregate quantity of talent present and by matches involving teams at the top of the table. This suggests that, in the Italian context, an increase in the TV demand is mainly driven by an enhancement in the performance of top clubs and in the quality of the entertainment rather than in competitive balance. |
| Keywords: | Broadcasting; Soccer; TV Demand; Uncertainty of Outcome hypothesis; Talent; Serie A. |
| JEL: | D12 D7 L25 L83 |
| Date: | 2016–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:70189&r=cul |
| By: | Chiswick, Barry R. (George Washington University); Miller, Paul W. (Curtin University) |
| Abstract: | This paper uses the pooled data from the 2005-2009 American Community Survey to analyze the economic benefits of bilingualism to adult men born in the United States. Bilingualism among the native born is defined as speaking a language at home other than or in addition to English. Native born bilingualism is rare; only 6.5 percent report a non-English language, and of those 71 percent report Spanish. Most of the native born bilinguals report speaking English "very well" (85 percent), with most of the others speaking it "well" (10 percent). Other variables the same, bilinguals earn 4.7 percent less than monolingual English speakers, but the earnings differential varies sharply by the language spoken. Those who speak Native American languages, Pennsylvania Dutch and Yiddish have very low earnings, likely because they live in isolated geographic or cultural enclaves. Those who speak certain Western European and East Asian languages and Hebrew earn significantly more than monolingual English speakers. Spanish speakers earn 20 percent less than the monolingual English speakers overall, but other variables the same, have statistically significant seven percent lower earnings. |
| Keywords: | bilingualism, earnings, native born, linguistic enclaves |
| JEL: | J24 J31 F22 |
| Date: | 2016–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp9791&r=cul |
| By: | Dalvai, Wilfried |
| Abstract: | This paper models the migration of the Creative Class (Florida, 2003) in a New-Economic-Geography framework. Beside wage differentials, urban cultural amenities play an important role on the choice of location. A public cultural good, financed by taxes, is introduced as an agglomeration force. The public-good is purely consumed by skilled workers. Additionally urban cultural diversity across cities is taken into account to model exogenous differences between cities. I analyze the political equilibrium of tax competition. Furthermore the effects of asymmetries of cities and trade liberalization is examined. There is an optimal level of provision of public cultural goods. In the dispersion-scenario the equilibrium tax rate for workers is hump-shaped with respect to trade integration while for skilled workers it is u-shaped. In the core-periphery scenario the equilibrium tax rate for the core decreases with increasing trade freeness. |
| Keywords: | Creative Class,New Economic Geography,Agglomeration,Urban Cultural Amenities,Public Cultural Goods,Tax Competition |
| JEL: | F12 H87 J24 R1 |
| Date: | 2016 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:roswps:143&r=cul |
| By: | Daniel P. Gross (Harvard Business School, Strategy Unit) |
| Abstract: | Though fundamental to innovation and essential to many industries and occupations, the creative act has received limited attention as an economic behavior and has historically proven difficult to study. This paper studies the incentive effects of competition on individuals' creative production. Using a sample of commercial logo design competitions, and a novel, content-based measure of originality, I find that competition has an inverted-U effect on creativity: some competition is necessary to induce agents to produce radically novel, untested ideas over incrementally tweaking their earlier work, but heavy competition drives them to stop investing altogether. The results are consistent with economic theory and reconcile conflicting evidence from an extensive literature on the effects of competition on innovation, with implications for R&D policy, competition policy, and organizations in creative or research industries. |
| Keywords: | Creativity; Incentives; Tournaments; Competition; Radical vs. incremental innovation |
| JEL: | D81 D82 D83 L4 M52 M55 O31 O32 |
| Date: | 2016–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hbs:wpaper:16-109&r=cul |
| By: | Verdier, Thierry; Zenou, Yves |
| Abstract: | This paper studies the population dynamics of cultural traits in a model of intergenerational cultural transmission with perfectly-forward looking cultural leaders who compete for oblique socialization. When there is only one leader, we show that there exists a threshold size in terms of population above which the cultural leader becomes active. We then consider the competition between two forward-looking leaders and characterize the open-loop Nash equilibrium of this differential dynamic game. In terms of policy implications, we show that the policymaker should take into account the crucial interaction between the centralized transmission of cultural traits by leaders and the decentralized transmission of these traits by parents and peers and should differentiate between the short-term and long-term effects of a policy due to over-reactions or under-reactions of the different cultural groups. |
| Keywords: | cultural substituability; dynamic differential game.; forward-looking leaders; integration |
| JEL: | J13 J15 Z10 |
| Date: | 2016–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:11174&r=cul |