nep-cul New Economics Papers
on Cultural Economics
Issue of 2017‒10‒29
six papers chosen by
Roberto Zanola
Università degli Studi del Piemonte Orientale

  1. The Migration of Protestant Music in European Culture By Cristian Caraman
  2. Measuring Technical Efficiency and Marginal Costs in the Performing Arts: The Case of the Municipal Theatres of Warsaw By Víctor Fernández-Blanco; Ana Rodríguez-à lvarez; Aleksandra WiÅ›niewska
  3. Cultural Distance and International Trade in Services: A Disaggregate View By Harms, Philipp; Shuvalova, Daria
  4. Migration of the Evangelical Culture in Romania After the Fall of Communism By Ieremia Rusu
  5. Should Immigrants Culturally Assimilate or Preserve Their Own Culture? Individual Beliefs and the Longevity of National Identity By Peter Grajzl; Jonathan Eastwood; Valentina Dimitrova-Grajzl
  6. Judaism and Migration By Ioan Stinghe

  1. By: Cristian Caraman (Timotheus Brethren Theological Institute of Bucharest)
    Abstract: The migration of musical art forms, from one nation to another, from one century to another and from one cultural context to another was a historical panacea of humanity. Through music, the Christian faith has managed to keep the dialogue open amongst the main Christian orientations—Catholic, Orthodox and Protestant/Evangelical. This article links the beginnings of protestant music, during the XIV and XVI centuries, to the spiritual manifestations that shaped the protestant music throughout history. A very important piece of the reformation is the Protestant chorale. The chorale brought forth the ideology of the reformation and gave life to the esthetic ideas of the humanists. The invention of the printing press in Krakow in 1475 helped spreading the teachings of Protestantism.
    Keywords: Reformation, Protestant music, humanism, Chorale, Protestant, Christian faith.
    Date: 2016–08
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:smo:mpaper:18&r=cul
  2. By: Víctor Fernández-Blanco (Department of Economics, University of Oviedo, Spain); Ana Rodríguez-à lvarez (Department of Economics, University of Oviedo, Spain); Aleksandra WiÅ›niewska (Department of Economics, University of Warsaw, Poland)
    Abstract: The aim of this paper is to bring new contributions to the analysis of efficiency and productivity in the performing arts. First, we consider that the behavior of a performing arts company can be analyzed under a multi-output technology of production, since they offer different products in terms of quantity and quality. Second, and for the first time to the best of our knowledge, we propose a procedure to measure the marginal costs associated with the production of performing arts firms. To achieve our goals, we estimate a stochastic input distance function to a set of nineteen public municipal theatres in Warsaw during the period 2000-2012. Additionally, we calculate the technical efficiency indices for these theatres and characterize some determinants of their efficiency, paying special attention to the effect of public grants. Our findings suggest that those municipal theatres in Warsaw could have used 7% less inputs to achieve the same level of outputs. At the same time, the presence of public grants improves efficiency and, so, contributes to extend novelty and diversity. The marginal cost of a new performance is around 7,149 PLN; and introducing a new title costs up to 3.33 times more than staging one title already established in the repertoire.
    Keywords: theatres, multi-output technology, marginal cost, duality theory, input distance function
    JEL: L82 D24 Z10
    Date: 2017–10
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cue:wpaper:awp-09-2017&r=cul
  3. By: Harms, Philipp; Shuvalova, Daria
    Abstract: We estimate the effect of “cultural distance” on bilateral trade in services. Our measure of cultural distance is based on scores that reflect individuals’ attitudes towards hierarchies, initiative, competition, uncertainty etc. Controlling for other standard ingredients of gravity equations, we show that cultural distance has a negative effect on services trade. However, the strength and sign of this effect differs across various aspects of cultural distance and for various types of services.
    JEL: F14
    Date: 2017
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:vfsc17:168132&r=cul
  4. By: Ieremia Rusu (Timotheus Brethren Theological Institute of Bucharest)
    Abstract: The Evangelical churches were established in Romania during the 19th and 20th centuries, but their cultural influence became more prevalent after the fall of Communism. In the first part of this paper, the author analyzes the cultural trends that emerged after the Romanian revolution of December 1989. In the second part, the paper highlights three historical conceptions regarding Christ and culture. In the third part, the paper focuses on the migration of the Evangelical culture in the post-communist Romania. In the last part, the author offers few suggestions on how to extend the impact of the Evangelical culture in the Romanian culture, by the occasional adoption of the concepts “Christ against Culture†, and “Christ the Transformer of Culture.â€
    Keywords: Christ, Evangelical, culture, Romania, migration.
    Date: 2016–08
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:smo:mpaper:29&r=cul
  5. By: Peter Grajzl; Jonathan Eastwood; Valentina Dimitrova-Grajzl
    Abstract: We develop and empirically test a theory concerning individual beliefs about whether immigrants should culturally assimilate into the host society or preserve their own cultural norms. We argue that when national identity is a source of intrinsic utility, the longevity of national identity influences a national identity’s perceived resilience to an ostensible immigrant threat and, thus, affects individuals’ beliefs about the need for immigrants’ cultural assimilation. Empirical evidence based on data from countries of wider Europe supports our theory. An expert survey-based measure of the longevity of national identity, first, exhibits a robustly negative effect on the strength of individual preferences in favor of immigrants’ cultural assimilation and, second, is an important contextual moderating variable that shapes the effect of individual-level characteristics on their beliefs. Thus, individual beliefs about the necessity of immigrants’ cultural assimilation versus accommodation of cultural diversity reflect a historically-rooted sense of national identity.
    Keywords: cultural assimilation, immigrants, individual beliefs, national identity, longevity
    JEL: Z13 J18 D72 P51
    Date: 2017
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ces:ceswps:_6470&r=cul
  6. By: Ioan Stinghe (Doctoral candidate at Babes-Bolyai University Cluj-Napoca)
    Abstract: Migration in history has generated ethnical and religious synthesis, demographical, cultural, economical, social and political changes. Today, the migration phenomenon has taken amplitude in the context of two unrolling processes with a visible potential for changing the contemporaneous world: the extension of the European Union and the democratization in the Arabic world. Is there any connection between the development of the Judaism and the actual migration phenomenon? The study limits itself at analyzing the migration’s origins in the context of the creation of the Jewish people and of the impact of the Judaism upon the world. The conclusion emphasizes the fact that setting the migration concept in relation with the development of the Judaism, has an empirical and a theological support, which reveals the result of a dynamic juxtaposition, as a product of the divine providence.
    Keywords: migration, stranger, Judaism, change, development, providence.
    Date: 2016–08
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:smo:mpaper:26&r=cul

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