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Historical origins of cultural supply in Italy

Borowiecki, Karol Jan LU (2015) In Oxford Economic Papers 67(3). p.781-805
Abstract
I investigate the consequences of long-run persistence of a society's preferences for cultural goods. Historical cultural activity is approximated with the frequency of births of music composers during the Renaissance and is linked with contemporary measures of cultural activity in Italian provinces. Areas with a 1% higher number of composer births nowadays show an up to 0.29% higher supply of classical concerts and 0.16% more opera performances. Classical concerts and opera performances have also rather bigger audiences and obtain greater revenues in provinces that have been culturally active in the past. Today, those provinces also exhibit a somewhat lower supply of other forms of entertainment (e.g., sport events), thereby implying a... (More)
I investigate the consequences of long-run persistence of a society's preferences for cultural goods. Historical cultural activity is approximated with the frequency of births of music composers during the Renaissance and is linked with contemporary measures of cultural activity in Italian provinces. Areas with a 1% higher number of composer births nowadays show an up to 0.29% higher supply of classical concerts and 0.16% more opera performances. Classical concerts and opera performances have also rather bigger audiences and obtain greater revenues in provinces that have been culturally active in the past. Today, those provinces also exhibit a somewhat lower supply of other forms of entertainment (e.g., sport events), thereby implying a tantalizing divergence in societies' cultural preferences that is attributable to events rooted in the past. It is also shown that the geography of composer births is remarkably persistent over a period of seven centuries. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
author
organization
publishing date
type
Contribution to journal
publication status
published
subject
in
Oxford Economic Papers
volume
67
issue
3
pages
781 - 805
publisher
Oxford University Press
external identifiers
  • wos:000360922100012
  • scopus:84938508130
ISSN
1464-3812
DOI
10.1093/oep/gpv029
language
English
LU publication?
yes
id
a5ae3506-5077-47d8-aac5-0b85825a9cf4 (old id 8077371)
date added to LUP
2016-04-01 13:08:07
date last changed
2022-03-29 05:45:20
@article{a5ae3506-5077-47d8-aac5-0b85825a9cf4,
  abstract     = {{I investigate the consequences of long-run persistence of a society's preferences for cultural goods. Historical cultural activity is approximated with the frequency of births of music composers during the Renaissance and is linked with contemporary measures of cultural activity in Italian provinces. Areas with a 1% higher number of composer births nowadays show an up to 0.29% higher supply of classical concerts and 0.16% more opera performances. Classical concerts and opera performances have also rather bigger audiences and obtain greater revenues in provinces that have been culturally active in the past. Today, those provinces also exhibit a somewhat lower supply of other forms of entertainment (e.g., sport events), thereby implying a tantalizing divergence in societies' cultural preferences that is attributable to events rooted in the past. It is also shown that the geography of composer births is remarkably persistent over a period of seven centuries.}},
  author       = {{Borowiecki, Karol Jan}},
  issn         = {{1464-3812}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  number       = {{3}},
  pages        = {{781--805}},
  publisher    = {{Oxford University Press}},
  series       = {{Oxford Economic Papers}},
  title        = {{Historical origins of cultural supply in Italy}},
  url          = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/oep/gpv029}},
  doi          = {{10.1093/oep/gpv029}},
  volume       = {{67}},
  year         = {{2015}},
}