Agglomeration Economies in Classical Music

Karol Borowiecki

No 47, Working Papers from European Historical Economics Society (EHES)

Abstract: This study investigates agglomeration effects for classical music production in a wide range of cities for a global sample of composers born between 1750 and 1899. Theory suggests a trade-off between agglomeration economies (peer effects) and diseconomies (peer crowding). I test this hypothesis using historical data on composers and employ a unique instrumental variable – a measure of birth centrality, calculated as the average distance between a composer’s birthplace and the birthplace of his peers. I find a strong causal impact of peer group size on the number of important compositions written in a given year. Consistent with theory, the productivity gain eventually decreases and is characterized by an inverted U-shaped relationship. These results are robust to a large series of tests, including checks for quality of peers, city characteristics, various measures of composers’ productivity, and across different estimations in which also time-varying birth centrality measures are used as instrumental variables.

Keywords: agglomeration economies; density effects; peer effects; productivity; urban history; cities; composer (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D24 J24 N90 R12 Z11 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 60 pages
Date: 2013-09
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-cul, nep-eff, nep-his and nep-ure
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (4)

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https://ehes.org/wp/EHES_No47.pdf (application/pdf)

Related works:
Journal Article: Agglomeration economies in classical music (2015)
Working Paper: Agglomeration Economies in Classical Music (2013)
Working Paper: Agglomeration Economies in Classical Music (2013)
Working Paper: Agglomeration Economies in Classical Music (2013)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:hes:wpaper:0047

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