Exposure to Foreign Media and Changes in Cultural Traits: Evidence from Naming Patterns in France

Anne-Célia Disdier (), Keith Head and Thierry Mayer ()

No 5674, CEPR Discussion Papers from C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers

Abstract: Free trade in audio-visual services has faced opposition on the grounds that foreign media undermine domestic culture, and ultimately, global diversity. We assess the media-culture link using name frequencies as a measure of tastes. Using a 47-year panel of French birth registries, we first show that names appearing on television shows, movies, or in songs are about five times more popular than other names. Most, but not all, of this relationship arises from endogeneity: song and script writers, as well as performers and their parents, select names that would be popular anyways. Using name attributes, fixed effects, and lagged popularity as controls, our regression results suggest that media affect choices by informing parents of unfamiliar names.

Keywords: cinema; cultural transmission; endogenous tastes; popular music; television (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D19 F15 Z10 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-cul and nep-int
Date: 2006-05
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Working Paper: Exposure to foreign media and changes in cultural traits: Evidence from naming patterns in France (2006)
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