This is not even funny: cross-country differences in humor styles and international trade in audio-visual services

Philipp Harms () and Albi Lika ()
Additional contact information
Philipp Harms: Johannes Gutenberg University, Germany
Albi Lika: Johannes Gutenberg University, Germany

No 2604, Working Papers from Gutenberg School of Management and Economics, Johannes Gutenberg-Universität Mainz

Abstract: Using two survey-based data sets that characterize the prevalence of different humor styles across a wide range of countries, we explore whether humor matters for international trade in audio-visual services. Our results suggest that, ceteris paribus, aggregate humor distance – i.e. differences in how countries’ inhabitants, on average, use humor in their daily life – negatively affects bilateral trade in movies, tv series etc. We also find that differences in detrimental humor styles – “aggressive” or “self-defeating” – are particularly harmful, while differences in “affiliative” humor seem to enhance trade in audio-visual services.

Keywords: Trade in services; humor; cultural distance; gravity equation; audio-visual services (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: F14 L82 Z10 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 27 pages
Date: 2026-06-23
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://download.uni-mainz.de/RePEc/pdf/Discussion_Paper_2604.pdf first version, 2026 (application/pdf)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:jgu:wpaper:2604

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in Working Papers from Gutenberg School of Management and Economics, Johannes Gutenberg-Universität Mainz Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Research Unit IPP ().