How Should Cultural Diversity be Measured? An Application using the French Publishing Industry

Françoise Benhamou () and Stéphanie Peltier ()
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Françoise Benhamou: CES - Centre d'économie de la Sorbonne - UP1 - Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique
Stéphanie Peltier: CES - Centre d'économie de la Sorbonne - UP1 - Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique

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Abstract: Despite the fuzzy nature of the concept of cultural diversity, it remains a core issue in several debates (WTO, European Constitution, etc.). In this paper we propose a framework to assess cultural diversity that relies on a three-criterion analysis: variety, balance and disparity. We also introduce a distinction between supplied and consumed diversity. To test this framework, we have studied cultural diversity in the French book industry over the period 1990-2003. Our main results are that the situation of the publishing industry in terms of cultural diversity is highly dependent on the criteria considered. Hence, when variety is the sole consideration, diversity increases. However, taking balance and disparity into account rather leads to the opposite conclusion

Keywords: books; publishing industry; diversity; cultural economics; cultural policy; édition de livres; économie de la culture; diversité culturelle; politique culturelle (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2007
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (8)

Published in Journal of Cultural Economics, 2007, 31 (2), pp.85-107. ⟨10.1007/s10824-007-9037-8⟩

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:hal:journl:halshs-00193851

DOI: 10.1007/s10824-007-9037-8

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