History matters: The origins of cultural supply in Italy

Karol Borowiecki

No 15/2012, Discussion Papers on Economics from University of Southern Denmark, Department of Economics

Abstract: I investigate the consequences of long-run persistence of a societies’ preference towards cultural goods. Historical cultural activity is approximated with the frequency of births of classical composers during the Renaissance and is linked with contemporary supply of cultural activities in Italian provinces. Areas with a one-standard-deviation higher number of composer births expose nowadays up to 0.4 standard deviations higher supply of cultural activities (such as concerts or theater performances). Those provinces seem to exhibit today also a somewhat lower supply of non-cultural activities. The results point at a tantalising divergence in societies’ cultural preferences which is attributable to events rooted long in the past. Furthermore, the findings imply a remarkable persistency of the geography of artistic activity. While human capital is found to be potentially a driver for spill-over effects across different cultural disciplines over time, other unobservable factors, such as societies’ preference traits, determine the persistency within most closely related cultural areas.

Keywords: Economic development; culture; institutions; path dependence; endogenous preferences (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: N33 N34 O10 Z10 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 41 pages
Date: 2012-08-17
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-eur and nep-his
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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Related works:
Journal Article: Historical origins of cultural supply in Italy (2015)
Working Paper: Historical origins of cultural supply in Italy (2015)
Working Paper: History Matters: The Origins of Cultural Supply in Italy (2012)
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