The Phantom of the Opera: Cultural Amenities, Human Capital, and Regional Economic Growth

Oliver Falck, Michael Fritsch () and Stephan Heblich

No 5065, IZA Discussion Papers from Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)

Abstract: We analyze the extent to which endogenous cultural amenities affect the spatial equilibrium share of high-human-capital employees. To overcome endogeneity, we draw on a quasi-natural experiment in German history and exploit the exogenous spatial distribution of baroque opera houses built as a part of rulers' competition for prestigious cultural amenities. Robustness tests confirm our strategy and strengthen the finding that proximity to a baroque opera house significantly affects the spatial equilibrium share of high-human-capital employees. Then, a cross-region growth regression shows that these employees induce local knowledge spillovers and shift a location to a higher growth path.

Keywords: regional economic growth; Bohemians; human capital; cultural amenities (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: H41 J24 R11 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 42 pages
Date: 2010-07
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-cul, nep-fdg, nep-geo and nep-ure
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (14)

Published - published in: Labour Economics, 2011, 18 (6), 755-766

Downloads: (external link)
https://docs.iza.org/dp5065.pdf (application/pdf)

Related works:
Journal Article: The phantom of the opera: Cultural amenities, human capital, and regional economic growth (2011)
Working Paper: The phantom of the opera: Cultural amenities, human capital, and regional economic growth (2011)
Working Paper: The Phantom of the Opera: Cultural Amenities, Human Capital, and Regional Economic Growth (2010)
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:iza:izadps:dp5065

Ordering information: This working paper can be ordered from
IZA, Margard Ody, P.O. Box 7240, D-53072 Bonn, Germany

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in IZA Discussion Papers from Institute of Labor Economics (IZA) IZA, P.O. Box 7240, D-53072 Bonn, Germany. Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Holger Hinte ().