Ich Bin Auch ein Lemming: Herding and Consumption Capital in Arts and Culture

Dominic Rohner, Anna Winestein and Bruno Frey

No 270, IEW - Working Papers from Institute for Empirical Research in Economics - University of Zurich

Abstract: Trends in arts and culture tend to be longer-lasting and less fragile than in other fields such as clothing design. Most herding models are not able to explain such stability, instead predicting informational cascades to be fragile and fads to be frequent. The present contribution is able to explain the hysterisis of trends in arts by incorporating the accumulation of consumption capital into a herding model. Further, the model is tested empirically by analyzing measures of relative and absolute concentration in the television business. It is concluded that by being exposed to art and culture people accumulate consumption capital for a particular style or artist and that this mechanism tends to make herding in arts stable over time.

Keywords: Art; Culture; Herding; Consumption Capital; Concentration (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C11 D82 D83 Z11 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2006-01
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-cul
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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Related works:
Working Paper: Ich bin auch ein Lemming: Herding and Consumption Capital in Arts and Culture (2006)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:zur:iewwpx:270

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