The impact of cultural economics on economic theory

The paper asks what kind of impact cultural economics has had on the development of economic theory. Six research areas are discussed: productivity differentials between artistic and non-artistic labor, variations of the public good concept, particularly in relation to environmental goods, endogenous changes in preferences, long-term rates of return on paintings, impact of new media technologies and the autonomy of artistic valuation.It is shown that these topics have relevance beyond their applications in the cultural field, and that the theoretical issues involved challenge standard assumptions and standard modelling procedures in economic theory.Presidential address delivered at the 9th international conference of the Association for Cultural Economics, held in Boston, May 8–11, 1996.     

Beyond the Dogma of the Fixed Book Price Agreement

After describing the essential features of the book market, a welfare analysisof the fixed book price agreement is given. Allowance is made for theopportunity cost of reading. Theoretically such an agreement pushes up bookprices and depresses book sales. However, more titles will be published,particularly books with low price elasticity and those that take a long timeto read. Potential advantages of better service, distribution and retailnetworks seem less relevant. The book market is one of imperfect competition,but even so the cross-subsidy argument is unlikely to be valid. A qualitativeanalysis of the Dutch situation is given. Tentative conclusions are that oneshould be more concerned about the number of well-stocked bookshops than thediversity of published titles and that debutantes do not face big barriers toentry. One should be even more concerned about the falling proportion ofpeople reading books. Governments fail to set (quantitative) objectives forthe fixed book price agreement, which makes it difficult to evaluate itssuccess and contributes to it being treated as dogma in the book world and thepolitical arena.     

Combining the travel cost and contingent behavior methods to value cultural heritage sites: Evidence from Armenia

This paper combines the travel cost method (TCM) with contingent behavior questions to estimate domestic visitors’ use values for cultural heritage sites in Armenia, a transition economy in which conservation of cultural monuments is hampered by limited resources. Respondents intercepted at four cultural monuments provided information on their visitation patterns, experience at the site, perception of the state of conservation of the monuments, and rating of the quality of the services and infrastructure. We combine actual trips with stated trips under hypothetical programs that would enhance the conservation of the monuments and improve one of (i) the cultural experience at the site, (ii) the quality of the infrastructure, or (iii) the quality of the services, and use the combined actual and stated trips to fit a panel data model. Our study is one of the few applications of the TCM to value cultural heritage sites. Our investigation shows that (i) significant use values are associated with the four study monuments, and (ii) conservation programs and initiatives that improve the cultural experience, or simply make it easier for the respondent to reach and spend time at the monument, are valued by domestic visitors and would encourage higher visitation rates. Actual and intended trips reported by the respondents exhibit good construct validity, in the sense that they are well predicted by price, location, hypothetical scenario and other individual characteristics of the respondents.

Travel Cost Analysis of a Cultural Heritage Site: The Case of Historic St. Mary's City of Maryland

Historic St. Mary's City located in rural southern Maryland, marks the 17th century British Colonial capital of the State of Maryland. As with most cultural heritage sites, Historic St. Mary's City can be classified as possessing public goods-type characteristics, and as such, welfare benefit estimates must utilize non-market valuation techniques. To date, the primary valuation methodology used for cultural heritage sites research involves stated preference methods. This study is one of the first to employ a revealed preference methodology, the zonal travel cost model, to estimate the consumer surplus welfare measures of a cultural heritage site. We analyze three years of visitor sample data to compare three functional forms of visitor demand. The average of the annual individual consumer surplus measures ranged from approximately $8.00 to $19.26, depending on the functional forms used. When aggregated to the total number of individual paid visitors, the average annual benefit estimates range from approximately $75,492 to $176,550.     

Speech genres and cultural value in the Anglo-American public speaking course as a site of language socialization

Speech genres have a significant role in socializing children and adults not only to speak in culturally appropriate ways but also to present desirable identities. We analyze narratives of self-transformation collected in an undergraduate public speaking course in the United States to learn how the acquisition of public speaking as a speech genre contributes to U.S. students’ language socialization. Our study contributes to two traditions of intercultural communication research, one interested in the context-bound, culturally situated character of Anglo-American speech, and another that seeks to explain how local communication resources, including speech genres, travel across cultural boundaries.     

超大城市中的公共空间生活意象 ——夜市从纯商业向文创活力方向发展研究

中国城市的公共空间中一直存在群众自发形成商业活动的传统.在超大城市拥挤且有限的公共空间里,如何创造群众自发参与的公共空间,形成积极的城市生活意象,是值得深入思考的问题.中国有很多"草根夜市",是大城市作为"不夜城"的重要组成部分.但随着城市的发展,传统的夜市形式逐渐被取缔.以上海、武汉等超大城市为研究对象,调研夜市发展...