Arbeitspapier

Agglomeration Economies in Classical Music

This study investigates agglomeration effects for classical music production in a wide range of cities for a global sample of composers born between 1750 and 1899. Theory suggests a trade-off between agglomeration economies (peer effects) and diseconomies (peer crowding). I test this hypothesis using historical data on composers and employ a unique instrumental variable – a measure of birth centrality, calculated as the average distance between a composer's birthplace and the birthplace of his peers. I find a strong causal impact of peer group size on the number of important compositions written in a given year. Consistent with theory, the productivity gain eventually decreases and is characterized by an inverted U-shaped relationship. These results are robust to a large series of tests, including checks for quality of peers, city characteristics, various measures of composers' productivity, and across different estimations in which also time-varying birth centrality measures are used as instrumental variables.

Sprache
Englisch

Erschienen in
Series: EHES Working Papers in Economic History ; No. 47

Klassifikation
Wirtschaft
Production; Cost; Capital; Capital, Total Factor, and Multifactor Productivity; Capacity
Human Capital; Skills; Occupational Choice; Labor Productivity
Regional and Urban History: General
Size and Spatial Distributions of Regional Economic Activity
Cultural Economics: Economics of the Arts and Literature
Thema
agglomeration economies
density effects
peer effects
productivity
urban history
cities
composer

Ereignis
Geistige Schöpfung
(wer)
Borowiecki, Karol J.
Ereignis
Veröffentlichung
(wer)
European Historical Economics Society (EHES)
(wo)
s.l.
(wann)
2013

Handle
Letzte Aktualisierung
20.09.2024, 08:22 MESZ

Datenpartner

Dieses Objekt wird bereitgestellt von:
ZBW - Deutsche Zentralbibliothek für Wirtschaftswissenschaften - Leibniz-Informationszentrum Wirtschaft. Bei Fragen zum Objekt wenden Sie sich bitte an den Datenpartner.

Objekttyp

  • Arbeitspapier

Beteiligte

  • Borowiecki, Karol J.
  • European Historical Economics Society (EHES)

Entstanden

  • 2013

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