Agglomeration Economies in Classical Music

Arbeitspapier

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.

Object Details

• Language: Englisch

References and Relationships

• Bibliographic citation: Series: EHES Working Papers in Economic History ; No. 47

Classification and Topics

• Classification: 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
• Subject: agglomeration economies ; density effects ; peer effects ; productivity ; urban history ; cities ; composer

Contributors, Places and Time

• Event: Geistige Schöpfung
• (who): Borowiecki, Karol J.
• Event: Veröffentlichung
• (who): European Historical Economics Society (EHES)
• (where): s.l.
• (when): 2013

Further information

• Handle: http://hdl.handle.net/10419/246978
• Last update: 10.03.2025, 11:44 AM CET