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
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Englisch
- Erschienen in
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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
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agglomeration economies
density effects
peer effects
productivity
urban history
cities
composer
- Ereignis
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Geistige Schöpfung
- (wer)
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Borowiecki, Karol J.
- Ereignis
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Veröffentlichung
- (wer)
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European Historical Economics Society (EHES)
- (wo)
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s.l.
- (wann)
-
2013
- Handle
- Letzte Aktualisierung
-
20.09.2024, 08:22 MESZ
Datenpartner
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Objekttyp
- Arbeitspapier
Beteiligte
- Borowiecki, Karol J.
- European Historical Economics Society (EHES)
Entstanden
- 2013