Quality in the Performing Arts: Aggregating and Rationalizing Expert Opinion

The article is concerned with the issue of quality in drama, opera, and ballet, respectively. Relying on data from an expert opinion survey and from the statistical yearbook on theatres in Germany, the problem is addressed to what extent quality is linked to certain economic variables. After appropriately aggregating the ordinal expert judgments while controlling for expert-specific standards it is shown that this link is considerably closer for ballet and opera than for drama. Furthermore, in all three art forms positive but decreasing marginal returns of artistic expenses in terms of quality prevail.     

Media Framing of Terrorism: Implications for Public Opinion,Civil Liberties,and Counterterrorism Policies

Abstract

This study presents experimental findings on the impact of media framing of the 2005 London bombings. A total of 371 American participants were exposed to one of two frames to test their effect on public attitudes towards civil liberties and Muslims, and support for counterterrorism policies. Results show that the “domestic homegrown” frame produces greater increases in fear than the “international” frame. This leads to greater support for restricting civil liberties of Muslims and, under certain circumstances, general feelings of negativity toward Muslims. The study also finds support for the hydraulic effect of framing in that the domestic homegrown frame suppresses party identification in attitude formation.     

Efficiency and Inefficiency in the Ranking in Competitions: the Case of the Queen Elisabeth Music Contest

The Queen Elisabeth Contest is one of the most prestigious competitions in classical music. For both the artists who participate and for the public, it is important that the ranking of the finalists be affected as little as possible by exogenous factors relating to the organisation of the competition. Still, it is impossible to control for all contingencies. Thus, the ranking can be expected to deviate from that obtained in a hypothetical full-information assessment process. As such, the ranking may be unfair to the candidates and inefficient in providing information to the consumer. Deviations from the full-information ideal may result from self-selection of candidates, from positive information at the margin, and from differences in circumstances. Analysing data on all piano and violin versions of the Contest over the period 1956–1999, we find strong evidence of biases in the rankingprocess. Confirming previous research, we find that musicians who perform later in the final week or later on a given day in this week (on average) obtain a better classification. Further, in the piano competitions women obtain lower rankings and, prior to 1990, finalists from the Soviet Union obtained higherrankings than average. The jury appreciates innovation in the sense that musicians who perform a more recently composed concerto obtain a higher rank. Finally – especiallyfor violin – the candidate's decision to perform a popular concerto leadsto a lower ranking.     

Win, Place or Show: Gauging the Economic Success of the Renoir and Barnes Art Exhibits

Special art exhibits, sometimes known as``blockbusters', are often thought of as tourism andbusiness generators. This belief is fostered byeconomic impact studies that bravely estimate thetotal gross domestic product or total jobs ``created'by such exhibits. Unfortunately, the enthusiasm of theexhibit promoters often leads them to the uncritical useof methodologies that exaggerate the size of theexhibit's contribution to the local economy. Fortunately, such methodologies are well understoodand corrective measures are available to make theestimates they produce more realistic and useful foradvocacy purposes. This paper presents a comparisonof two studies done in Canada to provide arts managerswith a gauge for realistically forecasting thepotential impact of planned ``blockbusters'.Several Canadian art galleries have recently hostedspecial art exhibits, notably the Renoir Portraits atthe National Gallery of Canada and the BarnesExhibition at the Art Gallery of Ontario. They havesurveyed the visitors to them using a correctivemethodology that enables researchers to determinewhich visitors came to the region only because of theexistence of the exhibit and which would have come tothe region and spent money whether the exhibit existedor not. These data enables researchers to estimatequite accurately the amount of visitor spending thatis actually due to the exhibit. This lower, but morecredible, estimate is very useful in helping promotersobtain exhibit sponsorship from local tourismbusinesses who have become skeptical of theexaggerated claims of economic impact estimates basedon standard survey approaches.     

Quality Judgements and Demand for French Public Theatre

Regression models often reveal a low statistical significance for the quality variables that are used to explain theatrical demand. I posit that opposing opinions on quality are the cause of this. A regression equation is constructed in order to explain demand, with continuous variables for price and volume, and with dummy variables for drama critics, directors-cum-managers, growth in funding by public authorities and repertoire classification. I use detailed data on demand for French theatrical institutions in 1995 and 1996 to test this model. To some extent, the results support the hypothesis that the media reputation of shows, as expressed in the form of drama reviews, and the artistic reputation of directors-cum-managers, which are listed on the programme, havean opposite effect on attendance. Nevertheless, the least squares coefficients show that the most reliable sign of quality remains the reputation of the theatrical institution.     

The FarmBuiLD model (farm building landscape design): First definition of parametric tools

The paper presents a set of synthetic architectural parameters dealing with the morphological aspects of rural buildings. The definition of these parameters represents a fundamental step of the FarmBuiLD research model (farm building landscape design), proposed by the authors as a tool for the analysis of the architectural characteristics of both historical and contemporary rural buildings, as well as the meta-design of new construction and transformation of contemporary rural buildings. The FarmBuiLD's module of physiognomical characterization of rural buildings allows to define the analytical-design parameters through the following phases: a critical analysis of the international scientific literature, a preliminary identification of the essential physiognomical characteristics of rural buildings, and an in-depth study of validation and calibration focusing on specific study cases. This work presents the preliminary definition of the parameters and a discussion about their experimental application through illustrative examples. Given their numeric value and strictly instrumental, thematic and complementary nature, the proposed parameters do not have any geometric, formal or stylistic characterization, and thus can be considered as capable of leaving an appropriate level of freedom within the design of solutions aimed at meeting both contemporary and future functional and aesthetic needs.     

Olfaction and emotion: The quest for olfactory restoration in two speech communities

ABSTRACT

Olfaction has been described as one of the least studied of the senses. This has certainly proven true in Communication. This project applies Ethnography of Communication and Cultural Discourse Analysis to examine the role that olfaction plays in the cultural meaning systems of two speech communities: residents surrounding the Gowanus Canal and bereaved parents. The cultural hub used to explore the cultural significance of olfaction in both speech communities is feeling. The analyses illustrate how emotions are tied to associated sensations and further become activated through radiants of dwelling, relating and acting. The analysis also shows how olfaction may serve to unify and separate members of a community. The significance of this research encourages stretching the boundaries of communication studies by examining the less studied physical senses and the boundaries of Cultural Discourse Analysis by providing distinctions that others can incorporate when examining feelings.     

The sales effect of word of mouth: a model for creative goods and estimates for novels

Weekly sales of creative goods—like music records, movies, or books—usually peak shortly after release and then decline quickly. In many cases, however, they follow a hump-shaped pattern where sales increase for some time. A popular explanation for this phenomenon is word of mouth among a population of heterogeneous buyers, but previous studies typically assume buyer homogeneity or neglect word of mouth altogether. In this paper, I study a model of new-product diffusion with heterogeneous buyers that allows for a quantification of the sales effect of word of mouth. The model includes Christmas sales as a special case. All parameters have an intuitive interpretation. Simulation results suggest that the parameters are estimable for data that are not too volatile and that cover a sufficiently large part of a title’s life cycle. I estimate the model for four exemplary novels using scanner data on weekly sales.

The Internationalization of Higher Education: Implications for Australia and its Education `Clients'

Institutions of higher education are today under increasing pressure tointernationalize their courses and programmes. The overall impact ofthis process is far from clear. This essay compares and contrastspatterns of Australian higher education offered to students fromdeveloping countries, with services delivered to Australian-bornstudents. We suggest that the process of globalization is contributingto uneven economic and educational development, and may weaken theover-stretched educational systems of poorer countries.     

The Market for Picasso Prints: A Hybrid Model Approach

Two basic approaches have been used by the literature focusing on the return to holding artistic works: the hedonic price model and the repeat-sales model. This paper provides a procedure for jointly estimating the two models in a way that take advantages of the unique information contained in each. A semiannual price index for Picasso prints is estimated by using a model derived from the basic framework of the hybrid models. The empirical results suggest that the hybrid model provides the most precisely estimated price index by reducing the level of price volatility.JEL Classification: C5, Z1p     

Space for Ambitions: The Dutch Space Program in Changing European and Transatlantic Contexts

Why would a small country like the Netherlands become active in space? The field was monopolized by large countries with large military establishments, especially in the early years of spaceflight. Nevertheless, the Netherlands established a space program in the late 1960s. In this paper I will analyze the backgrounds of Dutch space policy in international post-war politics, national industrial policy, and science. After the Second World War, European space activities were shaped by the interplay between transatlantic and European cooperation and competition, limited by American Cold War diplomacy. At the national level, the Dutch space program was shaped firstly by two powerful companies, Philips electronics and Fokker Aircraft. As I will demonstrate, these two firms sought to gain crucial management skills as well as technological ones. Meanwhile, the nation’s astronomers were able to capitalize on an advantageous confluence of political, economic and scientific ambitions to forward their own agenda. They succeeded in obtaining two of the most expensive scientific instruments ever built in the Netherlands: the Astronomical Netherlands Satellite (ANS, launched 1974) and the Infrared Astronomical Satellite (IRAS, 1983). Both were joint Dutch-American missions, but the nature of the cooperation on each was very different, reflecting the changing relationship between America and Western Europe from the 1950s until the 1980s.     

Air power and governmental support for scientific research: The approach to the Second World War

Conclusion The development of radar, jet propulsion, ballistic missiles and the atomic bomb during the Second World War established and made visible to an unprecedented degree governmentally supported and directed research and development. National survival was now seen to depend on the mobilisation of a country's talents and resources in science and technology for military purposes.Prior to the Second World War, the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics had established its own role in research. It also established the legitimacy of governmental patronage for scientific research far beyond aeronautics. It was during that period that American politicians and the organs of public opinion became convinced and persuaded the electorate to think that science was indispensable for national security and well-being. A very great deal has been accomplished since then, but the credit for a pioneering role in the conduct of research with the financial support of the federal government must be given to the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics.