Politico-economic interactions of German public performing arts institutions

Our paper analyzes the conduct of German public performing arts institutions in terms of non-market decision making or public choice. Apart from consumers of performing arts managers of performing arts institutions and public donors are main agents. A manager of a performing arts institution will not assume that the number of visitors is independent of his institution's programme or the ticket prices. By the same reasoning he will regard the amount of public subsidies not as exogenous, but dependent on his own policy. If future grants depend on present and past success (however defined), this will feed back into managerial decisions, along with expectations about demand. Data for the Federal Republic of Germany serve to empirically support the theoretical argument.     

Full-income and price elasticities of demand for German public theatre

This article provides estimates of price and income elasticities of demand for German public theatre, using a large and reliable data set for 178 theatres over 40 years (1965–2004). It is posited that the consumption of the performing arts is a time-intensive activity for which both a theatre ticket and leisure time are necessary. Thus, the impacts of ‘full-income’ (‘leisure time income’ added to disposable income) and the price of leisure time on theatre attendance are examined. The findings indicate that the demand for the performing arts is own-price inelastic. The disposable income elasticity is significant, positive and equals approximately one. In contrast, the full-income elasticity is well above one and greater than usual income elasticity indicating that the performing arts are a luxury good when leisure time income is included in the consumer’s budget. The positive full-income effect is, however, offset by the negative price of leisure effect indicating that leisure time is a complement for the performing arts. Additionally, three objective quality characteristics of theatrical productions which can positively influence theatre demand are examined.

Measuring the relative efficiency of cultural-historical museums in Tehran: DEA approach

Heritage institutions, as one of the main aspects of culture, play an important role in economic prospect of culture by promoting tourism industry. Turning to the interpretation of culture in economic terms, the goal of this paper is to adopt a practical evaluation tool in order to assess the efficiency of heritage institutions. This study evaluates the technical efficiency of a regional system of museums in Tehran, the capital of Iran, using Data Envelopment Analysis approach. The findings may prove useful for management of these institutions in economic point of view, as well as for those responsible for public resource allocation policies in the area of cultural heritage.     

德国汉学史的分期问题及文献举隅

本文考察了德国汉学史的分期及其相关的文献。文章除了对欧洲汉学与德国汉学的关系进行了探讨之外,还着重从欧洲汉学的历史出发分析概括出了德国汉学史的分期和特征。在对有关德国汉学史的新旧德文文献进行了爬梳之后,本文还举例说明了对德国汉学史认识的批判视角的重要性。     

Evaluating the efficiency of public procurement contracts for cultural heritage conservation works in Italy

Almost everywhere public intervention in cultural heritage (CH) conservation is widespread. Using Italy as a case study, the paper analyses public capital expenditure for CH conservation and investigates whether the high degree of specialization of contracting authorities affects the efficiency of CH conservation works. A two-stage analysis is carried out. At a first stage, a nonparametric approach (Data Envelopment Analysis—DEA) investigates the relative efficiency scored by each single work; at a second stage, the determinant factors of the scores variability are investigated. The empirical analysis shows that, ceteris paribus, the expertise affects the efficiency of CH works.     

醉心研究孔孟思想——访德中友协会长波尔

2006年10月17日晚,浙江省人民大会堂灯光璀璨,高朋满座,浙江省友协成立50周年庆典在此举行。当外宾代表讲话时,只见一位身材高大、满头银发、具有学者风度的外宾走上台来,热情地说:人在地球各处的存在这个事实告诉我们,应该加强友好交流。这位外宾代表就是德国东方文化研究所负     

Demand for and productivity analysis of Turkish public theater

We estimate a demand function for live theater provided by the General Directorate of State Theaters in Turkey. We show that demand is more elastic in less developed cities, that attendance is not significantly affected by various qualitative variables, and that the government's practice of offering free passes to government officials is an ineffective way of increasing paid attendance. Comedies and musicals both show significantly higher attendance. Having a Turkish author does not significantly affect attendance. Having a known author significantly increases attendance for more developed cities but not for less developed cities. Being the opening season significantly reduces attendance in less developed cities but has no effect in more developed cities. We also present evidence of inefficiency in state theaters in Turkey through a performance of plays equation in which we evaluate the determinants of the number of performances per play.     

On the role of cultural participation in tourism destination performance: an assessment using robust conditional efficiency approach

The relationship between culture and tourism has been widely investigated from different perspectives. A large strand of literature studies the role of cultural heritage to attract tourists, while a rich bulk of studies on cultural participation investigates the impact of tourism flows on the demand for culture. Another aspect worth investigating relates to the link between cultural participation and the performance of tourism destinations (TDs), as a higher cultural participation in an area could boost the performance in the management of tourism resources. However, so far, this issue has been disregarded in the literature, and this paper aims at filling this gap. Specifically, it studies the effect of cultural participation on TDs’ performance using a conditional efficiency approach that ensures robust inference on the role of environmental factors. We employ data on the Italian regions for the period 2004–2010, and we explore the role of cultural participation for tourism by using several indicators. Our findings offer empirical support to the positive role of cultural participation and, thus, suggest that public cultural policies might also boost the efficiency of the tourism sector.     

The Performance of German Motion Pictures,Profits and Subsidies: Some Empirical Evidence

This paper pursues three objectives. First, it seeks to identify the determinants of performance of German motion pictures in terms of cinema admissions and producers’ rates of return. Second, against the background of heavy subsidization of the German film industry, it discusses two types of subsidy allocation: committee principle allocation and reference principle allocation. Third, the profitability of the industry is considered as the presumed economic non-viability of the industry constantly recurs in the public debate as an argument for subsidies.