Explaining Post-War Cinema Attendance in Great Britain

This paper models the interaction between cinema admissions and cinema supply in response to changes in exogenous variables, chiefly competition from television viewing. The relationship is estimated empirically by applying near Vector Autoregression (VAR) techniques to a long run of British annual data from 1950 to 1997. The results indicate that sustained negative shocks to cinema demand throughout most of the period reduced the supply of screens, inducing further falls in admissions and closures until a new equilibrium was attained. More recently, the introduction of multiplex cinemas has interrupted and partially reversed this downward demand-supply spiral.     

The Distribution and Predictability of Cinema Admissions

Using a time series data set covering the period 1936–1999, this paper investigates the statistical distribution of cinema admissions and attempts to produce a forecasting model using the ARIMA methodology.     

A Price Index for Art Market Auctions

This paper proposes a price index for modern andcontemporary paintings based on estimates and auctionprices. We use this index for the evaluation of theItalian art market and for comparisons with returns onother assets. During the period 1983–1994 art pricesincreased in line with inflation but returns onpaintings were lower than returns on financial assets.In the long run art prices are unrelated to financialassets prices, but a positive correlation with realestate prices emerges.     

Canaletto’s paintings open a new window on the relative sea-level rise in Venice

The paintings by Canaletto (1697–1768), made with the help of a camera obscura, are just like real photographs, documenting as they do the Venice of the XVIII century with an accurate reproduction of all the details. The brown–green front left by the Laminaria, an alga living between the high and low tide, constitutes a precise biological indication of the average level of the high tide. By comparing the level of this front at Canaletto’s time with the present level, we can calculate/discover the relative sea level rise which has occurred in the last two and a half centuries.     

The ``Death-Effect' in Art Prices: A Demand-Side Exploration

Many factors affect the supply and demand characteristics of artists' output.This exploratory study focuses on a ``supply-induced' demand effect –the death of the artist and the assurance that, from the perspective of thedurable goods monopolist, the output of the artist ends. While not purportingto be a formal test of that proposition, we observe, using U.S. auction data,a clustered rise in artists' values immediately around the time of death andsuggest some possible demand-side explanations using a sample of LatinAmerican artists between 1977 and 1996.     

Cinema Demand in Spain: A Cointegration Analysis

In this paper we explain the decline in cinema attendance in Spain since 1968. We use a cointegration analysis to estimate an individual demand function for cinema, with annual data and in terms of average attendance per inhabitant. We find that cinema is a luxury good and that its demand is elastic with respect to its price. We also show that television acts as a deterrent with regard to cinema attendance. This revised version was published online in August 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

The Impact of Museum Purchase on the Auction Prices of Paintings

This study examines how art museumspurchasing policy influences the auction prices ofpaintings. Using a cross section of non-speculativetransactions during the period 1820–1970, we findconsiderable empirical support for the hypothesisthat public museums outside the U.S. pay above averageprices in auction markets providing higher thanaverage yields to private sellers. The typical U.S.private museums appear to be more restricted byfinancial constraints and the development of thegeneral economic conditions than their publiccounterparts.     

The market for paintings in the Venetian Republic from Renaissance to Rococò

We study the art market in the Venetian Republic from 1550 to 1750 analyzing the determinants of the prices (adjusted for the cost of living measured by the price of wheat) of figurative paintings. Reputation of the painters, size of the paintings and other quantifiable factors affect prices as expected. Other relevant factors include the placement of the paintings (on altars, ceilings or walls), whose impact reflects differences in demand elasticities. We find evidence of the law of one price confirming price equalization between high and low demand geographical destinations and between different subjects. Finally, in a Schumpeterian perspective, we relate the temporal trend of the price of a representative painting with waves of artistic innovations, whose peacks were in the 1500s and in the 1700s with a dark Baroque age in the intermediate century.     

Financial returns,price determinants,and genre effects in American art investment

Past studies on art investment generally have found that returns are low and risk is high. In this study we find that the return to art investment is more in line with traditional investments and thus the cost for consumption associated with art seems fairly small. Employing a large sample of paintings by 66 American artists sold at auction between 1971–1992, average returns are found to be over 9 per cent and 3 per cent in nominal and real terms, respectively. The model employs a log linear price regression estimated by pooled cross section and time series data, and allows rates of return as well as hedonic values for various painting and auction attributes to be estimated. These include size, media, age of execution, authenticity of the work, and auction month and house. In addition, rates of return are differentiated by artist, time period of investment, price range and genre of the painting. The findings indicate significant sensitivity of rates of return to these data stratifications.This paper was presented at the 9th international conference of the Association for Cultural Economics, held in Boston, May 8–11, 1996.     

Estimating demand for opera using sales system data: the case of Finnish National Opera

Using detailed data for 2001–2009 from the sales system of the Finnish National Opera, we estimate the determinants of demand for opera tickets. We find that operas in their premiere season are more popular than reprises. Demand is lower for classical operas and higher for domestic operas and for performances with a famous opera singer. Press reviews and the overall popularity of the opera piece have the expected effects. There is also evidence of seasonal effects. By excluding temporarily discounted tickets, controlling for performance characteristics and quality and using a method that takes into account capacity constraints, we are able to credibly estimate the price elasticity of demand. The overall elasticity is close to unity: on average, a 1 % increase in prices would result in 1.16 % decrease in demand.     

`Leadership and Mind': Frederic C. Lane as Cultural Entrepreneur and Diplomat

This paper analyses the life and work of the historian Frederic C. Lane, Assistant Director of the Social Sciences for the Rockefeller Foundation in Europe, 1951–1954. During this period, Lane worked in close contact with Joseph Willits – head of the Social Sciences Division – and contributed to the definition of Rockefeller policies towards Europe during an early stage of the Cold War.     

Art collections and taste in the Spanish <Emphasis Type="Italic">Siglo</Emphasis><Emphasis Type="Italic">de Oro</Emphasis>

We analyze art pricing in a unique dataset on Madrid inventories between 1600 and 1750. We estimate a price index for the Spanish art market that is used for a general historical analysis of art during this period, showing a large increase in the real price of paintings during the XVII century. Then we examine the price differential between domestic and foreign paintings: At the beginning of the century domestic production was priced substantially below imported paintings, but the price gap was gradually reduced during the century. We argue that such a price convergence was not the fruit of variations in real exchange rate, relative supply or home bias, but was associated with increasing prices for the new domestic painters of the XVII century. Increasing remuneration for painting may have induced artistic innovations by domestic producers and created the conditions for the development of the Siglo de Oro of Spanish art.     

Segmentation of Cinema Audiences: An Exploratory Study Applied to Young Consumers

The cinema exhibition sector in Spain, as well as in the rest of Europe, is a dynamic sector characterised by the present growth of multiplexes and consumer demand after a long period of decline. These changes make it relevant to analyse the cinema attendees' profile from a marketing perspective. To this end, we have developed an exploratory study on segmentation applied to the young cinema attendees. Doing so, we have found three different groups according to benefits sought in their going to the cinema and other demographic and behavioural variables. On the basis of information as such, specific marketing objectives could be set and more efficient strategies designed and implemented.     

Silica glass interaction with calcium hydroxide: a surface chemistry approach

The study of the interaction between silica glass and saturated Ca(OH)₂ solutions can be a useful approach to resolve the problem of the adhesion between lime-sand mortar and clay bricks. Since it is reasonable that the silica–calcium hydroxide system well simulates a brick–mortar system, experimental observations concerning the interaction of silica glass and this strong basic solution should be of value for the comprehension of the chemical reactions that could take place at the mortar–brick interface, maybe affecting the adhesion between the two building materials. We demonstrated the effects of saturated Ca(OH)₂ solutions on commercial pure silica glass (fused silica) and on silica films obtained via a sol–gel process by means of dip-coating. Silica samples were dipped in the solutions at different temperatures (room temperature, 60 and 80 °C) and at different time intervals (1 and 21 h) and then they were analysed by means of surface techniques: X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), secondary ion mass spectrometry (SIMS) and atomic force microscopy (AFM). It has been shown that Ca(OH)₂ reacts with the silica glass network. The experimental results clearly show a very different behaviour of sol–gel silica with respect to fused silica, probably because of their different nanostructure. Many problems concerning the interaction of silica and Ca(OH)₂ are still to be solved, but the results of this research strengthen the idea that adhesion between lime-sand mortar and clay bricks is caused not only by carbonation of calcium hydroxide contained in the mortar, but even by some chemical reactions involving the brick constituents and calcium hydroxide itself. The final products, calcium silicates, may induce a chemical continuity between lime-sand mortar and clay bricks.     

Archaeometric and geological constraints for the provenance of carbonatic breccias used in monumental works along the Flaminia Consular Road (Umbria-Marche, Central Italy)

Along the Umbria-Marche stretch of the Flaminia Consular Road (220 B.C.) several archaeological finds of the most important monumental works, are well preserved. The stones, employed to build many bridges, substructions and sewerages, are represented by carbonatic breccias whose geological environment of formation and source areas had never been established. On the basis of mineralogical, petrographic and micropalaeontological analyses, two groups of these lithotypes employed in Roman age were distinguished: “monogenic carbonatic breccias” only constituted by clasts of the Maiolica Unit (Late Jurassic – Early Cretaceous) and “polygenic carbonatic breccias” made of fragments (in different proportions) of Calcare Massiccio (Early Jurassic), Corniola (Early Jurassic), Maiolica (Late Jurassic – Early Cretaceous) and Scaglia Rossa (Late Cretaceous – Early Paleogene) Units. The possible source areas of the breccias are compatible with stratified slope-waste to scarp-base deposits of periglacial origin belonging to the Upper Pleistocene. In particular, among the seven investigated areas, we pointed out the most probable provenances (Monte Faeto-Colle, Costacciaro, Scirca, Foci, Secchiano) along the flanks of the Apennine Mesozoic chain of the Umbria and Marche regions. Although the Romans could have exploited the whole thickness of some outcrops (now disappeared) of these carbonatic lithotypes at the deepest part of the valleys, we have constrained a local provenance of the breccias so commonly used in the monumental works of the Flaminia.     

The economics of music festivals

This paper attempts to explain the rapid growth in the number of classical music and opera festivals. Two secularly increasing demand factors — a rise in real disposable incomes and an increased amount of time and money devoted to holidays — are well met by the supply of music festivals which almost perfectly combine culture and holidays. On the supply side, festivals may profit from low marginal cost of production factors and are considered as an effort to avoid restrictions from government regulations and trade unions.     

Market Concentration Levels in the U.S. Consumer Book Industry: 1995–1996

While many scholars have studied the impact mergersand acquisitions have had on market concentrationlevels in various industries, few have addressed theconsumer book market, an important U.S. culturalindustry. This paper: (1) defines the consumer bookmarket; and (2) using consumer book mergers, salesdata, the U.S. Department of Justice's 1992 mergerguidelines, the Herfindahl–Hirschman Index, andfour-firm and eight-firm concentration ratios testswhether an illegal level of market concentration or aviolation of Justice's antitrust guidelines wereevident in 1995 and 1996. Data on market entrybarriers, outputs, and prices are also analyzed.     

Price Indices for Artists – A Proposal

This paper proposes a price index for artists adjusted for the quality of the paintings, based on the ratio between the average market price and the average pre-sale estimate for paintings. We apply this methodology to a group of selected artists and schools presented in auctions worldwide in the period 1990–2001. A comparison with quality unadjusted and hedonic indices is also conducted.JEL Classification: C10, Z11     

Uncertain hog futures: life,death, and arbitrage on the factory farm

ABSTRACT

Between 2013 and 2014, PED virus (PEDv) swept through American pig farms, killing millions of animals and causing a market panic that drove the prices of both physical pork and lean hog futures to all-time highs. However, a divergence between pricing in financial markets and on-farm realities allowed some producers to reap record profits via a unique form of biological arbitrage. This arbitrage was novel in that it allowed for an underlier (pigs) to be used to profit from fluctuations in the price of a derivative (lean hog futures). This article explores the case of PEDv to examine the entanglements and divergences between ‘real’ and ‘abstract’ values in financialized industries, paying particular attention to the schisms between the imaginaries and practices of actors in the financial and tangibly productive links of the agricultural value chain. To do so, it examines the historical co-constitution of American agriculture and the financial sector, and shows how in the contemporary moment these two ever-more-intertwined sectors are nonetheless marked by important differences. It argues that the nature of agricultural production can confound the expectations of finance, and highlights the fact that financialization entails contextually-specific practices that can lead to uneven and unexpected market outcomes.     

Rational addiction and cultural goods: the case of the Italian theatregoer

This paper tests whether demand for theatre in Italy is consistent with the model of rational addiction presented in Becker and Murphy (J Polit Econ 96(4):675–700, 1988). Data from a novel 34-year panel on regional annual theatre attendance are used to estimate market demand. Four models are applied to investigate the demand function, and all of these also include per capita income and other control variables as regressors. The first two models are estimated to check whether theatregoers are myopically addicted to theatre. The results suggest that the theatre is an addictive good because past consumption (and prices) significantly raises the marginal utility of current consumption. The third model tests the rational addiction hypothesis, which assumes that future attendance also influences current attendance, whilst past and future prices influence current attendance only indirectly through their impact on past and future attendances. However, our most highly specified model, introducing past and future prices, demonstrates that Italian theatregoers are not myopic but fully rational as outlined in Becker and Murphy (1988). The results demonstrate that the rational addiction hypothesis is applicable not only to “harmful” addictions such as alcohol, cigarettes and drug consumption, but also to “beneficial” addictions, such as theatre attendance. This result has important policy implications because theatre is one of the most subsidised performing arts in Italy; if theatregoers are fully rational, policy makers can influence theatre attendance using alternative policy instruments (price and income), thereby reducing government expenditure on theatre subsidies.