Exposure to Foreign Media and Changes in Cultural Traits: Evidence from Naming Patterns in France

Centro Studi Luca d'Agliano Development Studies Working Paper No. 213

30 Pages Posted: 25 Jul 2006

See all articles by Anne-Celia Disdier

Anne-Celia Disdier

National Institute for Agricultural Research (INRA) - UMR Economie Publique

Keith Head

University of British Columbia (UBC) - Sauder School of Business

Thierry Mayer

Université Paris I Panthéon-Sorbonne - TEAM; Ecole Nationale des Ponts et Chaussées (ENPC) - Centre d'Enseignement et de Recherche en Analyse Socio-Economique (CERAS); CEPII, Centre d'Etudes Prospectives et d'Info. Internationales, Paris; Centre for Economic Policy Research (CEPR)

Multiple version iconThere are 2 versions of this paper

Date Written: May 2006

Abstract

Free trade in audio-visual services has faced opposition on the grounds that foreign media undermine domestic culture, and ultimately, global diversity. We assess the media-culture link using name frequencies as a measure of tastes. Using a 47-year panel of French birth registries, we first show that names appearing on television shows, movies, or in songs are about five times more popular than other names. Most, but not all, of this relationship arises from endogeneity: song and script writers, as well as performers and their parents, select names that would be popular anyway. Using name attributes, fixed effects, and lagged popularity as controls, our regression results suggest that media affect choices by informing parents of unfamiliar names.

Keywords: Endogenous tastes, Cultural transmission, Television, Cinema, Popular music

JEL Classification: F15, D19, Z10

Suggested Citation

Disdier, Anne-Celia and Head, Keith Charles and Mayer, Thierry, Exposure to Foreign Media and Changes in Cultural Traits: Evidence from Naming Patterns in France (May 2006). Centro Studi Luca d'Agliano Development Studies Working Paper No. 213, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=918431 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.918431

Anne-Celia Disdier

National Institute for Agricultural Research (INRA) - UMR Economie Publique ( email )

Keith Charles Head (Contact Author)

University of British Columbia (UBC) - Sauder School of Business ( email )

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Thierry Mayer

Université Paris I Panthéon-Sorbonne - TEAM ( email )

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Ecole Nationale des Ponts et Chaussées (ENPC) - Centre d'Enseignement et de Recherche en Analyse Socio-Economique (CERAS) ( email )

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