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

32 Pages Posted: 2 Aug 2006

See all articles by Thierry Mayer

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)

Centro Studi Luca d'Agliano

Centro Studi Luca D'Agliano Torino; Centro Studi Luca d'Agliano

Keith Head

University of British Columbia (UBC) - Division of Strategy and Business Economics

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 anyways. 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: D19, F15, Z10

Suggested Citation

Mayer, Thierry and Luca d'Agliano, Centro Studi and Head, Keith, Exposure to Foreign Media and Changes in Cultural Traits: Evidence from Naming Patterns in France (May 2006). CEPR Discussion Paper No. 5674, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=921118

Thierry Mayer (Contact Author)

Université Paris I Panthéon-Sorbonne - TEAM ( email )

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HOME PAGE: http://team.univ-paris1.fr/teamperso/mayer/thierry.htm

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Centre for Economic Policy Research (CEPR)

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Centro Studi Luca d'Agliano

Centro Studi Luca D'Agliano Torino

Centro Studi Luca d'Agliano ( email )

Italy
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HOME PAGE: https://dagliano.unimi.it/

Keith Head

University of British Columbia (UBC) - Division of Strategy and Business Economics ( email )

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Vancouver, British Columbia
Canada

HOME PAGE: http://strategy.sauder.ubc.ca/head/

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