Effects of Oscar awards on movie production

This article tests the effects of Oscar awards on the production of feature films. Time series data for Spain over the 1953-2014 period are used and a production function is estimated assuming that the Oscar effects accrue through the total factor productivity. A lag structure is introduced which allows for a general specification so that the Oscar awards could have constant or diminishing effects over time. The results show that the Oscar wins have significant positive effects on movie production and that some of them have caused structural breaks, while others have vanishing effects over time. The results are fairly robust to the introduction of control variables and different methods of estimation.