Anthropologists have long documented substantial and persistent differences across social groups in the preferences and taboos for particular foods. One natural question to ask is whether such food cultures matter in an economic sense. In particular, can culture constrain caloric intake and...

This paper examines the impact of exposure to foreign media on the economic behavior of agents in a totalitarian regime. We study private consumption choices focusing on former East Germany, where differential access to Western television was determined by geographic features. Using data...

Product quality is often unobservable ex-ante and consumers rely on experts' judgments, sometimes in the form of ratings or awards. Do awards affect consumers' choices or, conversely, are they conferred on the most popular products? To disentangle this issue, we use data about the most important...

Die staatlichen Aufwendungen für Kultur betrugen 2009, dem letzten Jahr, für das derzeit Daten vorliegen, etwas mehr als neun Milliarden Euro - 111 Euro pro Einwohner. Private Haushalte gaben für Kulturveranstaltungen im Jahr 2011 durchschnittlich rund 144 Euro aus. In der Summe waren dies...

Die staatlichen Aufwendungen für Kultur betrugen 2009, dem letzten Jahr, für das derzeit Daten vorliegen, etwas mehr als neun Milliarden Euro - 111 Euro pro Einwohner. Private Haushalte gaben für Kulturveranstaltungen im Jahr 2011 durchschnittlich rund 144 Euro aus. In der Summe waren dies...

Product quality is often unobservable ex-ante and consumers rely on experts' judgments, sometimes in the form of ratings or awards. Do awards affect consumers' choices or, conversely, are they conferred on the most popular products? To disentangle this issue, we use data about the most important...

Per capita gambling expenditures differ considerably among industrialized nations. Although such variation cannot be understood by reference to standard economic factors, a large part of these differences can be explained by two cultural variables. These are respectively related to the...

In this paper we argue that the connectivity of the networked market permits market participants to perceive causal relationships between consumer behaviour and its effects on others. We theorize that the globally networked markets of the information age give birth to new cognitive structures...

Spanish Abstract: Esta investigación analizó la relación entre religiosidad, norma subjetiva y efectividad percibida del consumidor en la intención de compra de productos socialmente responsables. La investigación empírica se basó en un cuestionario repartido, en igual proporción, a 485...

This paper investigates how inequality affects what the poor consider necessary to purchase. Using detailed information on the consumption choices of a large sample of poor households in India, we first provide evidence that inequality tends to make luxuries more necessary to the poor (their...