Cultural Proximity and Trade

Article dans une revue: Cultural proximity is an important determinant of bilateral trade volumes. However, empirical quantification and testing are difficult due to the elusiveness of the concept and lack of observability. This paper draws on bilateral score data from the Eurovision Song Contest, a very popular pan-European television show, to construct a measure of cultural proximity which varies over time and within country pairs, and that correlates strongly with conventional indicators. Within the framework of a theory-grounded gravity model, we show that our measure positively affects trade volumes even if controlling for standard measures of cultural proximity and bilateral fixed effects.

Auteur(s)

Gabriel Felbermayr, Farid Toubal

Revue
  • European Economic Review
Date de publication
  • 2010
Mots-clés JEL
F12 F15 Z10
Mots-clés
  • International trade
  • Gravity equation
  • Cultural proximity
  • Eurovision song contest
Pages
  • 279-293
Version
  • 1
Volume
  • 54