[go: up one dir, main page]

IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/bla/jpbect/v25y2023i2p359-375.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Theory of cultural capital: Productive use of an unproductive activity

Author

Listed:
  • Sam‐Ho Lee
Abstract
Cultural capital is the term suggested to explain the phenomena that seemingly productivity‐irrelevant cultural activities may lead to better economic outcome for individuals. A simple model is proposed to explain the emergence of cultural capital. The cost of acquiring a cultural attribute plays a role in the emergence of cultural capital. The importance of cultural capital is compared between two groups distinguished by a natural attribute. The cultural capital in the economically worse‐performing group is more elitist in the sense that a smaller proportion of individuals acquire it due to the higher attainment costs. Welfare implications are also investigated.

Suggested Citation

  • Sam‐Ho Lee, 2023. "Theory of cultural capital: Productive use of an unproductive activity," Journal of Public Economic Theory, Association for Public Economic Theory, vol. 25(2), pages 359-375, April.
  • Handle: RePEc:bla:jpbect:v:25:y:2023:i:2:p:359-375
    DOI: 10.1111/jpet.12623
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1111/jpet.12623
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1111/jpet.12623?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Hanming Fang, 2001. "Social Culture and Economic Performance," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 91(4), pages 924-937, September.
    2. Rabah Amir & Jean Gabszewicz & Joana Resende, 2014. "Thematic Clubs and the Supremacy of Network Externalities," Journal of Public Economic Theory, Association for Public Economic Theory, vol. 16(5), pages 706-729, October.
    3. Larry Samuelson & George J. Mailath & Avner Shaked, 2000. "Endogenous Inequality in Integrated Labor Markets with Two-Sided Search," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 90(1), pages 46-72, March.
    4. Moro, Andrea & Norman, Peter, 2003. "Affirmative action in a competitive economy," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 87(3-4), pages 567-594, March.
    5. Cole, Harold L & Mailath, George J & Postlewaite, Andrew, 1992. "Social Norms, Savings Behavior, and Growth," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 100(6), pages 1092-1125, December.
    6. Pesendorfer, Wolfgang, 1995. "Design Innovation and Fashion Cycles," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 85(4), pages 771-792, September.
    7. Kim, Young-Chul & Loury, Glenn C., 2019. "To be, or not to be: Stereotypes, identity choice and group inequality," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 174(C), pages 36-52.
    8. Coate, Stephen & Loury, Glenn C, 1993. "Will Affirmative-Action Policies Eliminate Negative Stereotypes?," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 83(5), pages 1220-1240, December.
    9. Lisa Windsteiger, 2021. "Monopolistic supply of sorting, inequality, and welfare," Journal of Public Economic Theory, Association for Public Economic Theory, vol. 23(5), pages 801-821, October.
    10. Phelps, Edmund S, 1972. "The Statistical Theory of Racism and Sexism," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 62(4), pages 659-661, September.
    11. Michael Spence, 1973. "Job Market Signaling," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 87(3), pages 355-374.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Fang, Hanming & Norman, Peter, 2001. "Government-Mandated Discriminatory Policies," Working Paper Series 562, Research Institute of Industrial Economics.
    2. Hanming Fang, 2001. "Social Culture and Economic Performance," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 91(4), pages 924-937, September.
    3. Jasmin Droege, 2022. "First impression biases in the performing arts: taste-based discrimination and the value of blind auditioning," Journal of Cultural Economics, Springer;The Association for Cultural Economics International, vol. 46(3), pages 391-437, September.
    4. Moro, Andrea & Norman, Peter, 2004. "A general equilibrium model of statistical discrimination," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 114(1), pages 1-30, January.
    5. Arcidiacono, Peter, 2000. "Search Discrimination, Human Capital Accumulation, and Intergenerational Mobility," Working Papers 00-18, Duke University, Department of Economics.
    6. Arcidiacono, Peter, 2003. "The dynamic implications of search discrimination," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 87(7-8), pages 1681-1706, August.
    7. Moisson, Paul-Henri, 2024. "Meritocracy and Inequality," TSE Working Papers 24-1518, Toulouse School of Economics (TSE), revised Apr 2024.
    8. Sáez-Martı´, Maria & Zenou, Yves, 2012. "Cultural transmission and discrimination," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 72(2), pages 137-146.
    9. Brishti Guha & Prabal Roy Chowdhury, 2015. "Affirmative action in the presence of a creamy layer," Discussion Papers 15-06, Indian Statistical Institute, Delhi.
    10. Lommerud, Kjell Erik & Straume, Odd Rune & Vagstad, Steinar, 2015. "Mommy tracks and public policy: On self-fulfilling prophecies and gender gaps in hiring and promotion," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 116(C), pages 540-554.
    11. Ilan Tojerow, 2008. "Industry Wage Differentials Rent Sharing and Gender in Belgium," Reflets et perspectives de la vie économique, De Boeck Université, vol. 0(3), pages 55-65.
    12. Jurjen J. A. Kamphorst & Otto H. Swank, 2016. "Don't Demotivate, Discriminate," American Economic Journal: Microeconomics, American Economic Association, vol. 8(1), pages 140-165, February.
    13. Lagerlöf, Johan N.M., 2020. "Strategic gains from discrimination," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 122(C).
    14. Rajesh Ramachandran & Christopher Rauh, 2018. "Discrimination without taste: how discrimination can spillover and persist," SERIEs: Journal of the Spanish Economic Association, Springer;Spanish Economic Association, vol. 9(3), pages 249-274, August.
    15. Richard Chisik, 2015. "Job market signalling, stereotype threat and counter‐stereotypical behaviour," Canadian Journal of Economics/Revue canadienne d'économique, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 48(1), pages 155-188, February.
    16. Pierre-Guillaume Méon & Ariane Szafarz, 2008. "Labor market discrimination as an agency cost," DULBEA Working Papers 08-19.RS, ULB -- Universite Libre de Bruxelles.
    17. Bart Hobijn & Carlos A. Medina-Durango, 2000. "Is Discrimination Due to a Coordination Failure?," Econometric Society World Congress 2000 Contributed Papers 1758, Econometric Society.
    18. Luojia Hu & Christopher Taber, 2005. "Layoffs, Lemons, Race, and Gender," NBER Working Papers 11481, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    19. Conde-Ruiz, J. Ignacio & Ganuza, Juan José & Profeta, Paola, 2022. "Statistical discrimination and committees," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 141(C).
    20. Ed Hopkins, 2012. "Job Market Signaling Of Relative Position, Or Becker Married To Spence," Journal of the European Economic Association, European Economic Association, vol. 10(2), pages 290-322, April.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:bla:jpbect:v:25:y:2023:i:2:p:359-375. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/apettea.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.