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Determinants of demand for traditional Chinese opera

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Abstract

Following the econometric approach in cultural economics, this paper investigates factors that determine the demand for traditional Chinese opera by applying annual aggregate time series data from 1995 to 2015 in China. The analysis estimates two multiple linear regression equations for traditional Chinese opera by OLS. We find a positive effect of the income level and a negative effect of the admission ticket price on the demand for traditional Chinese opera. We are able to identify that opera, dance and music might not be close substitutes to traditional Chinese opera or cannot be easily defined as complements to it. Attendance is found to be insignificantly affected by capacity constraints and quality of traditional Chinese opera. The percentage of the population with college or higher degree has a negative impact on traditional Chinese opera attendance. The results also reveal that 2-year lagged consumption capital and the proportion of 15–24-year-old population positively affect current demand for traditional Chinese opera.

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Notes

  1. Corning and Levy (2002) point out that studies of demand for the performing arts typically take one of two basic approaches: survey studies which seek to characterize the demographics of theatre patrons and econometric studies which seek to quantify demand and income elasticity.

  2. From July 2015 to June 2017, Ministry of Culture of China carried out the census of traditional operas throughout the country. In December 2017, the Ministry of Culture held a special press conference to publish the results of the census. For more details, refer to http://www.mcprc.gov.cn/whzx/whyw/201712/t20171226_830165.htm.

  3. Based on Zieba’s (2009) practice, the log-linear function, using the logarithmic transformation of the data, has better statistical fit as compared to a simple linear function, so this approach is followed in the paper.

  4. Per capita performing arts attendance is used by Withers (1980); Bonato et al. (1990); Luksetich and Lange (1995); Krebs and Pommerehne (1995); Ekelund and Ritenour (1999); Toma and Meads (2007); Zieba (2009, 2016).

  5. Substitutes in the literature include attending other forms of live performing arts (Gapinski 1986; Felton 1992; Toma and Meads 2007; Werck et al. 2008; Zieba 2009; O’Hagan and Zieba 2010; Zieba and O’Hagan 2013), TV programme (Bonato et al. 1990; Krebs and Pommerehne 1995), film (Bonato et al. 1990; Krebs and Pommerehne 1995; Werck and Heyndels 2007; Werck et al. 2008; Zieba 2016) and audio recording (Ekelund and Ritenour 1999).

  6. There are aggregative data of country level (Withers 1980; Touchstone 1980; Bonato et al. 1990; Krebs and Pommerehne 1995; Ekelund and Ritenour 1999), company level (Moore 1966; Lange and Luksetich 1984; Gapinski 1984, 1986; Felton 1989, 1992; Throsby 1990; Luksetich and Lange 1995; Corning and Levy 2002; Urrutiaguer 2002; Toma and Meads 2007; Werck and Heyndels 2007; Werck et al. 2008; Zieba 2009, 2011, 2016; Zieba and O’Hagan 2013; Pompe et al. 2013) and performance level (Akdede and King 2006; Laamanen 2013).

  7. In this paper, considering the structural differences of statistical data, we extract statistical data only from mainland China.

  8. All variables related to price and income are deflated with consumer price index (CPI).

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Acknowledgements

The authors wish to thank two anonymous referees whose valuable comments significantly improve the quality of the paper and Professor Robert M. Kunst whose constructive suggestions and impressive editorial work eliminate many errors of the paper and promote the academic exchange of economic research on traditional Chinese opera.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. College of Economics and Management, Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Nanjing, 211106, China

    Junlong Wu, Keshen Jiang & Chaoqing Yuan

  2. Nanhang Jincheng College, Nanjing, 211156, China

    Junlong Wu

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  1. Junlong Wu
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Correspondence to Junlong Wu.

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Wu, J., Jiang, K. & Yuan, C. Determinants of demand for traditional Chinese opera. Empir Econ 57, 2129–2148 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00181-018-1531-7

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