Skip to main content

The changing role of education as we move from popular to highbrow culture

Journal of Cultural Economics volume 44, pages 189–212 (2020)Cite this article

Abstract

Education is the socioeconomic variable that has the greatest impact on cultural participation. A higher level of education leads to greater interest and taste for culture increasing the demand of culture. But education can also indirectly affect cultural consumption because the higher the level of education, the higher the expected income and, therefore, the greater the cultural consumption. In this paper, we analyze the effect of education on cultural consumption once the impact of income is controlled for. Using information on attendance to cinema, performing arts and visits to sites of cultural interest, we analyze how the effect of education changes between these activities. To do so, we estimate a Zero Inflated Ordered Probit using the 2006 and 2015 Spanish modules of the European Union Statistics on Income and Living Conditions. We find that the effect of education varies between activities, being its marginal effect more relevant for highbrow activities than for popular culture. On the contrary, given a certain level of education, an increase in income will bring more people to the cinema than to theaters or museums. This result is consistent with the idea that highbrow cultural consumption involves the comprehension of more complex symbolic elements, and individuals’ decoding abilities depend more on education than on income.

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution.

Access options

Buy single article

Instant access to the full article PDF.

USD 39.95

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Notes

  1. From a sociological perspective, according to Bourdieu (1986), education contributes both to the embodied state and the institutionalized state of cultural capital. However, “it should be noted that the term ‘cultural capital’ is used in other disciplines to mean something different from its interpretation in economics. In sociology, the term is used, following Pierre Bourdieu, to mean an individual’s competence in high status culture. In economic terms, this characteristic of people can be construed as an aspect of their human capital” (Throsby 2003).

  2. Since its publication, Becker’s (1965) approach of household production has been applied to model many decisions within the household.

  3. For a general survey on other determinants of cultural participation see, for instance, Seaman (2006).

  4. Some issues about the comparability between data from international EU-SILC are raised by O’Hagan (2017).

  5. Compared to other surveys, the EU-SILC is the most suitable for our purpose as it contains information on both education and income (Ateca-Amestoy and Villarroya 2017).

  6. In the 2006 wave, the original information regarding attendance is more disaggregated, defining 5 levels of attendance: None, 1–3 times, 4–6 times, 7–12 times and more than 12 times. We pool the last three groups in order to be consistent with the 2015 classification.

  7. If available data on attendance were a count variable, the appropriate model would be a Zero Inflated Negative Binomal (ZINB) model (see Ateca-Amestoy 2008). Examples of ZIOP models used to analyze cultural consumption include Downward et al. (2011) for modeling sports participation and Borowiecki and Prieto-Rodriguez (2015) for video games playing.

  8. From a more sociological point of view, Yaish and Katz-Gerro (2010) discuss the different role of tastes and restrictions in shaping cultural participation suggesting that “participation is constrained to a larger degree by financial resources than by tastes and to a lesser degree by cultural resources […] tastes are shaped to a greater degree than participation by socialization processes and through the habitus and, to a lesser degree, by financial resources”.

  9. According to Figueiredo et al. (2015), on average for Portugal, Spain and Italy, only 8.3 percent of males are employed at Education, Humanities & Arts while 23.2 percent of females work in these occupations.

  10. We would like to thank an anonymous referee for pointing us in this direction.

  11. This could be related to the appearance and development of close substitutes such as Netflix, HBO or Amazon Prime Video to the traditional consumption of cinema at movie theaters.

References

  • Andreasen, A. R., & Belk, R. W. (1980). Predictors of attendance at the performing arts. Journal of Consumer Research,7, 112–120.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ateca-Amestoy, V. (2008). Determining heterogeneous behavior for theater attendance. Journal of Cultural Economics,32, 127–151.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ateca-Amestoy, V., & Prieto-Rodriguez, J. (2013). Forecasting accuracy of behavioural models for participation in the arts. Journal of Operational Research,229, 124–131.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ateca-Amestoy, V., & Villarroya, A. (2017). Measuring participation in the arts in Spain. In V. M. Ateca-Amestoy, V. Ginsburgh, I. Mazza, J. O’Hagan, & J. Prieto-Rodriguez (Eds.), Enhancing participation in the arts in the EU: Challenges and methods (pp. 19–33). Cham: Springer.

    Google Scholar 

  • Baumol, W. J., & Bowen, W. G. (1966). Performing arts-the economic dilemma: A study of problems common to theater, opera, music and dance. New York: Twentieth Century Fund.

    Google Scholar 

  • Becker, G. S. (1965). A theory of the allocation of time. Economic Journal,75(299), 493–517.

    Google Scholar 

  • Becker, G. S., & Murphy, K. M. (1988). A theory of rational addiction. Journal of Political Economy,96(4), 675–700.

    Google Scholar 

  • Borgonovi, F. (2004). Performing arts: An economic approach. Applied Economics,36(17), 1871–1885.

    Google Scholar 

  • Borowiecki, K. J., & Marvao, C. (2017). May I have this dance? Dance participation and attendance in Denmark. Cultural Trends,26(2), 155–167.

    Google Scholar 

  • Borowiecki, K., & Prieto-Rodriguez, J. (2015). Video games playing: A substitute for cultural consumptions? Journal of Cultural Economics,39, 239–258.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bourdieu, P. (1986). The forms of capital. In J. G. Richardson (Ed.), Handbook of theory and research for the sociology of education (pp. 241–258). New York: Greenwood Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Christin, A. (2012). Gender and highbrow cultural participation in the United States. Poetics,40(5), 423–443.

    Google Scholar 

  • Colbert, F., Beauregard, C., & Vallée, L. (1998). The importance of ticket prices for theatre patrons. International Journal of Arts Management,1(1), 8–15.

    Google Scholar 

  • Cuadrado, M., & Frasquet, M. (1999). Segmentation of cinema audiences: An exploratory study applied to young consumers. Journal of Cultural Economics,23, 257–267.

    Google Scholar 

  • D’Angelo, F., Furia, D., Crociata, A., & Castagna, A. (2010). Education and culture: Evidence from live performing arts in Italy. Procedia Social and Behavioral Sciences,9, 1373–1378.

    Google Scholar 

  • Downward, P., Lera-Lopez, F., & Rasciute, S. (2011). The zero-inflated ordered probit approach to modelling sports participation. Economic Modelling,28, 2469–2477.

    Google Scholar 

  • Falk, M., & Katz-Gerro, T. (2016). Cultural participation in Europe: Can we identify common determinants? Journal of Cultural Economics,40, 127–162.

    Google Scholar 

  • Fernandez-Blanco, V., Orea, L., & Prieto-Rodriguez, J. (2009). Analyzing consumers heterogeneity and self-reported tastes: An approach consistent with the consumer’s decision making process. Journal of Economic Psychology,30(4), 622–633.

    Google Scholar 

  • Figueiredo, H., Rocha, V., Biscaia, R., & Teixeira, P. (2015). Gender pay gaps and the restructuring of graduate labour markets in Southern Europe. Cambridge Journal of Economics,39(2), 565–598.

    Google Scholar 

  • Garcia-Enriquez, J., & Echevarria, C. A. (2018). Demand for culture in Spain and the 2012 VAT rise. Journal of Cultural Economics,42(3), 469–506.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gray, C. (1998). Hope for the future? Early exposure to the arts and adult visits to art museums. Journal of Cultural Economics,22, 87–98.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gray, C. (2003). Participation. In R. Towse (Ed.), A handbook of cultural economics (pp. 356–365). Cheltenham: Edward Elgar.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hallmann, K., Artime, C. M., Breuer, C., Dallmeyer, S., & Metz, M. (2017). Leisure participation: Modelling the decision to engage in sports and culture. Journal of Cultural Economics,41(4), 467–487.

    Google Scholar 

  • Harris, M., & Zhao, X. (2007). A zero-inflated ordered probit model, with an application to modelling tobacco consumption. Journal of Econometrics,141, 1073–1099.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kracman, K. (1996). The effect of school-based arts instruction on attendance at museums and the performing arts. Poetics,24, 203–218.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kunze, L., & Suppa, N. (2017). Bowling alone or bowling at all? The effect of unemployment on social participation. Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization,133, 213–235.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lazzaro, E., & Frateschi, C. (2017). Couples’ arts participation: Assessing individual and joint time use. Journal of Cultural Economics,41(1), 47–69.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lévy-Garboua, L., & Montmarquette, C. (1996). A microeconometric study of theater demand. Journal of Cultural Economics,20(1), 25–50.

    Google Scholar 

  • McCain, R. A. (1979). Reflections on the cultivation of taste. Journal of Cultural Economics,3(1), 30–52.

    Google Scholar 

  • McCain, R. A. (1995). Cultivation of taste and bounded rationality: Some computer simulations. Journal of Cultural Economics,19(1), 1–15.

    Google Scholar 

  • Moore, T. G. (1966). The demand for Broadway theatre tickets. The Review of Economics and Statistics,48(1), 79–87.

    Google Scholar 

  • Muñiz, C., Rodriguez, P., & Suarez, M. J. (2014). Sports and cultural habits by gender: An application using count data models. Economic Modelling,36, 288–297.

    Google Scholar 

  • Musgrave, R. (1959). The theory of public finance. New York: McGraw-Hill.

    Google Scholar 

  • Notten, N., Lancee, B., van de Werfhorst, H. G., & Ganzeboom, H. B. G. (2015). Educational stratification in cultural participation: Cognitive competence or status motivation? Journal of Cultural Economics,39(2), 177–203.

    Google Scholar 

  • O’Hagan, J. (2017). European statistics on participation in the arts and their international comparability. In V. M. Ateca-Amestoy, V. Ginsburgh, I. Mazza, J. O’Hagan, & J. Prieto-Rodriguez (Eds.), Enhancing participation in the arts in the EU: Challenges and methods (pp. 3–17). Cham: Springer.

    Google Scholar 

  • O’Hagan, J. W. (1996). Access to and participation in the arts: The case of those with low incomes/educational attainment. Journal of Cultural Economics,20(4), 269–282.

    Google Scholar 

  • Prieto-Rodríguez, J., Romero-Jordan, D., & Sanz-Sanz, J. F. (2005). Is a tax cut on cultural goods consumption actually desirable? A microsimulation analysis applied to Spain. Fiscal Studies,26(4), 549–575.

    Google Scholar 

  • Purhonen, S., Gronow, J., & Rahkonen, K. (2011). Highbrow culture in Finland: Knowledge, taste and participation. Acta Sociologica,54(4), 385–402.

    Google Scholar 

  • Reeves, A. (2015). Neither class nor status: Arts participation and the social strata. Sociology,49(4), 624–642.

    Google Scholar 

  • Samdahl, D. M., & Jekubovich, N. J. (1997). A critique of leisure constraints: Comparative analyses and understandings. Journal of Leisure Research,4, 430–452.

    Google Scholar 

  • Scherger, S. (2009). Cultural practices, age and the life course. Cultural Trends,18(1), 23–45. https://doi.org/10.1080/09548960802651203.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Seaman, B. A. (2005). Attendance and public participation in the performing arts: A review of the empirical literature. Nonprofit Studies Program, Georgia State University, Working Paper 05-03.

  • Seaman, B. A. (2006). Empirical studies of demand for the performing arts. In V. A. Ginsburg & D. Throsby (Eds.), Handbook on the economics of art and culture (Vol. 1, pp. 415–472). Amsterdam: Elsevier.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sisto, A., & Zanola, R. (2010). Cinema attendance in Europe. Applied Economics Letters,17, 515–517.

    Google Scholar 

  • Throsby, D. (1994). The production and consumption of the arts: A view of cultural economics. Journal of Economic Literature,32, 1–29.

    Google Scholar 

  • Throsby, D. (2003). Cultural capital. In R. Towse (Ed.), A handbook of cultural economics (pp. 166–169). Cheltenham: Edward Elgar Publishing Limited.

    Google Scholar 

  • Van Eijck, K., & Knulst, W. (2005). No more need for snobbism: Highbrow cultural participation in a taste democracy. European Sociological Review,21(5), 513–528.

    Google Scholar 

  • Wen, W., & Cheng, T. (2013). Performing arts attendance in Taiwan: Who and how often? Journal of Cultural Economics,37, 309–325.

    Google Scholar 

  • Willekens, M., & Lievens, J. (2014). Family (and) culture: The effect of cultural capital within the family on the cultural participation of adolescents. Poetics,42, 98–113.

    Google Scholar 

  • Willekens, M., & Lievens, J. (2016). Who participates and how much? Explaining non-attendance and the frequency of attending arts and heritage activities. Poetics,56, 50–63.

    Google Scholar 

  • Yaish, M., & Katz-Gerro, T. (2010). Disentangling ‘cultural capital’: The consequences of cultural and economic resources for taste and participation. European Sociological Review,28(2), 169–185.

    Google Scholar 

  • Yamamura, E. (2009). Rethinking rational addictive behavior and demand for cinema: A study using Japanese panel data. Applied Economics Letters,16, 693–697.

    Google Scholar 

  • Zieba, M. (2009). Full-income and price elasticities of demand for German public theatre. Journal of Cultural Economics,33, 85–108.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgements

This study received funding from Government of Spain (Projects ECO2016-76506-C4-1-R and ECO2017-86402-C2-1-R) and the Regional Government of the Principality of Asturias (Severo Ochoa programme). We are especially grateful to Obra Social Fundación la Caixa that generously funded the working paper that was the beginning of this research. The usual disclaimer applies.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Economics, University of Oviedo, Oviedo, Spain

    Sara Suarez-Fernandez, Juan Prieto-Rodriguez & Maria Jose Perez-Villadoniga

Authors
  1. Sara Suarez-Fernandez
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Juan Prieto-Rodriguez
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Maria Jose Perez-Villadoniga
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Juan Prieto-Rodriguez.

Additional information

Publisher's Note

Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and Permissions

About this article

Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Suarez-Fernandez, S., Prieto-Rodriguez, J. & Perez-Villadoniga, M.J. The changing role of education as we move from popular to highbrow culture. J Cult Econ 44, 189–212 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10824-019-09355-2

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10824-019-09355-2

Keywords

  • Cultural participation
  • Education
  • Cinema
  • Performing arts
  • Museums

JEL Classification

  • Z11