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Measuring Cultural and Creative Activities in European Cities: Challenges and Practical Problems with Existing Indices
Creativity Research Journal
Abstract
For decades, the focus of cultural, social, and economic policies has been shifting to cities. Cities with the highest concentration of creative employment have demonstrated the greatest resilience in the post-2008 economic recovery. Although, over the last few years, there has been an explosion of cultural or creative related indices for cities, no single reference index is commonly accepted. The main thrust of this article is the provision of a systematic and practical framework for a common point of departure for future index developers. To this end, 38 of the most influential culture and creativity indices were reviewed. By adoption of the indicator-driven approach, 16 dimensions corresponding to aspects of culture and creativity were identified in the city context. These dimensions are presented in a novel taxonomy of 3 clusters that aims to distinguish indicators capturing core cultural and creative activities from those oriented on measuring cities’ organic background or socio-economic outcomes of the aforementioned activities. In addition, the main obstacles most commonly faced by index developers are described and grouped into 4 distinct conceptual challenges, namely (a) precision, (b) diversity, (c) comparability, and (d) spillover. Each challenge is discussed in detail, accompanied by a systematic approach to its solution.
... Indicators of core cultural and creativity activity should be separated from those that measure the city background and social and economic achievements (Stano & Węziak-Białowolska, 2017). Creative cities should be driven by CCIs that rely on creative talent to boost development. ...
... Yigitcanlar and Lönnqvist (2013) accounted for regional policy background and possible means of improving the regional status and competitiveness to develop a method for evaluating sustainable development. Scholars have reported on current methodologies for measuring practices relate to market circulation and expansion, talent cultivation and cooperation, industrial conglomeration, and cross-segment integration (Pratt, 2011;Rodrigues & Franco, 2018;Stano & Węziak-Białowolska, 2017). If research on CCIs is limited to analysis of the census data of businesses and service industries, core elements are impossible to identify. ...
... Having a foundation upon which CCIs can blossom is highly reliant on unique local cultural resources and traditions. This is clear, especially given globalized competition across cities. Cities' and countries' experiences reveal that the revitalization of cities driven by cultural and creative development is a strong trend (Goldberg-Miller, 2019; Otmazgin & Ben-Ari, 2012;Stano & Węziak-Białowolska, 2017). Similar to other East Asian countries, in the past decade, Taiwan has experienced the propagation and revision of creative city policies, mainly arising from Western urban planning models. ...
The cultural and creative industries (CCIs) are increasingly regarded as a means to cure economic stagnation and boost sustainable development; thus, they have become the focus of cultural, social, and economic policies. This study adopts a city governance perspective to explore topics that should be considered in CCIs development. We combine entropy weight and grey relational analysis into an evaluation indicator system that considers ambiguity and complexity. The results reveal the cities in the eastern region and offshore islands took more advantage of investment in cultural resources than cities in the western region. It indicates that local governments understand that the economic benefits of culture are not limited to certain CCIs but extend to the overall economy. Through stimulus policies, communities have been built and effectively revitalized regional economies. The developed method prioritizes the provision of cultural and creative resources to effectively improve resource–generating capacity of a city. This study provides suggestions for decision makers in cultural and creative sectors to help them overcome the gap in resource allocation between urban and rural areas.
... De acuerdo con Nardo et al. (2005), en términos generales, un índice es una medida cuantitativa o cualitativa derivada de una serie de hechos observados que pueden revelar información de interés (por ejemplo, de un país), en un área determinada y generalmente se utilizan a manera de resumen para describir la composición de ciertos factores de estudio. En el contexto del análisis de políticas públicas, los índices son útiles para identificar tendencias y llamar la atención sobre temas particulares (Stano y Weziak, 2017). También pueden ser útiles para establecer prioridades de acción y para realizar evaluaciones comparativas o monitorear el desempeño de un fenómeno. ...
En los últimos 30 años, las políticas de comunicación orientadas por la visión “creativa”, han promovido el desarrollo y crecimiento económico a partir de las ventajas competitivas y posibilidades basadas en la creatividad, con la intención y finalidad de incrementar su importancia en el mercado global. En el caso de México, se están desarrollando mapas de ruta de industrias creativas digitales, entre otras actividades, para identificar y diseñar políticas públicas para el desarrollo cultural y fomento de la economía creativa. En este caso, para evaluar sus condiciones, se elaboró un índice de potencialidad de las industrias culturales y creativas en México, por lo que el objetivo de este artículo es presentar la construcción metodológica de las dimensiones e indicadores usados para aterrizar una propuesta de índice acorde al contexto mexicano, así como sus principales resultados.
... De acuerdo con Nardo et al. (2005), en términos generales, un índice es una medida cuantitativa o cualitativa derivada de una serie de hechos observados que pueden revelar información de interés (por ejemplo, de un país), en un área determinada y generalmente se utilizan a manera de resumen para describir la composición de ciertos factores de estudio. En el contexto del análisis de políticas públicas, los índices son útiles para identificar tendencias y llamar la atención sobre temas particulares (Stano y Weziak, 2017). También pueden ser útiles para establecer prioridades de acción y para realizar evaluaciones comparativas o monitorear el desempeño de un fenómeno. ...
En los últimos 30 años, las políticas de comunicación orientadas por la visión “creativa”, han promovido el desarrollo y crecimiento económico a partir de las ventajas competitivas y posibilidades basadas en la creatividad, con la intención y finalidad de incrementar su importancia en el mercado global. En el caso de México, se están desarrollando mapas de ruta de industrias creativas digitales, entre otras actividades, para identificar y diseñar políticas públicas para el desarrollo cultural y fomento de la economía creativa. En este caso, para evaluar sus condiciones, se elaboró un índice de potencialidad de las industrias culturales y creativas en México, por lo que el objetivo de este artículo es presentar la construcción metodológica de las dimensiones e indicadores usados para aterrizar una propuesta de índice acorde al contexto mexicano, así como sus principales resultados.
... In an effort to be as thorough as possible, Table 1 provides an overview of the principal composite indicators for the creative economy together with the main underlying dimensions included, the case study and the aggregation methods employed. Nevertheless, conceptual models of cultural and creative indicators and compilations of existing indicators may also be consulted in Stano and Weziak-Bialowolska [31], Ortega-Villa and Ley-García [21] and Rodrigues and Franco [22]. Various creative indicators have been constructed for the European context, although measurement thereof for the regional territorial level and in the context of several countries remains scarce, with the sample of regions included tending to be small. ...
There is wide consensus regarding the capacity of the creative economy as a factor in economic development and sustainability in regions in the medium term, and it is an issue that has aroused interest in measuring the creative potential of areas by estimating composite indicators. Most works posit indicators by countries or cities and normally employ a single aggregation method. This work proposes the construction of a synthetic indicator of creativity with regional disaggregation for a wide sample of European countries, comparing different aggregation methods under the hypothesis of the benefit of the doubt (BoD). We use Eurostat data and also analyse spatial dependence processes. Findings point to an inequality in the regional distribution of creativity in Europe and this reveals creative gap models in areas, suggesting that creativity triggers greater spatial disparities wherever it is found. The principal creative clusters are located in regions in central and northern Europe, particularly in regions with national capitals. The regional distribution of the indicator evidences positive spatial dependence, thereby revealing the existence of spatial externalities that provide feedback for the concentration process and, therefore, a widening of the disparities.
... In this context, the literature on cities' design/dimensions is extensive and includes numerous conceptual models with different dimensions and indices/indicators to measure the performance of different city typologies, such as creative [11][12][13]24,[43][44][45][46][47], intelligent [1,3,16,[46][47][48][49], sustainable [50][51][52][53][54], creative and intelligent [55], and intelligent and sustainable [21,[56][57][58]. ...
... In this context, the literature on cities' design/dimensions is extensive and includes numerous conceptual models with different dimensions and indices/indicators to measure the performance of different city typologies, such as creative [11][12][13]24,[43][44][45][46][47], intelligent [1,3,16,[46][47][48][49], sustainable [50][51][52][53][54], creative and intelligent [55], and intelligent and sustainable [21,[56][57][58]. ...
Cities are essential vectors for economic and sustainable development worldwide, as a consequence of globalization and the recent economic, financial, social, and environmental crises. In this connection, urban creativity, intelligence, and sustainability are inseparable dimensions of those cities, since when they are in harmony with the networks from which they originate, they can be predictors of their improved performance. Therefore, this study aims to propose a conceptual and multidimensional model for cities that shows their implicit dimensions and general indicators so that their performance can be measured in a holistic way. This study also forms some implications for theory and practice. Finally, the conclusion shows the study’s contribution and limitations together with suggestions for future research.
This study aims to obtain a composite index characterizing Bulgarian districts about their creativity by presenting results for the pre-pandemic. The composite index developed by Rodrigues and Franco (2019), use of quantitative method and multivariate statistical techniques have been used to answer this objective. From the data gathered primarily from NSI- The National Statistical Institute of Bulgaria, the results show that creativity is one of the pillars of economic growth, and financial resources and local and foreign investment for its development are still very limited. The government and cultural organisations supported initiatives to showcase the country’s cultural diversity and historical significance. The creative sector, including design, arts, media, and technology started to be seen as a driving force for the country’s economic growth. Startups and creative entrepreneurs are increasingly gaining weight, which has led to the creation of creative centers, and co-working spaces. Therefore, this study contributes to the intelligent application of creative cities’ ideas in the creative industries and contemporary cities’ management.
This study aims to obtain a composite index characterizing Bulgarian districts about their creativity by presenting results for the pre-pandemic. The composite index developed by Rodrigues and Franco (2019), use of quantitative method and multivariate statistical techniques have been used to answer this objective. From the data gathered primarily from NSI- The National Statistical Institute of Bulgaria, the results show that creativity is one of the pillars of economic growth, and financial resources and local and foreign investment for its development are still very limited. The government and cultural organisations supported initiatives to showcase the country's cultural diversity and historical significance. The creative sector, including design, arts, media, and technology started to be seen as a driving force for the country's economic growth. Startups and creative entrepreneurs are increasingly gaining weight, which has led to the creation of creative centers, and co-working spaces. Therefore, this study contributes to the intelligent application of creative cities’ ideas in the creative industries and contemporary cities’ management.
This study aims to obtain a composite index characterizing Bulgarian districts about their creativity by presenting results for the pre-pandemic. The composite index developed by Rodrigues and Franco (2019), use of quantitative method and multivariate statistical techniques have been used to answer this objective. From the data gathered primarily from NSI- The National Statistical Institute of Bulgaria, the results show that creativity is one of the pillars of economic growth, and financial resources and local and foreign investment for its development are still very limited. The government and cultural organisations supported initiatives to showcase the country's cultural diversity and historical significance. The creative sector, including design, arts, media, and technology started to be seen as a driving force for the country's economic growth. Startups and creative entrepreneurs are increasingly gaining weight, which has led to the creation of creative centers, and co-working spaces. Therefore, this study contributes to the intelligent application of creative cities’ ideas in the creative industries and contemporary cities’ management.
The measurement of cities’ holistic performance is complex but fundamental to conclude about the economic growth of regions and countries. In addition, the results of this measurement allow classification of cities through grouping them in clusters with homogeneous characteristics. In this connection, the aim of this study is to present a taxonomy for cities in terms of homogeneity and similarity for the geographical context analysed. The transversal study carried out covered all Portuguese towns and cities (N = 308), considering a wide range of dimensions, sub-dimensions, indicators and variables, and followed a quantitative research method. Through Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA), Principal Components Analysis (PCA) and Hierarchical Cluster Analysis (HCA), the results obtained determined the grouping of towns and cities in 12 clusters, which were classified in the taxonomy defined for cities’ holistic performance – excellent, high, average and weak, according to their position in the various rankings extracted (Composite Indices of holistic performance, creative performance, intelligent performance and sustainable performance). This classification by taxonomical profile of clusters is the main contribution of the study. Finally, other implications for theory and practice are presented, as well as suggesting relevant lines of future research.
KEY-WORDS: composite index, creativity, intelligence, urban sustainability, performance, clusterization, taxonomy
The latest edition of the Environmental Performance Index (EPI) was presented and discussed on January 2014 during the World Economic Forum (WEF) Annual Meeting in Davos. The EPI is released biannually since 2006 by Yale and Columbia Universities, in collaboration with the Samuel Foundation and the WEF. The EPI ranks how well countries perform on high-priority environmental issues concerning the policy areas of environmental health and ecosystem vitality. The JRC’s Econometrics and Applied Statistics Unit was invited for a fifth consecutive time to perform a statistical audit the EPI, focusing on two main questions: 1) Is the EPI multi-level structure statistically coherent? 2) What is the impact of modelling assumptions on the 2014 EPI ranking? The 2014 EPI was found to be well-balanced with respect to its two policy objectives , which were also adequately correlated to justify their aggregation into an overall index. Satisfactory correlations were observed between indicators and respective EPI issue areas, implying meaningful indicator contributions to the variance of the aggregate scores. Possible refinements of the index mainly concern the issue areas of Forests, Fisheries and Agriculture, which do not seem to contribute significantly to the EPI ranking. The JRC’s uncertainty analysis investigated the robustness of EPI country ranks to two key choices: policy objective weights and aggregation function. The choice of aggregation function at the policy objectives level was found to be the main driver of the variation in country ranks, accounting for a much greater share of the observed variance in country ranks. This suggested that future deliberations on the index’s methodology should focus primarily on the choice of aggregation function for the two policy objectives and much less on their weights.
El continuo crecimiento del papel de la creatividad en el crecimiento económico ha generado un creciente interés entre los investigadores por el estudio de la economía creativa, convirtiéndola en una cuestión muy relevante dentro del ámbito político y de la investigación. Esta creciente importancia del concepto de la economía creativa ha generado un gran interés por la definición y la estimación de índices de creatividad. Estos índices son una herramienta analítica de gran utilidad para evaluar el impacto económico de la economía creativa, así como para la medición de la efectividad de medidas políticas. En este trabajo comparamos doce
índices de creatividad alternativos identificando sus ventajas e inconvenientes.
Posteriormente, basándonos en los índices de creatividad evaluados, proponemos uno nuevo. Los resultados obtenidos en la estimación mediante este nuevo índice de creatividad se comparan con los del índice de creatividad global de Florida desarrollado en Florida et al. (2011).
There is no shortage of discussions and even criticisms of prominent indicators such as the Global Competitiveness Index, the Environmental Peformance Index, or the Human Development Index, nor of proposals for supposedly better indices of prosperity, environmental sustainability or human progress. We certainly need them and probably others more. However, one cannot help thinking that a theory is missing that would offer a conception of indicators in general, and of social indicators in particular. Such a framework should recognize the complex and hybrid nature of these measures, and help assessing their quality. In other words, what we need is comprehensive assessments that considers indicators altogether as pieces of knowledge, instruments of governance and socially communicated signs; a perspective that combines the knowledge requirements of governance and the political dimension of public knowledge. We believe that such a perspective can be found at the juncture of three discourses or perspectives. The first one is Peirce’s theory of signs, or semiotics for short, that highlights the communicative nature of indicators, their role in the survival and reproduction of all living organisms and their link with action and behavior. In particular, Peirce’s classification of signs and notably his distinction between icons, indices and symbols is especially relevant here.
Our second source of inspiration is John Dewey’s pragmatic theory of the public and of social inquiry which help conceptualizing the connection between indicators and public policy and understanding their role in the management of public problems. We underline the connection between Dewey’s conception of the public and more recent advances in cognitive politics, which highlights the importance of the way public problems are framed and the role of indicators in such framing.
We find our third source of inspiration in the analysis by Gibbons, Limoges, Nowotny and their colleagues of the “Mode 2” of production of knowledge which can be looked at as an updating and empirical confirmation of Dewey’s theory of social inquiry. We conceive of the production of indicators as a typically “mode 2” activity, which is therefore to be assessed against the social robustness criteria. We attempt to show how Peirce’s distinction between the iconic, the indexical and the symbolic dimension of signs on one hand, and Dewey’s theory of democracy, on the other hand, provide us insightful tools for conducing comprehensive evaluations of the social robustness of indicators and designing more robust alternatives to the existing ones.
A sustainable society is considered to be a society that is economically viable, environmentally sound and socially responsible. Developing a gauge of economic, environmental and social progress has been on the international agenda for at least two decades. At the European level, it has received a boost from the publication of the 2009 Stiglitz-Sen-Fitoussi Report and from the political meta-framework of the Europe 2020 strategy.
In this context, the Sustainable Society Foundation in the Netherlands has been developing since 2006 the Sustainable Society Index (SSI) that aims to be a comprehensive and quantitative method to measure and monitor the health of coupled human-environmental systems at national level worldwide. The SSI framework departs from a purely protectionist approach that would aim to maintain natural systems with minimal human impact. It aims instead to describe societal progress along all three dimensions: human, environmental and economic. To this end, the SSI comprises eight policy categories and three Wellbeing dimensions (Human, Environmental, Economic) and is calculated for 151 countries accounting for 99% of the world population.
The European Commission Joint Research Centre (JRC) was invited by the Sustainable Society Foundation to audit and refine the SSI. The JRC analysis was based on an in-house quality control process1 that aims to ensure the transparency of the SSI methodology and the reliability of the results. The JRC recommendations on the revision of the framework together with fine-tuning suggestions related to indicator calculation formulas were taken into account in the final version of the SSI model. In this way, the development of the SSI-2012 moved from a one-way design process to an iterative process with the JRC with a view to arrive at a balanced index, where no indicator dominates the results and no indicator is only cosmetic to the framework.
In a nutshell, all JRC’s recommendations have been implemented in the new update of the SSI-2012, and the overall conclusions of this audit are:
1. The revised SSI framework is conceptually coherent: the indicators are more correlated to their own category than to any other category; all correlations within a category are significant and positive; the same conclusions are drawn at the dimension level.
2. The revised SSI framework meets the statistical requirements set by JRC: in most SSI categories the underlying indicators have similar implicit weights in classifying countries within each category; few imbalances were found within the Transition and the Economy category; the marginal weights of the indicators on the SSI categories scores do not differ too much; the robustness analysis of country ranks for each SSI Wellbeing dimension showed that the SSI provides a reliable picture of the countries’ performance, that is not driven by methodological assumptions.
3. The SSI is well suited to assess nations’ development towards sustainability in its broad sense: Human, Environmental and Economic Wellbeing: the SSI framework goes beyond a purely protectionist approach that would aim to maintain natural systems with minimal human impact; it describes societal progress along all three dimensions: human, environmental and economic, built on 21 indicators; it is a conceptually and statistically sound tool, that is widely applicable for on-going assessment of the human-environmental systems; it can be used to simulate the consequences of a range of potential actions, providing a powerful tool to inform decisions about how to achieve human and economic growth without compromising the environmental wellbeing.
Composite indicators are increasingly used for bench-marking countries’ performances. Yet doubts are often raised about the robustness of the resulting countries’ rankings and about the significance of the associated policy message.We propose the use of uncertainty analysis and sensitivity analysis to gain useful insights during the process of building composite indicators, including a contribution to the indicators’ definition of quality and an assessment of the reliability of countries’ rankings.We discuss to what extent the use of uncertainty and sensitivity analysis may increase transparency or make policy inference more defensible by applying the methodology to a known composite indicator: the United Nations technology achievement
index.
This book collects contributions from the conference that took place in Brussels 28 and 29 of May 2009: "Can creativity be measured?" organized by DG Education and Culture (DG EAC) together with the Centre for Research on Lifelong Learning (CRELL) of the DG Joint Research Centre (DG JRC). The book provides an overview of two main approaches to the measurement of creativity. Firstly, aggregate level approaches, where different existing statistical indicators can be used as pointers of creativity in a region or a nation. Secondly, it explores some aspects in the measurement of creativity at the individual level. The conference constituted the first step in the challenge of measuring creativity in an international, comparative way. If we want to foster creativity we need to measure it. Without the adequate tools to monitor whether or not the policies in place are actually raising the capacity to be creative, there is no way to know that the policies are effective. The main conclusion of the conference is that despite its complexity, creativity can be measured. Still, further work is needed to ascertain what aspects of creativity should be measured and for what purpose. This can only be achieved through consensus among all the relevant stakeholders. The European Year of Creativity and Innovation has been instrumental in the promotion and awareness of the importance of creativity for both economic and social causes. This provides a window of opportunity to establish a clear political and research agenda for the coming years. Europe has a privileged position for building upon its creative capacity; because of the enormous heterogeneity of Europe, there is a tremendous potential for exchanging ideas and enhancing possibilities for creative accomplishments.
O'Connor J. Intermediaries and imaginaries in the cultural and creative industries, Regional Studies. This paper conducts an historical and conceptual review of the idea of 'cultural intermediaries' and sets up a contrast between the cultural and creative industries. It draws on theorizations of 'economic imaginaries' and reconstructs the respective imaginaries of cultural and creative industries. It suggests that the former was organized around the culturalization of the economy and the second around the economization of culture. Nevertheless, there are complicities between them, not least in the contention that a new set of economic developments would redeem the traditional promises of culture.
In 2005, Harry G. Frankfurt, a retired professor of moral philosophy at Princeton University, made it into the best-sellers chart with his book On Bullshit. Taking his essay as its starting point, this article explores the analysis of bullshit and the prevalence of bullshitting in the contemporary public sphere. Frankfurt's short essay indeed provides an intellectual framework to interpret and understand contemporary rhetoric and practice in the cultural policy field, as well as recent trends in cultural policy research. Through a discussion of selected New Labour's cultural policy documents in Britain, the article aims to show that many of the key actors in the cultural policy debate indeed display the 'indifference to how things really are' and the cultivation of vested interests which Frankfurt attributes to the activity of bullshitting. The final part of the text discusses the implications of the present status quo for 'critical' cultural policy research.
A recurrent finding in international literature is a greater prevalence of depression in women than in men. While explanations for this gender gap have been studied extensively at the individual level, few researchers have studied macro-level determinants of depression in men and women. In the current study we aim to examine the micro-macro linkage of the relationship between gender equality and depression by gender in Europe, using data from the European Social Survey, 2006-2007 (N = 39,891). Using a multilevel framework we find that a high degree of macro-level gender equality is related to lower levels of depression in both women and men. It is also related to a smaller gender difference in depression, but only for certain social subgroups and only for specific dimensions of gender equality.
MUNDA G. and SAISANA M. Methodological considerations on regional sustainability assessment based on multicriteria and sensitivity analysis, Regional Studies. This paper proposes the use of a non-compensatory multicriteria approach combined with sensitivity analysis for constructing composite indicators of sustainability. An illustrative example on Spanish and selected Mediterranean regions is used. The sensitivity analysis shows that excluding an indicator from a twenty-nine-indicator data set (which represents, in principle, a small structural change) has a much lower impact on the regional ranking if that is based on a non-compensatory multicriteria approach than on the classical linear aggregation, for example the weighted arithmetic average. An alternative approach that employs endogenous weighting (region-specific weights) and is based on data envelopment analysis is discussed.
The purpose of this study is to understand the impact of health status and cultural participation upon psychological well-being,
with special attention to the interaction between patterns of cultural access and other factors known to affect psychological
well-being. Data for this report were collected from a sample of 1,500 Italian citizens. A multi-step random sampling method
was adopted to draw a large representative sample from the Italian population. Subjects underwent a standard questionnaire
for psychological well-being [the Italian short form of the Psychological General Well Being Index (PGWBI)], and a questionnaire
related to the frequency of participation to 15 different kinds of cultural activities during the previous year. The results
show that, among the various potential factors considered, cultural access unexpectedly rankes as the second most important
determinant of psychological well-being, immediately after the absence or presence of diseases, and outperforming factors
such as job, age, income, civil status, education, place of living and other important factors. According to a semantic map
generated by a powerful data mining algorithm, it turns out that different factors (among which cultural access and health
status in particular) may be viewed as concurrent elements of a complex multi-causal scheme that seems to play a primary role
in determining psychological distress or well-being. In particular, distress seems to be tightly connected with: living in
the Southern part of Italy, average income level, living in semi-urban and urban areas, age group 46–60, presence of more
than two concomitant diseases and a low level of cultural access. Well being, on the other hand, is tightly connected with:
male gender, high cultural access, and absence of diseases. Some of these associations are confirmed by Principal Component
Analysis.
KeywordsHealth–Well-being–Disease prevention–Culture
This paper investigates the association between institutional quality and generalized trust. Despite the importance of the
topic, little quantitative empirical evidence exists to support either unidirectional or bidirectional causality for the reason
that cross-sectional studies rarely model the reciprocal relationship between institutional quality and generalized trust.
Using data from the World Values Survey, World Bank, and other data sources in an identified nonrecursive structural equation
model, results show that generalized trust and institutional quality form a positive reciprocal relationship, where the connection
is stronger from generalized trust to institutional quality. The conclusion discusses implications for theory and policy in
this area.
KeywordsInstitutional quality–Generalized trust–Endogeneity bias–Feedback effect–Structural equation model
This paper uses data from the World Value Surveys (1990, 1995,1999) to investigate the impact of gender role attitudes and work values on women's labour-market outcomes across 25 OECD countries. Anti-egalitarian views are found to display the strongest negative association with female employment rates and the gender pay gap. These views are, however, softening among recent cohorts. On the other hand, perceptions of women's role as homemakers, which are likely formed in youth and linked to religious ideology, are more persistent over time. They could be implicated in the recent slowdown of the gender convergence in pay. Finally, the unavoidable clash between family values and egalitarian views, that takes the form of an inner conflict for many women--the so-called 'mother's guilt'--is another obstacle in the path towards greater gender equality in the labour market. Copyright 2005, Oxford University Press.
Composite indicators are increasingly used for bench-marking countries' performances. Yet doubts are often raised about the robustness of the resulting countries' rankings and about the significance of the associated policy message. We propose the use of uncertainty analysis and sensitivity analysis to gain useful insights during the process of building composite indicators, including a contribution to the indicators' definition of quality and an assessment of the reliability of countries' rankings. We discuss to what extent the use of uncertainty and sensitivity analysis may increase transparency or make policy inference more defensible by applying the methodology to a known composite indicator: the United Nations's technology achievement index. Copyright 2005 Royal Statistical Society.
Our research objective was to systematise the existing literature on the relation between fertility and women’s employment at the micro-level. Instead of carrying out a traditional literature review, we conducted a meta-analysis. This allowed us to compare estimates from different studies standardised for the country analysed, the method applied, control variables used, or sample selected. We focused on two effects: the impact of work on fertility and the impact of young children on employment entry. First, we found a high variation in the studied effects among the institutional settings, reflecting the existence of a north-south gradient. Second, we observed a significant change in the effects over time. Finally, we demonstrated that a failure to account for the respondent’s social background, partner and job characteristics tends to produce a bias to the estimated effects.
In an increasingly globalised world, economic and cultural imperatives can be seen as two of the most powerful forces shaping human behaviour. This book considers the relationship between economics and culture both as areas of intellectual discourse, and as systems of societal organisation. Adopting a broad definition of culture, it explores the economic dimensions of culture, and the cultural context of economics. The book is built on a foundation of value theory, developing the twin notions of economic and cultural value as underlying principles for integrating the two fields. Ideas of cultural capital and sustainability are discussed, especially as means of analysing the particular problems of cultural heritage, drawing parallels with the treatment of natural capital in ecological economics. The book goes on to discuss the economics of creativity in the production of cultural goods and services; culture in economic development; the cultural industries; and cultural policy.
One of the most salient features of our culture is that there is so much bullshit. Everyone knows this. Each of us contributes his share. But we tend to take the situation for granted. Most people are rather confident of their ability to recognize bullshit and to avoid being taken in by it. So the phenomenon has not aroused much deliberate concern. We have no clear understanding of what bullshit is, why there is so much of it, or what functions it serves. And we lack a conscientiously developed appreciation of what it means to us. In other words, as Harry Frankfurt writes, "we have no theory." Frankfurt, one of the world's most influential moral philosophers, attempts to build such a theory here. With his characteristic combination of philosophical acuity, psychological insight, and wry humor, Frankfurt proceeds by exploring how bullshit and the related concept of humbug are distinct from lying. He argues that bullshitters misrepresent themselves to their audience not as liars do, that is, by deliberately making false claims about what is true. In fact, bullshit need not be untrue at all. Rather, bullshitters seek to convey a certain impression of themselves without being concerned about whether anything at all is true. They quietly change the rules governing their end of the conversation so that claims about truth and falsity are irrelevant. Frankfurt concludes that although bullshit can take many innocent forms, excessive indulgence in it can eventually undermine the practitioner's capacity to tell the truth in a way that lying does not. Liars at least acknowledge that it matters what is true. By virtue of this, Frankfurt writes, bullshit is a greater enemy of the truth than lies are.
This article discusses the participatory creation of the Multidimensional Poverty Assessment Tool (MPAT), a survey-based thematic indicator developed in China and India. The core of the article focuses on the use of expert elicitation to inform the construction of MPAT’s household and village surveys, the cardinalisation of survey responses, and the weighting scheme design. This is followed by a discussion of the potential pitfalls of expertise in development, the decision not to aggregate MPAT into an index, creating locally relevant poverty lines, and ideas for future research. The article closes with a summary of lessons learned.
Following Fukuyama's (2001) postulation for future research in economic development, this paper examines the cultural hypothesis regarding national economic prosperity. Culture is found to affect economic performance through two channels; cultural traits that stimulate individual motivation, and traits that develop social capital in the population. Culture is defined as a society's beliefs and value system and operationalized through the use of variables from the World Values Survey (WVS). The analysis controls for factors commonly recognized in the economic growth literature. The results are sustained through a sensitivity analysis using a variant of extreme bounds analysis (EBA). Compared with previous empirical studies, this research deepens the cultural analysis, increases the number of observations, and lengthens the time period studied.
The main interpretation of the creative city mantra acknowledges the role of a “creative class” in local economic development and its need for an unconventional urban environment. Its aim is to turn the city into an appealing urban environment for those contributing to the local economic development. The purpose of this paper is not to discuss the value, benefits or limitations of this interpretation. Rather, it focuses on another aspect of the creative city mantra: the promotion of a “creative economy” and its corollary, and that of creative industries as future major economic contributors. This paper exposes and discusses the inherent contradictions of such creative city policies. A creative economy and its associated industries are celebrated as a panacea for urban revalorization and economic development; however, the reality of working and producing in these sectors, is marked by precariousness and uncertainty, which reveals the weaknesses of such planning policies. The very features of work in the creative industries produces constraints of location that contradict the effects of such urban strategies. Real estate valorization, as much as new government regulations, are gradually driving creative workers from the city: thus the needs of creative industries and professionals are in conflict with the effect of urban planning strategies. This contribution to the creative city debate proposes a different approach to the research and political agendas, and in turn questions the sustainability of the creative city in regards to the precariousness associated with creative activities. To what extent do valorization strategies hamper the development of a creative economy and its activities? To what extent can the creative city agenda offer the opportunity to reappraise contemporary urban paradigms?
This article offers a situated and pragmatic analysis of the state of the art of creative cities policy thinking regarding the governance of the relationship between the cultural and creative economy and urbanization. It argues for the need to pay attention to the context, history and regulatory forms of creative cities and be very cautious in our desire to draw wider lessons based upon policy transfer. The paper examines the UK case as illustrative of the organic and fractured nature of policy initiatives: and, advises against a single policy model. There are many instrumental uses to which creative city polices can be put; and critically, there are a number of intrinsic uses as well. This paper, and the literature more generally, supports the view that the balance of attention has been toward instrumental uses of culture and creativity. It is argued that we need to re-balance policy and academic concern to the intrinsic value of the cultural and creative field.
In an increasingly globalised world, economic and cultural imperatives can be seen as two of the most powerful forces shaping human behaviour. This book considers the relationship between economics and culture both as areas of intellectual discourse, and as systems of societal organisation. Adopting a broad definition of culture, it explores the economic dimensions of culture, and the cultural context of economics. The book is built on a foundation of value theory, developing the twin notions of economic and cultural value as underlying principles for integrating the two fields. Ideas of cultural capital and sustainability are discussed, especially as means of analysing the particular problems of cultural heritage, drawing parallels with the treatment of natural capital in ecological economics. The book goes on to discuss the economics of creativity in the production of cultural goods and services; culture in economic development; the cultural industries; and cultural policy.
Models and Sensitivity AnalysisMethods and Settings for Sensitivity Analysis – an IntroductionNonindependent Input FactorsPossible Pitfalls for a Sensitivity AnalysisConcluding RemarksExercisesAnswersAdditional ExercisesSolutions to Additional Exercises
Global Urban Analysis provides a unique insight into the contemporary world economy through a focus on cities. It is based upon a large-scale customised data collection on how leading businesses use cities across the world: as headquarter locations, for finance, for professional and creative services, for media. These data - involving up to 2000 firms and over 500 cities - provide evidence for both how the leading cities, sometimes called global cities, are coming to dominate the world economy, and how hundreds of other cities are faring in this brave new urban world. Thus can the likes of London, New York and Hong Kong be tracked as well as Manchester, Cleveland and Guangzhou, and even Plymouth, Chattanooga and Xi'an. Cities are assessed and ranked in terms of their importance for various functions such as for financial services, legal services and advertising, plus novel findings are reported for the geographical orientations of their connections.
Cities and regions have long captured the imagination of sociologists, economists, and urbanists. From Alfred Marshall to Robert Park and Jane Jacobs, cities have been seen as cauldrons of diversity and difference and as fonts for creativity and innovation. Yet until recently, social scientists concerned with regional growth and development have focused mainly on the role of firms in cities, and particularly on how these firms make location decisions and to what extent they concentrate together in agglomerations or clusters. This short article summarizes recent advances in our thinking about cities and communities, and does so particularly in light of themes advanced in my recently published book, The Rise of the Creative Class, which focuses on diversity and creativity as basic drivers of innovation and regional and national growth. This line of work further suggests the need for some conceptual refocusing and broadening to account for the location decisions of people as opposed to those of firms as sources of regional and national economic growth. In doing so, this article hopes to spur wider commentary and debate on the critical functions of cities and regions in 21st–century creative capitalism.
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