IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/kap/jculte/v40y2016i1p101-126.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

An economic perspective on rock concerts and climate change: Should carbon offsets compensating emissions be included in the ticket price?

Author

Listed:
  • Marie Connolly
  • Jérôme Dupras
  • Charles Séguin

Abstract

Musicians, singers and bands can use their popularity to promote various causes and products, either through endorsements or more individual initiatives. Environmental activism is becoming more widespread as humans are trying to tackle and mitigate climate change. In this paper, we ask how best a band can compensate for the carbon emissions generated by fans travelling to its shows. We first report on the various “green” initiatives and practices of the music industry. We then focus on greenhouse gas emissions that result from tours and concerts since they are one of the largest environmental impacts generated by the music industry. We take the perspective of the artist or band wishing to internalize their carbon emissions and present a model of carbon offsets in the context of rock concerts, which amounts to the private provision of a public good. In our model, bands have the option to include offsets in the ticket price or to offer voluntary offsets. To illustrate our point, we present a field study conducted by a Quebec rock band at shows in Montreal and in Europe to show how the artists can reduce the environmental impact of their concert by buying carbon credits equivalent to their fans’ footprint. We show that at 1 % of the ticket price on average, the cost of carbon offsets is marginal and discuss the numerous challenges that arise for those artists wanting to engage in carbon offsetting. Copyright Springer Science+Business Media New York 2016

Suggested Citation

  • Marie Connolly & Jérôme Dupras & Charles Séguin, 2016. "An economic perspective on rock concerts and climate change: Should carbon offsets compensating emissions be included in the ticket price?," Journal of Cultural Economics, Springer;The Association for Cultural Economics International, vol. 40(1), pages 101-126, February.
    • Handle: RePEc:kap:jculte:v:40:y:2016:i:1:p:101-126
    DOI: 10.1007/s10824-015-9265-2
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1007/s10824-015-9265-2
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1007/s10824-015-9265-2?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
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to look for a different version below or search for a different version of it.

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Phillip Leslie & Alan Sorensen, 2014. "Resale and Rent-Seeking: An Application to Ticket Markets," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 81(1), pages 266-300.
    2. Markus Milne & Rob Gray, 2013. "W(h)ither Ecology? The Triple Bottom Line, the Global Reporting Initiative, and Corporate Sustainability Reporting," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 118(1), pages 13-29, November.
    3. Paul R. Portney, 2008. "The (Not So) New Corporate Social Responsibility: An Empirical Perspective," Review of Environmental Economics and Policy, Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 2(2), pages 261-275, Summer.
    4. Matthew J. Kotchen, 2009. "Voluntary Provision of Public Goods for Bads: A Theory of Environmental Offsets," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 119(537), pages 883-899, April.
    5. Courty, Pascal & Pagliero, Mario, 2012. "The Pricing of Art and the Art of Pricing: Pricing Styles in the Concert Industry," CEPR Discussion Papers 8967, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    6. Markus Kitzmueller & Jay Shimshack, 2012. "Economic Perspectives on Corporate Social Responsibility," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 50(1), pages 51-84, March.
    7. Hui Li & Robert P. Berrens & Alok K. Bohara & Hank C. Jenkins-Smith & Carol L. Silva & David L. Weimer, 2005. "Exploring the Beta Model Using Proportional Budget Information in a Contingent Valuation Study," Economics Bulletin, AccessEcon, vol. 17(8), pages 1-9.
    8. Andrew A. King & Michael J. Lenox, 2001. "Does It Really Pay to Be Green? An Empirical Study of Firm Environmental and Financial Performance: An Empirical Study of Firm Environmental and Financial Performance," Journal of Industrial Ecology, Yale University, vol. 5(1), pages 105-116, January.
    9. Forest L. Reinhardt & Robert N. Stavins & Richard H. K. Vietor, 2008. "Corporate Social Responsibility Through an Economic Lens," Review of Environmental Economics and Policy, Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 2(2), pages 219-239, Summer.
    10. Matthew J. Kotchen, 2009. "Voluntary Provision of Public Goods for Bads: A Theory of Environmental Offsets," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 119(537), pages 883-899, April.
    11. Thomas P. Lyon & John W. Maxwell, 2008. "Corporate Social Responsibility and the Environment: A Theoretical Perspective," Review of Environmental Economics and Policy, Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 2(2), pages 240-260, Summer.
    12. Lioui, Abraham & Sharma, Zenu, 2012. "Environmental corporate social responsibility and financial performance: Disentangling direct and indirect effects," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 78(C), pages 100-111.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Kobe Boussauw & Jean-Michel Decroly, 2021. "Territorializing International Travel Emissions: Geography and Magnitude of the Hidden Climate Footprint of Brussels," Urban Planning, Cogitatio Press, vol. 6(2), pages 285-298.

    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. Patricia Crifo & Vanina D. Forget, 2015. "The Economics Of Corporate Social Responsibility: A Firm-Level Perspective Survey," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 29(1), pages 112-130, February.
    2. Reif, Christiane & Rexhäuser, Sascha, 2015. "Good enough! Are socially responsible companies the more successful environmental innovators?," ZEW Discussion Papers 15-018, ZEW - Leibniz Centre for European Economic Research.
    3. Massimiliano Mazzanti & Valeria Costantini & Susanna Mancinelli & Massimilano Corradini, 2011. "Environmental and Innovation Performance in a Dynamic Impure Public Good Framework," Working Papers 201117, University of Ferrara, Department of Economics.
    4. Fukuda, Katsufumi & Ouchida, Yasunori, 2020. "Corporate social responsibility (CSR) and the environment: Does CSR increase emissions?," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 92(C).
    5. Doni, Nicola & Ricchiuti, Giorgio, 2013. "Market equilibrium in the presence of green consumers and responsible firms: A comparative statics analysis," Resource and Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 35(3), pages 380-395.
    6. Giulio Cainelli & Massimiliano Mazzanti & Simone Borghesi, 2012. "The European Emission Trading Scheme and environmental innovation diffusion: Empirical analyses using Italian CIS data," Working Papers 201201, University of Ferrara, Department of Economics.
    7. Škare, Marinko & Golja, Tea, 2014. "The impact of government CSR supporting policies on economic growth," Journal of Policy Modeling, Elsevier, vol. 36(3), pages 562-577.
    8. Costantini, Valeria & Mazzanti, Massimiliano, 2012. "On the green and innovative side of trade competitiveness? The impact of environmental policies and innovation on EU exports," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 41(1), pages 132-153.
    9. Kotchen Matthew & Moon Jon J., 2012. "Corporate Social Responsibility for Irresponsibility," The B.E. Journal of Economic Analysis & Policy, De Gruyter, vol. 12(1), pages 1-23, November.
    10. Pierre Chaigneau, 2018. "Managerial Compensation and Firm Value in the Presence of Socially Responsible Investors," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 149(3), pages 747-768, May.
    11. Carmen Arguedas & Esther Blanco, 2014. "Incentives for Voluntary Practices, Fraud, and Certification," Working Papers 2014-18, Faculty of Economics and Statistics, Universität Innsbruck.
    12. Esther Blanco & Javier Lozano, 2015. "Ecolabels, uncertified abatement, and the sustainability of natural resources: an evolutionary approach," Journal of Evolutionary Economics, Springer, vol. 25(3), pages 623-647, July.
    13. Giulio Cainelli & Massimiliano Mazzanti & Roberto Zoboli, 2011. "Enviromental Innovations, Complementarity and Local/Global Cooperation," Working Papers 201104, University of Ferrara, Department of Economics.
    14. Wei Liu & Qiao Wei & Song-Qin Huang & Sang-Bing Tsai, 2017. "Doing Good Again? A Multilevel Institutional Perspective on Corporate Environmental Responsibility and Philanthropic Strategy," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 14(10), pages 1-15, October.
    15. Davide Antonioli & Massimiliano Mazzanti, 2009. "Techno-organisational strategies, environmental innovations and economic performances. Micro-evidence from an SME-based industrial district," Journal of Innovation Economics, De Boeck Université, vol. 0(1), pages 145-168.
    16. Beatty Timothy & Shimshack Jay P, 2010. "The Impact of Climate Change Information: New Evidence from the Stock Market," The B.E. Journal of Economic Analysis & Policy, De Gruyter, vol. 10(1), pages 1-29, November.
    17. Patricia Crifo & Vanina Forget, 2012. "The Economics of Corporate Social Responsibility: A Survey," Working Papers hal-00720640, HAL.
    18. Arguedas, Carmen & Blanco, Esther, 2014. "On Fraud and Certification of Corporate Social Responsibility," Working Papers in Economic Theory 2014/02, Universidad Autónoma de Madrid (Spain), Department of Economic Analysis (Economic Theory and Economic History).
    19. Weiwei Wu & Rizwan Ullah & Syed Jamal Shah, 2020. "Linking Corporate Environmental Performance to Financial Performance of Pakistani Firms: The Roles of Technological capability and Public awareness," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(4), pages 1-18, February.
    20. Eng, Li Li & Fikru, Mahelet G. & Vichitsarawong, Thanyaluk, 2021. "The impact of toxic chemical releases and their management on financial performance," Advances in accounting, Elsevier, vol. 53(C).

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Concerts; Climate change; Carbon offsets; Environment; Green bands; Z11; Q54; Q51;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • Z11 - Other Special Topics - - Cultural Economics - - - Economics of the Arts and Literature
    • Q54 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Environmental Economics - - - Climate; Natural Disasters and their Management; Global Warming
    • Q51 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Environmental Economics - - - Valuation of Environmental Effects

    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:kap:jculte:v:40:y:2016:i:1:p:101-126. 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: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.springer.com .

    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.