IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/aqr/wpaper/202302.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

“The Effect of Competition on Language Diversity in the Movie-Theatre Industry”

Author

Listed:
  • Bernat Mallén

    (AQR-IREA University of Barcelona)

Abstract

In this paper I investigate the effect of competition on language diversity in a cultural market, the movies market, in which language is a relevant characteristic of the good. I analyse the case of the bilingual region of Catalonia to empirically test the effect of competition in two stages of the supply chain – the distribution and the exhibition – on the availability of films in the weaker language. I create a unique data set of all the screenings in the region over 10 months from different sources using advanced web-scraping techniques. I find that the concentration at the distribution level reduces the percentage of films in Catalan by 4.04 percentage points compared with the counterfactual of perfect competition. The effect of the concentration at the exhibition level is not significant. This implies that without such market failure, the total supply of films in Catalan would be 96% greater. I also look for heterogeneous effects disentangling two types of audiences: children-targeted films and adult-targeted films. I find that children have higher preference intensity over the language because the market is more responsive to them; the concentration at the exhibition level matters when it comes to this type of consumer.

Suggested Citation

  • Bernat Mallén, 2023. "“The Effect of Competition on Language Diversity in the Movie-Theatre Industry”," AQR Working Papers 202302, University of Barcelona, Regional Quantitative Analysis Group, revised May 2023.
    • Handle: RePEc:aqr:wpaper:202302
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.ub.edu/irea/working_papers/2023/202305.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Peter Davis, 2006. "Spatial competition in retail markets: movie theaters," RAND Journal of Economics, RAND Corporation, vol. 37(4), pages 964-982, December.
    2. Orbach, Barak Y. & Einav, Liran, 2007. "Uniform prices for differentiated goods: The case of the movie-theater industry," International Review of Law and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 27(2), pages 129-153.
    3. Marie-Laure Allain & Claire Chambolle & Patrick Rey, 2016. "Vertical Integration as a Source of Hold-up," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 83(1), pages 1-25.
    4. Jeon, Doh-Shin & Jullien, Bruno & Klimenko, Mikhail, 2021. "Language, internet and platform competition," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 131(C).
    5. Caminal, Ramon, 2010. "Markets and linguistic diversity," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 76(3), pages 774-790, December.
    6. Joshua S. Gans, 2007. "Concentration-Based Merger Tests and Vertical Market Structure," Journal of Law and Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 50(4), pages 661-681.
    7. Victor Ginsburgh & Shlomo Weber, 2011. "How Many Languages Do We Need? The Economics of Linguistic Diversity," Economics Books, Princeton University Press, edition 1, number 9481.
    8. Yongmin Chen & Michael H. Riordan, 2007. "Price and Variety in the Spokes Model," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 117(522), pages 897-921, July.
    9. Peter Davis, 2006. "Spatial competition in retail markets: movie theaters," RAND Journal of Economics, The RAND Corporation, vol. 37(4), pages 964-982, December.
    10. Ramon Fauli-Oller & Joel Sandonis, 2016. "Welfare Effects Of Downstream Mergers And Upstream Market Concentration," The Singapore Economic Review (SER), World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., vol. 61(05), pages 1-16, December.
    11. Ramon Caminal & Antonio Di Paolo, 2019. "Your Language Or Mine? The Noncommunicative Benefits Of Language Skills," Economic Inquiry, Western Economic Association International, vol. 57(1), pages 726-750, January.
    12. Tin Cheuk Leung & Shi Qi & Jia Yuan, 2020. "Movie Industry Demand and Theater Availability," Review of Industrial Organization, Springer;The Industrial Organization Society, vol. 56(3), pages 489-513, May.
    13. Bengt-Arne Wickstrom, 2005. "Can Bilingualism be Dynamically Stable?," Rationality and Society, , vol. 17(1), pages 81-115, February.
    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. Bernat Mallén Alberdi, 2023. ""The Effect of Competition on Language Diversity in the Movie-Theatre Industry"," IREA Working Papers 202305, University of Barcelona, Research Institute of Applied Economics, revised May 2023.
    2. Gihwan Yi & Min Kim & Hoe Sang Chung, 2024. "The Revenue Impact of Differential Seat Pricing and Competition in the Movie Theater Market," Review of Industrial Organization, Springer;The Industrial Organization Society, vol. 64(3), pages 361-382, May.
    3. Victor Fernandez-Blanco & Luis Orea & Juan Prieto-Rodriguez, 2013. "Endogeneity and measurement errors when estimating demand functions with average prices: an example from the movie market," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 44(3), pages 1477-1496, June.
    4. Fernanda Gutierrez-Navratil & Victor Fernandez-Blanco & Luis Orea & Juan Prieto-Rodriguez, 2014. "How do your rivals’ releasing dates affect your box office?," Journal of Cultural Economics, Springer;The Association for Cultural Economics International, vol. 38(1), pages 71-84, February.
    5. Ricard Gil & Wesley R. Hartmann, 2009. "Empirical Analysis of Metering Price Discrimination: Evidence from Concession Sales at Movie Theaters," Marketing Science, INFORMS, vol. 28(6), pages 1046-1062, 11-12.
    6. Charles C. Moul, 2007. "Measuring Word of Mouth's Impact on Theatrical Movie Admissions," Journal of Economics & Management Strategy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 16(4), pages 859-892, December.
    7. Dapeng Liu & Pascal Courty, 2022. "Some economics of movie exhibition: increasing returns and Imax revenue premium," Journal of Cultural Economics, Springer;The Association for Cultural Economics International, vol. 46(4), pages 597-634, December.
    8. Drevs, Florian, 2013. "The Challenge of the Unknown – The Effect of Pay-What-You-Want on the Market Success of Publicly Subsidized Films," ZögU - Zeitschrift für öffentliche und gemeinwirtschaftliche Unternehmen, Nomos Verlagsgesellschaft mbH & Co. KG, vol. 36(4), pages 255-270.
    9. Wen-jhan Jane & Wei-peng Chen & Yuan-lin Hsu, 2015. "The impact of deregulation on the movie box office after Taiwan’s entry into the WTO: the difference-in-differences estimation," Eurasian Business Review, Springer;Eurasia Business and Economics Society, vol. 5(2), pages 289-308, December.
    10. Darlene Chisholm & George Norman, 2012. "Spatial competition and market share: an application to motion pictures," Journal of Cultural Economics, Springer;The Association for Cultural Economics International, vol. 36(3), pages 207-225, August.
    11. Gil, Ricard & Hartmann, Wesley R., 2008. "Why Does Popcorn Cost So Much at the Movies? An Empirical Analysis of Metering Price Discrimination," Research Papers 1983, Stanford University, Graduate School of Business.
    12. Mitsuru Sunada, 2012. "Competition among movie theaters: an empirical investigation of the Toho–Subaru antitrust case," Journal of Cultural Economics, Springer;The Association for Cultural Economics International, vol. 36(3), pages 179-206, August.
    13. de Roos, Nicolas & McKenzie, Jordi, 2014. "Cheap Tuesdays and the demand for cinema," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 33(C), pages 93-109.
    14. Luca Aguzzoni & Elena Argentesi & Lorenzo Ciari & Tomaso Duso & Massimo Tognoni, 2016. "Ex post Merger Evaluation in the U.K. Retail Market for Books," Journal of Industrial Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 64(1), pages 170-200, March.
    15. Nicholas Economides & Przemyslaw Jeziorski, 2017. "Mobile Money in Tanzania," Marketing Science, INFORMS, vol. 36(6), pages 815-837, November.
    16. Nilsson, Isabelle M. & Smirnov, Oleg A., 2016. "Measuring the effect of transportation infrastructure on retail firm co-location patterns," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 51(C), pages 110-118.
    17. Brian Knight & Nathan Schiff, 2012. "Spatial Competition and Cross-Border Shopping: Evidence from State Lotteries," American Economic Journal: Economic Policy, American Economic Association, vol. 4(4), pages 199-229, November.
    18. Hackl, Franz & Kummer, Michael E. & Winter-Ebmer, Rudolf & Zulehner, Christine, 2014. "Market structure and market performance in E-commerce," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 68(C), pages 199-218.
    19. W. D. Walls, 2009. "The Market for Motion Pictures in Thailand: Rank, Revenue, and Survival at the Box Office," International Journal of Business and Economics, School of Management Development, Feng Chia University, Taichung, Taiwan, vol. 8(2), pages 115-131, August.
    20. Peter Davis & Pasquale Schiraldi, 2014. "The flexible coefficient multinomial logit (FC-MNL) model of demand for differentiated products," RAND Journal of Economics, RAND Corporation, vol. 45(1), pages 32-63, March.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Language diversity; Movie theatres; Dubbing; Bilingualism; Cultural market. JEL classification: D43; L13; L82; Z13;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D43 - Microeconomics - - Market Structure, Pricing, and Design - - - Oligopoly and Other Forms of Market Imperfection
    • L13 - Industrial Organization - - Market Structure, Firm Strategy, and Market Performance - - - Oligopoly and Other Imperfect Markets
    • L82 - Industrial Organization - - Industry Studies: Services - - - Entertainment; Media
    • Z13 - Other Special Topics - - Cultural Economics - - - Economic Sociology; Economic Anthropology; Language; Social and Economic Stratification

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    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:aqr:wpaper:202302. 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: Bibiana Barnadas (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/aqrubes.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.