Cultural consumption in times of lock-down: An agent-based model of choice

Abstract

This paper presents an agent-based model to study the effects of lockdown restrictions, due to epidemic prevention, on cultural consumption. Two kinds of cultural products, designed as ’popular’ and ’highbrow’, are taken into account. People preferences and choices on different cultural products are influenced by individual education and income; the presence of imitative behaviour through social networks is also considered. Numerical simulations show that partial and global lockdown restrictions produce different –and sometimes counter-intuitive– effects. In particular, highbrow activities are affected by adverse economic consequences of partial lockdown measures to a larger extent, as compared to popular cultural activities. The result is driven by factors related to both the demand and the supply side.