Does a higher cultural supply raise cultural consumption? The association between individual and city traits and cultural consumption in Chile

Abstract

While cultural economics and urban economics literatures have well established that more able individuals tend to prefer mostly cities with a high level of cultural amenities and schooling is one of the main individual determinants of the cultural consumption, there is no empirical evidence on whether cities specialized in culture boost cultural consumption of their residents. This research takes a step back compared to most studies and directly tests whether—controlling for individual characteristics—the higher the city cultural supply, the higher the probability of consuming cultural goods. Using data for 2017 from Chile and an instrumental variable approach, the results suggest that cities’ cultural employment shape workers’ decisions to consume cultural goods. A positive impact of city cultural supply on cultural consumption is found for both aggregated and disaggregated cultural goods, a robust result even under weaker exclusion restrictions of the instrument.