Cultural leader and the dynamics of assimilation

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Verdier, Thierry; Zenou, Yves
• 署名单位: Institut Polytechnique de Paris; Ecole des Ponts ParisTech; Monash University
• 刊物名称: JOURNAL OF ECONOMIC THEORY
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0022-0531
• DOI: 10.1016/j.jet.2018.01.019
• 发表日期: 2018
• 页码: 374-414
• 关键词: Cultural substituability; integration; Forward-looking leader

摘要

This paper studies the population dynamics of cultural traits in a model of intergenerational cultural transmission with a perfectly-forward looking cultural leader. We show that there exists a threshold size in terms of population above which the cultural leader becomes active. We also show that a policy affecting some key parameters (such as the cost of providing the religious good) has a different impact in the short run and in the long run due to over-reactions or under-reactions of the different cultural groups. Finally, we study the cultural competition between two forward-looking cultural leaders with opposite objectives. We show that the steady-state cultural equilibrium depends on the time preference structure of the two leaders. (C) 2018 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.