The determinants of the diversity of cultural expressions. An international quantitative analysis of diversity of production in the recording industry

After the adoption of the Unesco Convention on Cultural Diversity in October 2005, the issue of what may favour diversity of production in the media and cultural industries has become even more crucial. On the other hand there has been a long tradition of economic analysis of diversity of production. However, the analysis so far has had 2 flaws. First of all, there have been few quantitative and most of all econometric studies. Moreover such studies have never gone beyond the influence of market structure.
This paper aims at filling both gaps of the analysis. (i) First I propose a multidisciplinary overview of the literature devoted to the determiners of diversity of production in cultural and media industries. (ii) Then I apply an econometric analysis of these determiners in the case of the recording industry. To conduct this analysis, I use a database on 69 countries built from data provided by the Industrial Federation of the Phonographic Industry and its national branches. My main results concern the influence of not only the market structure but also economic and demographic factors.

Keywords:Diversity, Cultural Economics, Recording Industry, Indexes of Diversity