Determining Heterogeneous Behaviour for Theater Participation

We study the determinants of the demand of cultural goods using two different approaches. Starting by a simple analytical model that deals with the optimal demand of cultural goods for a consumer that lives two periods, we investigate the relevance of cultural capital on taste formation. Some testable hypothesis on the effects of the parameters of the model are derived. Futher, in a companion paper we perform some analysis on temporal paths and on the effect of cultural policy measures. We then propose and stimate a model on theatre participation using the data contained on the 2002 Survey of Public Participation in the Arts from the USA. By using a Zero Inflated Negative Binomial model, we can characterized two distinct behaviours for the observable demand.