Measurment Of Cultural Capital And Its Contribution To Economic Growth In China

The impact on economic growth from cultural investment has become more and moresignificant around the world. People are convinced that culture is not only the basis for socialvalue system of social ethics and moral civilization, but also playing an important role oneconomic growth. However, till now there is no convincing explanation on the mechanismthat how does culture promotes economic growth. Most of the studies on the relationshipbetween culture and economic growth lack systematic theories and rigorous econometricanalysis. This paper studies the relationship between cultural investment and economicgrowth from a new perspective of cultural capitalThe paper is organized as follows: The second chapter works on literature review,combing the results of theoretical studies of cultural capital, as well as culture and culturalindustries; The third Chapter focuses on the theory of cultural capital, exploring the meaningof the concept of cultural capital, the mechanism that how the cultural capital plays an role oneconomic growth, and constructing the index system of China’s cultural Capital estimates;The fourth Chapter estimates the time series data of cultural capital stock for the years1978-2008; Chapter V explores the dynamic equilibrium relationship between cultural capitalvariables and economic output variable by a cointegration analysis; Chapter VI studies thecontribution of cultural capital to economic growth, based on the neo-classical productionfunction; Chapter VII analyzes the contribution of cultural capital to economic growth by aspatial econometric analysis model on the basis of spatial correlation.Firstly, the paper works on literature review about the concepts and theories of culturalcapital, as well as related culture and cultural industries. Then, the definitions of culturalcapital, culture and cultural industries, which given by domestic and foreign scholars arecombed. By comparing the classifications of cultural industries in different countries, theboundaries of cultural capital goods are defined. The paper summarizes the research results ofcultural economics, especially the main points of cultural capital theories, introducing thecultural capital theory proposed by French sociologist Pierre Bourdieu, and the researchresults finished by Australia economist David Throsby, who has introduced the concept ofcultural capital into economics research analysis. In addition, the paper summarizes the results of domestic and foreign scholars in the study of the relationship between culture, culturalindustries, intangible capital and economic growth, focusing on the CHS mode and perpetualinventory method (PIM), which are widely used internationally to estimate intangible capital.Secondly, an in-depth study of the cultural capital theory has been done. Further, thepaper defines the concept of cultural capital from a perspective of capital: cultural capital is akind of intangible asset accumulated by cultural value with dual nature both of economicvalue and cultural value. Its economic value depends on the content of intangible culturalvalue, being independent of the economic value of its physical carrier. In the practice ofcultural production and economic research, cultural capital refers to modern cultural capitalgoods, which may be produced in industry or circulated and consumpted, as well as beaccumulated by investment. Cultural capital has tangible material objects as its carrier, theappearances of some carriers have a direct impact on cultural appreciation activities, and themeasures of cultural value and economic value, such as paintings, sculptures. Some carriersdo not have such impacts, such as books, CD. Cultural capital is a generalized form of capital,and a kind of movement patterns of cultural value in cultural production process. As aproductive element, cultural capital exists generally in a variety of industry chains. Culture isthe creative source of culture production. Cultural product is the source of production andaccumulation of cultural capital. Cultural capital has the common natures of general capitalelements, namely value-added, movement and independence, but also has uniquepersonalities, i.e., culture, creativity and sharing. Based on the analysis of the characteristicsof cultural capital, cultural capital may be divided into three subdivision types as creativecapital, brand capital and copyright capital.Thirdly, the CHS model and PIM method are applied to estimate the investment amountand stock of cultural capital. The result shows that China’s ratio of cultural capital investmentto GDP is relatively small, only1.4%during2006-2008, less than half of the United Statesand Japan. In these three kinds of capitals, copyright capital investment and stock are themajor component, accounting for about half the share.Fourthly, according to the cointegration theory and related econometric model, therelationship between China’s cultural capital stock and economic growth is analysedempirically. The results show that there is a long-term equilibrium relationship between them. According to the results of Granger causality test, China’s cultural capital is a Granger causeof economic growth, whereas the cultural capital stock is also the Granger cause of economicgrowth, they are mutually reinforcing. The culture may play an effective role in the form ofcultural capital as a productive element in economic growth. It explains profoundly theinternal mechanism of interaction between culture and economic growth.Fifthly, cultural capital is introduced in Cobb-Douglas production function formeasuring its contribution to economic growth. The result shows that if physical capital andhuman capital keep unchanged, when cultural capital stock increases by1%, the economicoutput will grow by0.18%. In contrast, the impact of physical capital and human capital isstill larger than cultural capital. When physical capital stock increases by1%, GDP will growby0.55%; When human capital stock increases by1%, GDP will grow by0.91%.Impulse response analysis showed that the response of GDP to a positive shock ofcultural capital is positive, and the shock has a significant and lasting impact on economicgrowth. The results of cumulative effect showed that when cultural capital stock increases byone percentage, the cumulation of GDP will respectively grow by0.045540,0.054666and0.111177percent in the first5years,10years and20year. Variance Analysis results showedthat the contribution rate of cultural capital stock to GDP is about17%, means that17%of theforecast variance of GDP can be explained by the the changes of cultural capital stock.Sixthly, the spatial correlation between cultural capital and other capital elements isstudied by the spatial correlation analysis, and a spatial panel data model is applied to studythe impact of cultural capital and other capitals to economic growth. The empirical resultsshow that there are significant positive spatial correlations among China’s provincial-levelregions. Taking into account the spatial correlation among adjacent areas, the contribution ofcultural capital increases significantly to economic growth． Whenever cultural capitalincreases1%, the GDP will grow by0.379%, with the same time, the role of physical capitaland human capital is reduced accordingly. Their flexibilities are reduced to0.339and0.769respectively. Therefore, by increasing culture investment, and promoting the accumulation ofcultural capital, the cultural exchanges and the output of cultural product between the regions are further encouraged, and then to a greater extent, the economic growth are promoted.