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  3. American Economic Review
  4. March 2008
  5. Collective Memory, Cultural Transmission, and Investments

American Economic Review

ISSN 0002-8282 (Print) | ISSN 1944-7981 (Online)

Collective Memory, Cultural Transmission, and Investments

  • Roberta Dessí
American Economic Review
vol. 98, no. 1, March 2008
(pp. 534–60)
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Abstract

I study the transmission of collective memory as a mechanism for cultural transmission, in the presence of social externalities associated with individual cultural investment decisions. The younger generation's decisions depend on beliefs about the quality of existing institutions, norms, and values, which are influenced by collective memory. In culturally homogeneous societies it can be optimal to suppress negative memories while emphasizing positive ones. However, the ability to bias collective memory is costly: it may generate cultural overoptimism and overinvestment in some cases, the reverse in other cases. The scope for welfare-enhancing manipulation of collective memory is reduced, moreover, in culturally heterogeneous societies. (JEL D83, Z13)

Citation

Dessí, Roberta. 2008. "Collective Memory, Cultural Transmission, and Investments." American Economic Review, 98 (1): 534–60. DOI: 10.1257/aer.98.1.534

JEL Classification

  • Z13 Economic Sociology; Economic Anthropology