Abstract:

Culture, considered as a society identity, is an important element to improve social unity. Besides, cultural activities and services are common need for individuals. Therefore this kind of services provided by government effects the social welfare positively. Public cultural spending is determined by economic, demographic, social and politic factors. This paper examines the effects of these factors on cultural spending for 9 OECD countries by using annual data over 1990-2009 period. We test stationary features of data using Panel LM (Lagrange Multiplier) unit root test which determines the structural breaks endogenously. Then by employing panel data techniques it was found that cultural spending is negatively correlated with per capita income growth and positively correlated with population growth, young population, unemployment and the measure of left-wing party dominance in the parliament. Furthermore we conclude that demographic factors are much more effective on cultural spending then other factors relatively.

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