Exam 2015, questions - The economics of culture, media & entertainment PDF

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The Economics of Culture, Media & Entertainment past exam 15...

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UNIVERSITY OF WESTMINSTER WESTMINSTER BUSINESS SCHOOL

EXAMINATION PAPER MAY 2015 MODULE CODE:

BEQM611

MODULE TITLE:

THE ECONOMICS OF CULTURE, MEDIA AND ENTERTAINMENT

DATE:

22nd May 2015

TIME:

10.00am – 12.30pm

INSTRUCTIONS TO CANDIDATES: SECTION A: Answer all FOUR questions in this section. This section is worth 50% of the total marks. SECTION B: Answer TWO of the three questions in this section. This section is worth 50% of the total marks. This is a CLOSED book exam. The use of silent non-programmable calculators is not permitted. The use of dictionaries is not permitted.

TIME ALLOWED: 2 HOURS and 30 MINUTES (inclusive of 15 minutes planning time). Upon the start of the examination candidates will have 15 minutes planning time. During this time you may NOT open or write in the answer booklet other than to complete the answer booklet front cover. If you wish to make notes please use the back of this examination paper.

PLEASE DO NOT TURN OVER THIS PAGE UNTIL INSTRUCTED TO DO SO BY THE INVIGILATOR

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SECTION A: Answer ALL questions in this section. This section is worth 50% of the total marks for the examination.

Q1. Discuss each of the seven economic characteristics of cultural goods according to Caves (Creative Industries: Contracts between Art and Commerce, 2000) using examples from the book publishing industry. (20 marks) Q2. According to Bakker (The International Journal on Media Management, 2002) how can the impact of free daily newspapers on the market for newspapers be characterised in terms of business models and newspaper readers? (10 marks)

Q3. According to Pokorny and Sedgwick (Economic History Review, 2010) what can we learn about the economic nature of US film production and its evolution since 1929? (10 marks) Q4. Michel (Topics in Economic Analysis & Policy, 2006) investigates the impact of digital file sharing on the US music industry. Outline the analytical approach and results from the article and suggest its limitations. (10 marks) (Total: 50 marks)

Section B starts on the next page

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SECTION B: Answer any TWO of the following three questions in this section. This section is worth 50% of the total marks for the examination.

Q5. Alexander (American Sociological Review, 1996) suggests a structure-conductperformance relationship between market structure and product diversity in the US music industry. Discuss Alexander’s data, methodology and results, and evaluate what the results imply in the wake of recent mergers and acquisitions that have increased the market shares of the largest firms in the industry. (25 marks)

Q6. Williams, Brown and Alexander (Federal Communications Commission Media Bureau Staff Research Paper, 2002) investigate the state of music diversity in US radio broadcasting. Discuss how the authors measure diversity and the analytical approach they employ. What do their results suggest about broadcast radio market structure and music diversity? (25 marks)

Q7. Discuss the economic analysis of the book publishing industry by Greco (The Journal of Media Economics, 1999) with reference to the links between market structure and a) b) c)

entry barriers product variety predatory or excessive pricing. (25 marks)

(Total for Section B: 50 marks)

End of Examination

BEQM611-PH-S1-1415

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