ASYMMETRIC CULTURAL GLOBALIZATION, TOP PERFORMERS’ INCOME AND INEQUALITY

The article models and analyses the impact of between-country asymmetric globalization in popular cultural activities (music, films, TV series and programmes) on inequality at the top of the income ladder. This impact depends on whether the country produces globalized cultural activities or purely national cultural performances.

Asymmetric cultural globalization is defined as a situation in which a limited number of countries produce globalised cultural performances whereas all other countries produce purely national ones. As a consequence, people in the countries with globalised performances consume globalised performances only. In contrast, people consume both their national (non-globalized) performances and the globalized performances in countries producing purely national performances. This approach aims at picturing the primacy of the United States, and more broadly Anglo-Saxon countries, in popular cultural activities (films, music, TV series and programmes).

 

The case of cultural autarky is firstly analysed. Cultural autarky is characterised by people only consuming their national cultural performances in all countries. It can be shown that, assuming differences in talent between performers, the differences in performers’ earnings is magnified compared to the differences in talent.

When cultural globalization is symmetric (all countries producing globalized performances and the talents being identically valued in all countries), the number of performers as well as their incomes remain unchanged compared to cultural autarky. This is because the loss of market shares a performer suffers in her/his country is exactly offset by the gain of market shares s/he makes in other countries.

 

In contrast, Asymmetric cultural globalization totally modifies both the number of performers and their incomes.

In the countries with globalized performances: 1) the number of performers and performances increases; 2) the incomes of all performers increase and income inequality between performers significantly rises; 3) this entails an increase in inequality by the top of the income spectrum; 4) finally, an increase in the number of countries with purely national performances amplifies those changes.

In the countries with non-globalized performances: 1) the number of performers and performances decreases; 2) the incomes of all performers decrease and income inequality between performers is reduced; 3) this entails a decrease in inequality by the top of the income spectrum; 4) the smaller the size of the country, the larger those changes.

 

Those opposite changes can be explained as follows.

Moving from cultural autarky to asymmetric globalization makes globalized performers to benefit from a sizeable increase in their market since they now produce for both types of countries, those producing globalized performances and those producing national performances only. This increase in demand leads to an increase in the income per unit of talent, and hence an increase in both the number of performers and their earnings.

In contrast, in countries with non-globalized cultural activities, asymmetric cultural openness has a detrimental impact on performers because their market shares are now cut by the entry of new competitors. As they cannot offset this loss by gaining market shares in other countries, their sales and incomes shrink, inducing a decrease in the number and earnings of performers

 

This analysis provides explanations for several key characteristics of English-speaking countries (US, UK, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Ireland) compared to other advance countries:

1) The share of Anglo-Saxon countries in the top 100 richest is substantially higher for actresses, actors, singers and TV show and film producers than for other occupations (CEOs, businessmen, athletes etc.).

 

Figs. 1-2. Country shares (%) in the top 100 richest (net wealth) by occupation

Source: The Richest 2022. www.therichest.com. Non-US Anglo-Saxon = Australia, Canada, Ireland, New Zealand, United Kingdom.

 

2) The increase in the share of top incomes is significantly higher in Anglo-Saxon countries.

 

Fig. 3. Variation in the Income Share of the Top 0.01%, 1980-2015, 1980=100.

Source: WID. Adults. Pre-tax national income share. Other advanced countries: Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, Japan, Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland. The share is a non-weighted average.

 

3) The increase in inequality is greater in those countries, and this comes to a large extent from the substantial rise in top incomes.

 

About the Article

Hellier, J. (2025), Asymmetric cultural globalization, top performers’ income and inequality. Journal of Cultural Economics. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10824-025-09562-0

 

About the author

Joel Hellier is Professor Emeritus at the Universities of Nantes and Lille. He is a researcher at the LEM-CNRS (UMR 9221), University of Lille, France.

 

About the image

Albert Gleizes, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons