Collective Memory, Cultural Transmission, and Investments
研究集体记忆作为文化传承机制的作用，分析社会外部性下个体文化投资决策如何受集体记忆影响，并探讨文化同质与异质社会中操纵记忆的福利效应。
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.