Testing the cultural capital reproduction theory in Colombia. Case of performing arts, concerts and cinema

Based on Bourdieu’s theory of social reproduction and intergenerational transfer of cultural capital, this paper aims to establish the causal effect of the head of household’s cultural participation on the cultural participation of the Colombian youth, specifically in theater, dance or opera, concerts and cinema, using data from the Cultural Consumption Survey 2014 and applying impact evaluation methods such as endogenous treatments, propensity score matching and inverse probability weighting. Results support the intergenerational transfer of cultural capital hypothesis in the sense that youths living in households where the head of household attends cultural activities are more likely to attend the same activities. In fact, we found that when the head of household attends events of performing arts, the probability of attendance of the youngs in the house increases between 34,92 % and 40,90 %; in the case of the concerts the effect is between 24,56 % and 25,85 % whereas for cinema is between 47,57 % and 48,96 %. These findings will allow to continue reducing the cultural participation gaps in Colombia. This is the first study to test the magnitude of this theory and empirically verify it in Latin America