José De Sousa gave a presentation on September 10, 2020 at the KOF-ETH-UZH International Economic Policy Seminar in Zurich. He presented Market Integration and Cultural Homogenization in Consumption Patterns co-authored with Eve Colson-Sihra and Thierry Mayer.
Abstract: This paper examines the convergence of consumption patterns over time using detailed household surveys on food purchases in France for 1974 and 2005. We first document that geographically closer regions are more similar in their food tastes. Second, we find that tastes have become more homogeneous during those thirty years of deep market integration. Relying on a structural demand estimation, we show that food taste homogenization is not fully explained by changes in the economic environment. Moreover, we find evidence that taste homogenization strongly correlates with convergence in cultural traits.