Eve Colson-Sihra, Jose De Sousa, and Thierry Mayer. 2025. Replication Data for: "Tastes, Geography and Culture". Journal of Urban Economics.
Description
Does geography shape tastes? This paper investigates the geography of tastes using French household surveys from 1974 and 2005. We propose a two-step method: first, we estimate regional tastes using a structural demand system; then, we compute bilateral taste differences and link them to geographic distance. The 1974 results provide evidence of ‘gravity in taste’—that is, geographically closer regions have more similar food tastes. By 2005, this geographic pattern has largely disappeared. However, tastes are not homogenized. Regional diversity persists, with differences in taste determined by sociocultural similarity rather than geographic distance. *Programs and Data* We share the replication programs and data here. All details can be found in the readme file.
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Steps to reproduce
The steps to reproduce figures and tables are detailed in the readme file.