Moral Regulation and Cultural Production: Evidence from Hollywood
Prof. Ruixue Jia
Professor of Economics
School of Global Policy and Strategy UC San Diego
Moral regulation is widespread across societies, yet its consequences have seldom been examined empirically. We study the Hays Code (July 1934–1960s), which imposed systematic moral guidelines on American cinema. Using a regression-discontinuity design comparing U.S. and non-U.S. films during 1925–1955, we find that moral compliance rose sharply after 1935 and remained high for decades. The Code also reshaped protagonists and political tone: protagonists became less likely to be women or working class, and political tones grew more conservative. Filmmakers adapted both by increasing compliance within genres and by shifting across them: less-compliant Drama declined while more-compliant Western and Action rose. Companies with a larger market size and immigrant film directors exhibited stronger responses. These findings reveal how moral constraint, market, and identity jointly shape cultural production and how well-intentioned moral regulation can produce broad and often unintended spillovers.
