Author: Globerman, Steven

Publication Year: 1979

Media Type: Book

Summary:

Paper presented at First International Conference on Arts and Economics, sponsored by the Association for Cultural Economics, held in Edinburgh, Scotland, August 8-10, 1979. Comment by William S. Hendon appears on p. 78-79.

Abstract:

Paper presented at First International Conference on Arts and Economics, sponsored by the Association for Cultural Economics, held in Edinburgh, Scotland, August 8-10, 1979. Comment by William S. Hendon appears on p. 78-79.

Some insight can be gained into the consequences of increasing or decreasing direct government funding of the performing arts by investigating the empirical relationship between funding patterns and various operating characteristics of arts organizations. The following empirical analysis focuses on aggregate data for individual art forms, as well as disaggregated data for samples of Canadian symphony orchestras. The analysis leads to the conclusion that certain cynical assessments of public funding of the arts may have validity, while others may be misplaced. Specifically, there is some basis for concern that government funding substitutes to some extent for other sources of revenue. However, public funding is associated with an increased number of arts performances and increased attendance. While increased expenditures per performance also appears to be a consequence of public funding, there is some indirect evidence which suggests that the composition of expenditures of groups receiving relatively large government subsidies does not differ dramatically from the expenditure pattern for less heavily subsidized groups.

Before I detail the empirical analysis, it is worthwhile considering some theoretical issues related to the presumptive effects of public subsidies to the arts, both to sharpen the focus of our inquiry and to identify some important topics for future study. (p. 68)

CONTENTS
Some theoretical considerations.
Empirical evidence on the effects of government funding.
Summary and conclusions.
Tables.
Notes.
References [bibliography].

Arts & Intersections:

Categories: International