Author: Cwi, David

Publication Year: 1981

Media Type: Book

Summary:

Abstract:

[The author] examines the economics of art and culture and reexamines the traditional economic arguments made on behalf of arts support. First, he discusses the finances of the arts, especially the patterns of expenditures, income, and existing labor-intensive employment patterns. He then presents the arguments for public support of culture; the failure of the market-place, arts as a merit good, and the beneficial economic impact of the arts for communities. [He] argues that the use of such economic reasoning is not dispassionate analysis but rather advocacy. These economic rationales, he argues, present the arts as socially desirable, susceptible to market failure, and thus deserving of support. (General introduction, p. 3)

CONTENTS
The arts as merit goods.
The ambiguity of merit goods.
Market failure and the U.S. arts industry.
Growth in activity.
Finances.
Commercial vs. non-profit activities.
Is there market failure?
The Baumol-Bowen thesis.
The organizational climate of the non-profit arts.
Public externalities.
Concluding policy observations.

Arts & Intersections:

Categories: Fundraising