Author: Waits, C. Richard and McNertney, Edward M.

Publication Year: 1979

Media Type: Conference paper/presentation

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.

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 Louis H. Henry and Carl M. Colonna appears on p. 207. Comment by Clark C. Abt appears on p. 208-209.

This paper is concerned with uncertainty in the arts. Our focus is on the risk involved in investing one's time, effort, and funds in acquiring the skills necessary to become an artist. Our concern is that greater risk may reduce the flow of human resources toward artistic creation relative to other occupations. If this underallocation exists, then some form of government policy may be necessary to ensure an adequate supply of artists.

The need to study the role of uncertainty in the arts was pointed out in Understanding the Employment of Actors: An important issue to address is the effect of differential degrees of the contractual risk of an actor's willingness to supply labor. How does an actor compensate for increased risk of employment and income? (Ennis and Bonin 1977, p. 26). Their study did not seek to answer this question; they raised it as an indication of the need for further research in order to guide policy planning in the arts (p. 25) Before addressing this issue, one must first determine whether there is increased risk of income in the arts. (p, 200). ...there is a significant difference between the dispersion of incomes around the mean for artists and that for other professional occupations. ...greater risk is involved in choosing a career in the arts than in choosing other careers. This conclusion can be used in building an argument that human resources will be underallocated to this type of enterprise. (p. 206)

CONTENTS
Motivation for study.
Hypotheses and methodology.
Data analysis.
Policy implications.
Conclusions.
References [bibliography].

Arts & Intersections:

Categories: Creative Economies