Author: Blaug, Mark

Publication Year: 1975

Media Type: Book

Summary:

Abstract:

The application of economics to the arts teaches us almost as much about economics as about the arts. The tools and concepts which prove to be most fruitful are those which are acquired in any first year course in economic principles: the response of demand to variations in prices and incomes; the role of prices in rationing scarce supplies; the notion of substitution at the margin in both production and consumption; the distinction between fixed and variable costs, and between average and marginal costs; the idea of a preference function underlying all private and public decisions; the strengths and the weaknesses of Pareto optimality as the definition of efficiency and the problems created for applied welfare economics by such phenomena as externalities and public goods, etc. (p. 13-22)

Arts & Intersections:

Categories: Creative Economies