David Throsby

Determining the Value of Cultural Goods: How Much (or How Little) Does Contingent Valuation Tell Us?

Contingent valuation methods (CVM) are now well established as a means of measuring the nonmarket demand for cultural goods and services. When combined with valuations provided through market processes (where relevant), an overall assessment of the economic value of cultural commodities can be obtained. Within a neoclassical framework, such assessments are thought to provide a complete picture of the value of cultural goods. But are there aspects of the value of cultural goods which are not fully captured, or not captured at all, within such a model? This paper argues that CVM provides an incomplete view of the nonmarket value of cultural goods, and that alternative measures need to be developed to provide a fuller account.

The Economics of Cultural Policy

Cultural policy is changing. Traditionally, cultural policies have been concerned with providing fi nancial support for the arts, for cultural heritage and for institutions such as museums and galleries. In recent years, around the world, interest has grown in the creative industries as a source of innovation and economic dynamism. This book argues that an understanding of the nature of both the economic value and the cultural value created by the cultural sector is essential to good policy-making. The book is the fi rst comprehensive account of the application of economic theory and analysis to the broad fi eld of cultural policy. It deals with general principles of policy-making in the cultural arena as seen from an economic point of view, and goes on to examine a range of specifi c cultural policy areas, including the arts, heritage, the cultural industries, urban development, tourism, education, trade, cultural diversity, economic development, intellectual property and cultural statistics.

Culture, economics and sustainability

In this paper it is argued that systems analysis can provide a means of bringing economic and cultural systems together in a unified framework. It is then proposed that a link between economics and culture can be established through the concept of “culturally sustainable development”, definable in terms of a set of criteria relating to advancement of material and nonmaterial wellbeing, inter-and intra-generational equity, and recognition of interdependence. The paper suggests that conceptualising the interaction between the cultural and economic systems in these terms might provide a workable model for policy analysis.

The concentric circles model of the cultural industries

This paper examines the assumptions and structure of the concentric circles model of the cultural industries. Empirical data for Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the UK and the US are used to illustrate the models key characteristic: the proposition that the cultural content of the output of the cultural industries declines as one moves outwards from the core. The test uses the proportion of creative labour employed in production as a proxy for cultural content. The results confirm the models validity as a means of depicting the structural characteristics of the cultural industries and also enable some wider features of the cultural workforce in the five countries to be examined.

Modelling the cultural industries

Alternative definitions of the cultural industries lead to the construction of different models of the cultural production sector of the economy and hence to a different array of specific industries which are contained within the sector. In turn this implies not just differing estimates of the contribution of the cultural industries to output and employment in the economy but also significant differences in the way economic analysis can be applied to the cultural sector as a whole. This paper begins by discussing the way in which an economic approach to interpreting the scope of the creative and cultural industries can lead to a reasonable basis for defining them. It then goes on to examine the content of six distinct models of these industries, asking the question: is it possible to find a common core group of industries on which all of the models agree? The paper then considers the implications of the models for economic analysis of the cultural sector, and finishes with some conclusions for cultural policy.

A Work-Preference Model of Artist Behaviour

The theory of labour supply is predicated on the assumption that work is simply a means to income. Workers are assumed to have a positive preference for leisure time and a negative preference or disutility for time spent working. The standard model shows leisure (the obverse of work time) and income as normal goods with a convex preference system. Increased wages bring forth increases in work time in pursuit of higher income, though beyond a certain level increased wages might be taken as increased leisure time, maintaining income constant, leading to the possibility of the familiar backward-bending supply curve of labour.

Defining the artistic workforce: The Australian experience☆

Abstract The recent growth of interest in the cultural industries and their role in employment creation has focussed attention on the nature of the artistic labour force. This paper considers the definition and identification of cultural workers in the economy, with particular reference to the types of data needed for empirical research on artists. I begin by showing how the definition of the cultural industries affects the categorisation of artistic workers, and I distinguish between creative artists (or arts workers) and non-cultural workers in these industries. In the process of specifying who is an artist, the issue of professionalism is considered to be critical. The paper discusses data sources, emphasising problems of coordination between aggregate labour force statistics and special purpose data collections such as sample surveys. The issues raised in the paper are illustrated with reference to Australian experience in carrying out research on artistic populations.

Artists as Workers

Labour market economics has established a clear theoretical foundation for analysing the labour supply decisions of workers and for identifying the determinants of their incomes. Empirical testing of hypotheses in this area has indicated that for the majority of workers financial motives play an important if not dominant role in decision making. Labour economists have also had something to say about employment and earnings determinants amongst professional workers such as researchers, doctors, academics and artists, for whom nonpecuniary influences might be expected to be significant. Following the seminal work in this area in the 1930s and 1940s by Friedman and Kuznets (1945), a number of studies in various professions have suggested that if a distinction between “professional” and “other” workers is in fact valid, it is only one of degree, i.e. that both pecuniary and nonpecuniary factors influence all workers’ decisions, but with some differences in the relative importance of these factors between different groups of workers.

Seven Questions in the Economics of Cultural Heritage

The protection and conservation of cultural heritage, whether it is in the form of archaeological sites, artefacts, buildings, groups of buildings, works of art, or whatever else, has long been a matter that has lain beyond the reach or interest of economics. Decisions as to what should be characterized as heritage, how much of it is worth keeping, and how resources should be utilized in maintaining it, have been largely the province of experts: archaeologists, art historians, architects and others. Yet it need hardly be pointed out that such decisions have economic ramifications, and it is scarcely surprising that economists and policy analysts have begun to turn their attention to this field.

New technologies in cultural institutions: theory, evidence and policy implications

Publicly-funded cultural institutions such as theatre companies, symphony orchestras, museums, libraries and so on are increasingly engaging with new technologies as a means of improving their operational efficiency and extending the range of ways in which they pursue their cultural missions. For example, opera companies are broadcasting performances by satellite to cinemas, and art museums are using the Internet to show virtual exhibitions. These developments have implications for funding authorities who need to update their policy approaches to encompass a range of new technological phenomena. This paper provides a framework for assessing technological innovation in cultural institutions, and discusses the ramifications of such a framework for cultural policy. The paper is illustrated using the results of a recent research project that evaluated the UK National Theatre’s NT Live experiment and the Tate Gallery’s use of a web-based exhibition as strategies to expand their audience reach.