Should the arts receive public support? Can the arts survive in a modern capitalist society? Can economics shed light on the nature of public support, and whether there is a rationale for public intervention? This book undertakes to examine these questions as it explores the ways government and public resources are used to support the arts. This book applies a Veblenian approach to understanding economic development to investigate public support for the arts in an effort to determine whether this approach can elucidate economic rationales for public support. Divided into three parts, the first provides basic information on public support for the arts by surveying support in the United States and Australia. Part two includes a neoclassical overview of the topic while part three presents Veblen’s ideas on economic development. This book will be of interests to researchers concerned with cultural and institutional economics, as well as political economy.

Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and other statistics based on national income accounting are ubiquitous but rarely understood today. GDP has been criticized for many reasons, including not reflecting well-being, leaving out the costs of environmental pollution, and not counting unpaid work, but on purely economic terms it has been mostly accepted as an indicator of economic performance. In recent decades, however, GDP has diverged dramatically from economic trends such as employment and median income. This book argues that GDP is flawed even as a narrow economic indicator, and traces the problem to the way financial services are measured. The first part of the book is a political history of the practice of national accounting from its beginning in the mid-17th century to present day, and explores how such income estimates were constructed for political reasons. The Financialization of GDP presents the practice of estimating national income as a historically and political contingent craft - driven by power and not only theory - culminating in the rise of the financial sector and the concomitant inclusion of financial services in GDP in 1993.. The second part of the book focuses on the treatment of financial services in national accounting and develops an adjusted measure of output (Final Domestic Product or FDP) – which treats financial revenues as intermediate inputs (or costs) to the economy as a whole. The final part of the book explores the empirical and policy implications of treating finance as an overall cost to the economy. This volume shows that the Great Moderation of volatility was a statistical artefact; Okun’s Law (relating changes in output and unemployment) never died, and even provides early signs for the Great Recession which analysts using standard GDP did not see. This book is of great interest to those who study political economy and macroeconomics.

This collection is inspired by the coming retirement of Professor Wolfram Elsner. It presents cutting-edge economic research relevant to economic policies and policy-making, placing a strong focus on innovative perspectives. In a changing world that has been shaken by economic, social, financial, and ecological crises, it becomes increasingly clear that new approaches to economics are needed for both theoretical and empirical research; for applied economics as well as policy advice. At this point, it seems necessary to develop new methods, to reconsider theoretical foundations and especially to take into account the theoretical alternatives that have been advocated within the field of economics for many years. This collection seeks to accomplish this by including institutionalist, evolutionary, complexity, and other innovative perspectives. It thereby creates a unique selection of methodological and empirical approaches ranging from game theory to economic dynamics to empirical and historical-theoretical analyses. The interested reader will find careful reconsiderations of the historical development of institutional and evolutionary theories, enlightening theoretical contributions, interdisciplinary ideas, as well as insightful applications. The collection serves to highlight the common ground and the synergies between the various approaches and thereby to contribute to an emerging coherent framework of alternative theories in economics. This book is of interest to those who study political economy, economic theory and philosophy, as well as economic policy.

The world is in turmoil, the dynamics of political economy seem to have entered a phase where a ‘return to normal’ cannot be expected. Since the financial crisis, conventional economic theory has proven itself to be rather helpless and political decision makers have become suspicious about this type of economic consultancy. This book offers a different approach. It promises to describe political and economic dynamics as interwoven as they are in real life and it adds to that an evolutionary perspective. The latter allows for a long-run view, which makes it possible to discuss the emergence and exit of social institutions. Evolutionary Political Economy in Action consists of two parts. Part I provides a broad range of issues that show how flexible evolutionary political economy can handle acute policy problems in Europe: should Europe support the revived build-up of NATO forces on its Eastern border, or should it rather aim at economic cooperation with Russia? How can democracy for a whole continent be reasonably further developed; what is the role of economies of scope? Do the new protest movements against inequality provide alternatives? What could a vision for a unified, socioecological Europe look like? Part II takes a closer look at Cyprus and Greece, where the problems of the financial crisis have been exacerbated by the ‘solutions’ imposed on them by the troika. In all of these essays, the authors demonstrate the unique insights which can be garnered from adopting an evolutionary political economy approach and consider the real solutions that such an approach points towards. This volume is extremely useful for social scientists in the fields of economics, politics and sociology who are interested to learn what evolutionary political economy is, how it proceeds and what it can provide.

Recently, the issue of inequality has regained attention in economic and political debates. Although this interest is welcome, the debate is still mostly focused on income or wealth distribution, which is an important aspect but does not present a complete view of inequality. Most of the theoretical and empirical studies produced by economists concern personal income distribution or factor income distribution. This is more evident in the studies of the evolution and characteristics of contemporary capitalism and globalization. Varieties of Economic Inequality considers both theoretical perspectives and empirical evidence of aspects such as income, gender, race, technology, power, region, education and class. Ultimately, this text rejects the idea of supposed long run constant factor shares, the positive effects of inequality and the greater importance of absolute level of income compared to its unequal distribution, and instead reveals the structural inequalities that exist within societies. This book advocates a move away from the focusing on inequality at the level of the individual and suggests policy for eradicating these various forms of inequality. It is suitable for those who study political economy, social inequality as well as economic theory and philosophy.

Until the end of the early 1970s, from a history of economic thought perspective, the mainstream in economics was pluralist, but once neoclassical economics became totally dominant it claimed the mainstream as its own. Since then, alternative views and schools of economics increasingly became minorities in the discipline and were considered ‘heterodox’. This book is in honour of John Edward King who has an impressive publication record in the area of economic theory with specific interest in how economic thought in the past shapes current economic theory and enforces certain paths of economic policy and economic development. This book is divided into five themes based on King’s interests. The first theme looks at the challenge in trying to reclaim pluralism in economics. The second faces head-on the direct collision of mainstream economics with history of economic thought and heterodox economics. The third addresses classical economic ideas, their central influence in the past and how they can still primarily guide modern pluralist economics. The fourth examines Post Keynesian and Kaleckian economics with a view to providing a more coherent and extensive branch of heterodox economics. The final theme critiques the policy of neoliberalism that has entrenched itself in capitalist economies which have led to financial, industrial, labour, and behavioural/consumerist crises. This text aims to provide a clear path for pluralism to serve the economics discipline as its standard bearer, and to no longer be merely a heterodox challenge to the mainstream. This book is of interest to those who study history of economic thought, political economy and heterodox economics.

This second edition offers a comprehensive, up-to-date overview and analysis of cultural economics in the digital creative economy.

The 2001 second edition of this survey of the economics of - and public policy towards - the fine arts and performing arts covers arts at federal, state, and local levels in the United States as well as the international arts sector. The work will interest academic readers in the field and scholars of the sociology of the arts, as well as general readers seeking a systematic analysis of the arts. Theoretical concepts are developed from scratch so that readers with no background in economics can follow the argument. The authors look at the arts' historical growth and then examine consumption and production of the live performing arts and the fine arts, the functioning of arts markets, the financial problems of performing arts companies and museums, and the key role of public policy. A final chapter speculates about the future of art and culture in the United States.

Spanning the economics of fine arts, performing arts, and public policy, this is the long-awaited update of a classic.

Over the last 30 or 40 years a substantial literature has grown up in which the tools of economic theory and analysis have been applied to problems in the arts and culture. Economists who have surveyed the field generally locate the origins of contemporary cultural economics as being in 1966, the year of publication of the first major work in modern times dedicated specifically to the economics of the arts. It was a book by Baumol and Bowen which showed that economic analysis could illuminate the supply of and demand for artistic services, the contribution of the arts sector to the economy, and the role of public policy. Following the appearance of the Baumol and Bowen work, interest in the economics of the arts grew steadily, embracing areas such as demand for the arts, the economic functions of artists, the role of the nonprofit sector, and other areas. Cultural economics also expanded to include the cultural or entertainment industries (the media, movies, the publishing industry, popular music), as well as heritage and museum management, property right questions (in particular copyright) and the role of new communication technologies such as the internet. The field is therefore located at the crossroads of several disciplines: economics and management, but also art history, art philosophy, sociology and law. The Handbook is placed firmly in economics, but it also builds bridges across these various disciplines and will thus be of interest to researchers in all these different fields, as well as to those who are engaged in cultural policy issues and the role of culture in the development of our societies. *Presents an overview of the history of art markets *Addresses the value of art and consumer behavior toward acquiring art *Examines the effect of art on economies of developed and developing countries around the world