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on Cultural Economics |
| By: | Orley Ashenfelter (Princeton University); Kathryn Graddy (Brandeis University) |
| Abstract: | The failure of many paintings to sell in art auctions indicates the presence of reserve prices set by sellers. This paper examines the relationship between sale rates and price surprises over time in art auctions. Using data on contemporary and impressionist art, we show that while sale rates appear to have little relationship to current prices, there exists a strong positive relationship of sale rates to unexpected aggregate price changes, which is reminiscent of a Phillips curve. As a result, sale rates provide a useful quantity indicator of the strength of the art market. The data also indicate that sale rates revert to normal very quickly following a price surprise. We estimate an empirical model that suggests that the reserve price is set on average at about 70% of the auctioneer’s low estimate as published in the auction catalog. |
| Keywords: | art, auctions, reserve prices, sale rates |
| JEL: | Z11 D12 D44 |
| Date: | 2011–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pri:cepsud:1294&r=cul |
| By: | Karol Jan Borowiecki (Department of Economics, Trinity College Dublin) |
| Abstract: | The relationship between conflict and artistic output is ambiguous. This paper proposes an explanation for the contradiction in research, which we term the war-art puzzle. We employ a global sample of 115 prominent classical composers born after 1800 and link their annual productivity with the incidence of wars. We construct age-productivity profiles and find that the impact of wars on creative production is markedly heterogeneous - composers’ productivity was significantly higher during defensive or victorious international wars and lower during intra-state conflicts, offensive or lost international wars. the long-run. |
| Keywords: | productivity, conflict, war, innovation, composer |
| JEL: | D24 D74 J24 F51 O31 N40 Z10 |
| Date: | 2011–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:tcd:tcduee:tep0711&r=cul |
| By: | Karlsson, Charlie (CESIS - Centre of Excellence for Science and Innovation Studies, Royal Institute of Technology) |
| Abstract: | An extensive amount of studies have been devoted to the importance of the creative process. Creativity is critical to research and in particular to innovation, a key feature of economic competitiveness. Most of the previous studies have dealt with the creativity of individuals, the creativity of teams and the importance of the organisational context. This chapter, however, emphasises the role of the characteristics of the local and regional economic milieu where the creative process takes place and the local and non-local networks of such milieus. Both the local ‘buzz’ related to interaction and learning opportunities, and non-local networks associated with integration of different milieus, offer special but different advantages for creative activities. The milieu will play an important role in creativity by supplying both a large number of incompatible ideas and good conditions for bringing them together in order to gain new, profound insights. Local accessibility, i.e. clustering, of incompatible ideas and the interregional accessibility to incompatible ideas in other regions are a function of the network characteristics of the local milieu. The purpose of this chapter is to explore the spatial concentration of creativity and the role of clustering and networks in stimulating creative regional economic milieus. One of the arguments of the chapter highlights how clustering of creative agents and creative processes in specific locations generates creative advantages that stimulate creativity and the in-migration of creative agents. Furthermore, the chapter stresses the idea that a better connected economic milieu to other economic milieus via networks transmitting new ideas, information knowledge, etc., will generate higher creative potential of that economic milieu. |
| Keywords: | creativity; creative process; clusters; artistic clusters; network theory; regional economics; local milieu; local and non-local interaction; innovation |
| JEL: | O31 R11 |
| Date: | 2010–10–28 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:cesisp:0235&r=cul |