Moral rights protection for the visual arts

Beginning in 1979, certain states extended extra copyright protection, known as “moral rights” protection, to visual artists. Moral rights protection, which was incorporated into U.S. copyright law in 1990, ensures that works cannot be altered in a manner that would negatively impact the reputation of the artist. Using difference-in-differences regression strategies, we compare artists and non-artists in states with moral rights laws to those in states without these laws, before and after the laws are enacted. This enables us to test the impact of the laws on the behavior of artists, consumers, and policy makers. Our analysis reveals that the average artist’s income falls by around $4000 per year as a result of moral rights legislation, but we find no impact of the laws on artists’ choices of residence or on state-level public spending on the arts.     

Who is an artist? Heterogeneity and professionalism among visual artists

The purpose of this article was twofold. Firstly, to investigate the heterogeneity among artists as an occupational category and secondly, to define arts as a profession and thereby to make a distinction between professional artists and amateurs. Artists' income and working conditions have been the subject of several studies, and many different sampling criteria have been used. Scholars have not yet achieved consensus on who should be included in the profession. In this article, we make an innovative contribution to this conversation. By applying a finite mixture model, which combines latent profile and latent class analysis, we have been able to identify different segments of artists in terms of professionalism. Each of these mutually exclusive classes is characterized by a particular income and working situation. We also include a membership function, estimated through a logistic regression, which allows prediction of the probability that an individual will belong to each class, given his/her socioeconomic characteristics. The subject of our study is Danish visual artists. The dataset consists of a combination of register data from Statistics Denmark and data collected from a questionnaire survey with 892 respondents. Based on the artists’ civil registration numbers, the two sources have been merged into a unique dataset. Our finite mixture model shows the heterogeneity among artists. Combined with a theoretically definition of arts as a profession, our research propose a distinction between professional artists and amateurs that cuts across categories used in prior literature. The results can be beneficial to cultural policy.

     

Trust the artist versus trust the tale: performance implications of talent and self-marketing in folk music

Based on a unique dataset of artists that are active in the German market for folk music—the third largest music genre in terms of popularity and sales—I study what factors determine the artists’ success. Following Rosen (Am Econ Rev 71(5):845–858, 1981), I test if differences in artistic performance have a direct effect on financial rewards as regards physical and digital record sales (“direct superstar effect”). Following Adler (Handbook on the economics of art and culture. Elsevier, Amsterdam, 1985), I also study sales effects of a media presence of artists (“classical superstar effect”). Controlling for various contingency factors (e.g., record labels’ support, artists’ socio-demographics), I deal with an economic issue of general interest: Does it pay more to develop your skills in your core business to perfection or to maintain the current level of skills and invest in self-marketing; and do these effects apply to all folk artists alike? Rather contrary to studies on pop and rock genres, I find that higher ability increases artists’ revenues disproportionately, but simultaneously, openly competing for the recognition of one’s talent holds substantial economic risk. I also observe a positive effect of various types of media presence on financial rewards. However, these income determinants have different impacts on sales in physical versus in digital markets, and their effects vary across the success distribution from low- to top-selling artists as well.     

The happy artist: an empirical application of the work-preference model

The artistic labor market is marked by several adversities, such as low wages, above-average unemployment, and constrained underemployment. Nevertheless, it attracts many young people. The number of students exceeds the available jobs by far. A potential explanation for this puzzle is that artistic work might result in exceptionally high job satisfaction, a conjecture that has been mentioned at various times in the literature. We conduct the first direct empirical investigation into artists’ job satisfaction. The analysis is based on panel data from the German Socio-Economic Panel Survey. Artists on average are found to be considerably more satisfied with their work than non-artists, a finding that corroborates the conjectures in the literature. Differences in income, working hours, and personality cannot account for the observed difference in job satisfaction. Partially, but not fully, the higher job satisfaction can be attributed to the higher self-employment rate among artists. Suggestive evidence is found that superior “procedural” characteristics of artistic work, such as increased variety and on-the-job learning, contribute to the difference in job satisfaction.     

Impact of war on individual life-cycle creativity: tentative evidence in relation to composers

The relationship between conflict and individual life-cycle artistic output is ambiguous, both a priori and in terms of the evidence. To address this question in relation to composers, we employ a sample of 115 prominent classical composers born after 1800 and attempt to link their annual productivity with the incidence of wars. While the sample is small and the measure of creative productivity limited, we find evidence that the impact of wars on the timing of individual creative production is significant and negative, in keeping with the evidence on the impact of wars on overall societal creative output.     

Performing arts attendance in Taiwan: who and how often?

This paper uses the logistic regression model and the count data model to identify the determinants of the likelihood and frequency of attendance at performing arts events in Taiwan. Using data collected from a telephone survey, we find that education and income, being determinants of the likelihood of attendance, are not significant in determining frequency of attendance. On the other hand, whereas members of performing arts groups attend more frequently than non-members, holding a membership or not does not seem to affect the likelihood of attendance. Personal relationships with the performing arts industry make one more likely to attend as well as to attend more frequently. Those who more often watch or listen to performing arts programs through the media or pay more attention to performing arts-related information are also likely to participate in live events and participate frequently. Lastly, age dose matter. We further find evidence of both life cycle and human capital effects in performing arts attendance.     

Marketing and the Fine Arts – Inventory of a Controversial Relationship

This study concentrates in part on the market of fine arts. First, fine arts will be defined from a marketing point of view and peculiarities in the market of fine arts will be analysed empirically and theoretically. Certain aspects of marketing theory are discussed regarding their significance for the fine arts. Results of an empirical study of galleries and artists will be presented. It will be shown, whether and how artists are involved in marketing, how successful they are and what prerequisites to marketing the artists have.     

Evaluating the effects of direct support on the economic situation of artists

The paper deals with the relationship between direct public support for artists and the economic situation of artists. The empirical findings stem from a research project on the situation of artists in Finland. Some problems connected with obtaining relevant data on artists' economic situation are presented. The effects of direct financial support granted to individual artists on their income level and income discrepancies are illustrated with different patterns of impact. A brief presentation of the goals and measures of public policy towards artists in Finland is given, and the relationship with policy objectives and income effects of direct artists support is discussed. Two issues relevant for evaluating artist policy are raised: the need to account for the fundamental differences between art fields and artistic occupations, and the need to study the actual functions grant income has for the artists.     

Growth,accessibility and the distribution of arts activity in the United States: 1980 to 1990

Using data on the location of artists by state as a proxy for the location of artistic activity, this paper shows that from 1980 to 1990 the arts grew rapidly and became more dispersed, reversing a trend toward greater concentration during the 1970s. Accessibility increased as the ratio of artists to population rose in most states. Nevertheless, enormous inter-state variation in that ratio remains. The second part of the paper examines the determinants of artist location at the state level. The equations estimated for both years prove to have a high degree of explanatory power.This paper was presented at the 9th international conference of the Association for Cultural Economics, held in Boston, May 8–11, 1996.     

The auction market for artworks and their physical dimensions: Australia—1986 to 2009

Within a hedonic pricing model, the preferences of Australian art purchasers are investigated. Emphasis is placed on the impact of an artwork’s dimensions upon its auction price. A salient aspect of this is the first test of the ‘golden ratio’ hypothesis in a market situation. It is concluded that purchasers prefer paintings that deviate from the golden rule. The ‘orientation’ of works (portrait, landscape or square) as well as size also helps determine price. The impact of winning the Archibald portraiture prize (Australia’s foremost art prize) is found to have significant and positive impacts on winning artists’ prices. This suggests that purchasers are not fully informed. In addition, a previously unsuspected relationship between artwork dimensions and Archibald prize winners was found. As well as purchasers’ preferences, the artists’ choices of the dimensions of their artworks are considered.     

ART AS WORK

This paper uses empirical work on a piece of performance art to think through the relation between ‘work’ and ‘art’, and by implication, ‘culture’ and ‘economy’. Beginning with the idea that the intelligibility of both is produced through similar forms of rule following and rule breaking, I suggest that this throws into question the empirical and historical novelty of the idea of the creative worker. As institutionalists have argued, the work of art is produced through its relation to various organizations, just as work organizations rely on creative rule bending and elaboration. Examples of contemporary art are enrolled in the argument along the way in order to suggest that we can find many insights into the nature of work, culture and economy in comparing the practices of artists with the practices of workers.     

Investment in early American art: the impact of transaction costs and no-sales on returns

Art, along with other “treasure assets,” has become a central object for investment opportunities. Investment return studies using hedonic and resale price regressions on different artistic periods and styles produce estimates of varying rates of return, predominately low rates with high standard deviations. The present study employs a new sample of American art sold at auction between 1987 and 2011—art created before 1950 by 33 artists born prior to 1900. Our study, unlike those that preceded it, considers works that are no-sales (those “bought-in” for failing to sell at auction at or above a predetermined and negotiated minimum price), in addition to full transaction costs—buyers and sellers premia on hammer prices. We conclude that investment return calculations are biased upward and may be negative when these factors are considered and that the “consumption utility” of art may be higher than previously thought. However, using a variant of the capital asset pricing model, we find that investment in early American art may still be desirable in a diversified portfolio of assets for when the price of stock assets falls, the price of art does not fall in the same proportion.     

The Determinants of Artistic Innovation: Bringing in the Role of Organizations

This article deals with the determinants of artistic innovation by arts organizations. First, we define artistic innovation. Second, we review the literature on its determinants, identifying some gaps. In particular, we observe that existing research mostly focuses on macro-environmental factors and tends to ignore the role of the organizations themselves. Thus, drawing from the organizational literature on innovation we formulate testable propositions that relate organizational factors to artistic innovation. We hope that our focus on organizational factors contributes to a more comprehensive framework on the determinants of artistic innovation in particular and programming in general.     

An economic model of artistic behavior

Conclusion What we have accomplished is to provide a framework in which artists are seen as economic individuals who base decisions on the same set of factors as nonartists. We are uncomfortable with the notion that artists are a special breed who are not responsive to economic incentives. We are also uncomfortable with the notion that nonartists could never be artists. However, the model as presented does allow for the possibility that an artist will incorrectly estimate the worth of his or her works, and continue to pursue an artistic career. It also allows for the possibility that some nonartists may also make the wrong choice and pursue a nonartistic career instead of an artistic one.     

THE CREATIVE ASSEMBLAGE

This paper contributes to theorizing contemporary art collaborations in the context of the mediatory labour required of artists, and the complexity of the collaborative contexts in which aesthetic production is now enmeshed. In order to account for this complexity without reducing its analysis to ‘structured fields’ or ‘systems’, we use elements of assemblage theory in a quite specific way: drawing on DeLanda's work on social and organizational forms; and Law's ‘method assemblage’ to analyse the specificity of working interfaces that craft new boundaries and working relations. We develop a case study of C3West, an Australian initiative encompassing arts institutions, businesses, and communities. The analysis traces assemblage processes that generate dispersed working arrangements (partnerships, intersectoral, and interdisciplinary working interfaces) across apparently incommensurable domains, yet without forming overarching structures or requiring common rationales for cooperation. To demonstrate the work of assemblage, we discuss the practices of French artist Sylvie Blocher and the multidisciplinary collective, Campement Urbain, who employ aesthetic and performative means to forge new institutional practices and alliances for intervening in urban planning processes in regional Sydney.     

Age–price profiles for Canadian painters at auction

We conduct an empirical analysis of the effect on the auction price of a Canadian painting of the age of the painter at the time of creation of the painting. We consider over two hundred artists, active over the entire history of Canadian art, who are pooled in the estimation of a hedonic regression in which a polynomial function in age enters as a regressor along with several other control variables. We consider the possibility that the age–price relationship has changed over time by: (a) estimating separate age–price functions for three generational groups of artists—those born before 1880, between 1880 and 1920, and after 1920 and thus coming of age in the world of post-war ‘contemporary art’ and (b) estimating a parameterization where the shape of the age–price profile is permitted to change continuously depending on the year of birth of the artist. Our principal result is that artists born more recently tend to ‘peak’ earlier in their careers than those of previous generations.     

What Has the Visual Artist's Rights Act of 1990 Accomplished?

This paper presents an economic analysis of the Visual Artist's Rights Act of 1990 (VARA) which provides attribution and integrity rights, commonly called moral rights, for defined types of artistic works. The paper shows that these laws may actually harm artists by adding contracting and transaction costs in the art market. For most works, these costs will be trivial because collectors have a strong self-interest in preserving works in good condition. These costs are more likely to be significant, however, for works subject to destruction or alteration in the future, such as site-specific works and works installed in buildings, because purchasers will require waivers rather than risk violating the Act. The paper also examines the few cases that have been litigated under VARA. Consistent with the economic model, these cases involve large-scale works by relatively unknown artists that have been destroyed by building projects. Finally, the paper presents an empirical analysis of state moral rights laws. Nine states enacted these laws prior to VARA. These laws had no significant effect on artist earnings but a positive and significant effect on the number of artists living and working in the state.     

Specificities of the artistic cultural labor market in Brazilian metropolitan regions between 2002 and 2010

This paper analyzes the singularity of artistic cultural sector workers in the Brazilian metropolitan labor market, considering the job satisfaction of artists that Throsby proposes in his work preference model of artist behavior (1994). We also examine the effect of public expenditures on the income of workers in the cultural sector. Using 2002 to 2010 data from the Monthly Employment Survey (PME) and administrative records from Finance of Brazil (FINBRA), we estimate a probit model and a wage equation. In our model, we estimate wages as a function of: (1) sociodemographic characteristics of workers, (2) a variable for informal jobs, (3) the number of working hours, (4) a variable for the worker having another job, (5) per capita expenditures on culture interacted with a dummy for artistic cultural workers, (6) interactive binary variables involving place of residence and artistic cultural workers and (7) the predicted probability obtained by the probit model. This probability is estimated based on the likelihood of working in a creative activity, considering both workers from the cultural sector and other workers, controlled by: (1) sociodemographic characteristics of workers, (2) characteristics of their jobs, (3) dummies for the metropolitan regions and (4) willingness of creative workers to work additional hours interacted with the number of hours worked. Our results show that workers in the cultural sector are likely to work longer hours when compared to workers in other sectors. For our wage equation, the results suggest that women earn relatively less than men and blacks earn less than whites. Furthermore, earnings increase with age and the level of education. Formal workers obtain higher earnings when compared to informal ones. Finally, an increase in the per capita public expenditure on the cultural sector raises the income of workers in artistic cultural occupations.     

Can public arts education replace arts subsidization?

The debate about whether the arts should be supported or not is far from new, and most governments support the arts in one way or the other. The literature considers several arguments in favor of such interventions. Public education may seem to be an action which could, in the long run, lead to possible reductions of subsidies. Surveys show that those who have been exposed to the arts when young participate more when adult. However, the “non-market” transmission from parents to children generates an external effect, which has to be taken into account to reach first-best situations. We construct an overlapping generations model in which young consumers are exposed to both public education toward the arts and to non-altruistic transmission of such a taste from their parents. We show that the first-best can be reached only if there is both public cultural education and subsidization of arts consumption. Therefore, education cannot be considered as a substitute for subsidies to arts consumption. However, as is often the case in European countries, government intervention is usually below the first-best level. Using a model calibrated on French data, we show that it is then preferable to subsidize education, while consumption, especially of the older generations, should be taxed rather than subsidized.