Bargaining power and artists' resale dividends

This paper explores the implications of models of bargaining power for issues having to do with the droit de suite, a legal right of graphic artists to a share in capital gains when a work of art is resold by the first purchaser. It is found that, if both artists and art buyers are risk averse, a positive resale share will be the outcome of a bargaining process that is Pareto-optimal as between the bargainers. This does not depend on bargaining power but is a form of risk-sharing, and to the extent that art buyers are risk averse will be preferred to a zero shareby the buyers. Since resale royalties are not ordinarily a feature of art sale contracts in the absence of legislation, this appears anomalous, and the paper explores alternatives to the received bargaining theory such as might correspond better with casual empiricism.     

Royalties for Artists versus Royalties for Authors and Composers

Legislation creating or reinforcing resale royalties for visual artists retains substantial political popularity – particularly in the European Union – despite the often skeptical attitude toward those rights in the economics literature. In this essay, we probe more deeply the affirmative arguments that can be made for a resale royalty right, in either a mandatory or a discretionary form. We also compare the rationale for visual artists' resale royalties with the potential rationales for the now-well-established systems of royalty rights for authors and composers. This comparison has particular interest both because some of the principal arguments made against visual artists' resale royalties also apply to authors' royalties, and because the economic rationale for compensating authors with royalties has itself not been well explored. We also discuss briefly the related subject of display rights for visual artists. We conclude with some general implications for policy.     

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.     

The Moral Rights of Artists: Droit Moral ou Droit Pécuniaire?

An artist's moral rights consist of the right to be identified as the creator of a work (Attribution), the right to decide when and whether to publish the work (Disclosure), the right to withdraw a work from circulation (Withdrawal), and the right to preserve the integrity of the work (Integrity). As there are two main schools of thought on the monetary aspects of copyright, so are there two schools on moral rights. Canada embodies two legal traditions, and so provides an interesting case study of moral rights legislation. The main interests for economists studying moral rights are (i) the extent to which moral rights should be tied to monetary rights, and (ii) the extent to which moral rights should be alienable.     

On the construction of property rights in aesthetic ideas

The paper attempts to formulate concrete proposals for a change in laws of intellectual property, based on a communication-oriented theoretical analysis of the issue. The particular role of collection societies is investigated. The proposals arrived at suggest a strengthening of non-negotiable, non-hereditary authors' rights, and a refinancing fee collected for copies of works of art with classical status and distributed to members of currently active art circles.     

The Politics of Value in French Funeral Arrangements

This paper draws upon the history of the funeral market over two centuries to examine three major devices which have played a central role in the funeral economy, both in terms of defining the nature of the ‘goods’ and their attendant value but also in regulating the relations between the Pompes Funèbres and the other institutional actors involved. It highlights the ways in which these devices provide a ‘politics of value’ performing the articulation between the formatting of economic value and the pursuit of political concerns. First, observing the constitutional phase of the private industry, it examines the ‘system of the classes’ as a central device of managing dissonance between conflicting interests. Then, a historical jump leads us to half way through the twentieth century to the market infrastructure formed by the management of ‘care for the deceased’. As a third point, the exponential development of death insurance in recent years appears as an expression of rationalization of funeral arrangement. The analysis of the market devices will highlight an essential property, that is, the incorporation of a ‘calculation formula’ which set up both the profit sharing and the handling of moral and political issues.     

More Means Worse: Asymmetric Information, Spatial Displacement and Sustainable Heritage Tourism

This paper analyses the market transformation in heritage tourism destinations when excessive tourism demand determines the emergence of a class of excursionists among visitors. Building on the approach of Keane (1997) and Shapiro (1983), some important dimensions of sustainable tourism development are highlighted. The lesser capacity of excursionists to learn the true quality of the tourist goods provides an opportunity for producers to cut back on quality. To serve high quality goods and keep up the reputation of the destination, producers need to gain a mark-up on price that might not be sustained in a competitive market. Hence the decline in ``high-paying' demand segments, increasingly substituted by visitors with lesser quality expectations, has significant consequences on the use and preservation of the heritage. The proposed formulation allows the identification of appropriate policy instruments to reverse this process.     

How effective are international copyright conventions in the music industry?

The paper is concerned with the issue of whether international copyright legislation is effective in curbing audio software counterfeiting. The paper finds that copyright conventions have not been effective in reducing audio counterfeiting to comparatively low levels. This result holds even when allowances are made for the duration of copyright convention membership and the specificity of the articles of the convention. Economic development is found to be the main determinant of low counterfeit levels. This would tend to support anecdotal evidence which indicates that economic development is a necessary condition for the active recognition of audio property rights by the general public, judiciary and police. It is also consistent with a view that pirate audio software, being an inferior good, has a more buoyant market in less developed economies. From a policy perspective the research would seem to suggest that the extensive efforts and copious attention to detail by legal experts has made little impact on counterfeit activity and is secondary in importance to the socio-economic environment in which these laws are being applied.     

Implementing performing rights

The purpose of this contribution is to move the study of performing rights forward and away from discussion of matters of principle to matters of implementation. Our procedure is to identify the chronological steps which have to be taken by composers or their representatives in ensuring that their property right can be exploited, resulting in payment for performances. At each step we shall attempt to offer observations, based principally but by no means solely on UK experience, on both the economic and legal issues that arise. The first stage in the exploitation of copyright is to create a work in a discernible form. In music this has traditionally taken the form of a score. However, today most popular music will take the form of a taped performance. This is followed by critical discussion of the term of copyright protection and whether a monopoly is created in respect of performing rights. In addition to performing rights, account has also to be taken of performers' rights, raising issues of where copyright protection ends and performers' rights begin. The second stage of exploitation is publication, promotion and performance of the work, a matter so complex that it has necessitated the establishment of collective organisations of authors and publishers to be effective. Policy issues arise about the relations between the members of such organisationsinter se, and between the organisations and users, and these are illustrated by a number of examples from the history of the British Performing Right Society. Disputes led to the establishment of specialist tribunals in the UK and elsewhere, and there have also been investigations of collecting societies by the British and EC competition authorities. The global market for music means that such issues transcend national frontiers, and there is some discussion of how performing rights are enforced internationally. The paper concludes by identifying a number of major issues: whether or not collecting societies operate against the consumer interest (it is suggested, generally not); the extent to which serious music is or should be subsidised by diversion of the income of the collecting societies in its support; and the possible extension of collective copyright administration into other fields, against the background of ever-increasing cross-border activity in cultural matters generally.     

The moral economy of face: marketized gift and depoliticized solidarity in South Korea’s fair trade

ABSTRACT

Metaphors of ‘face’ are often found in South Korea’s fair trade activism, as fair trade is frequently described as ‘face-to-face commerce’ and its goal is presented as pursuing ‘global trade with a human face.’ By asking how and why fair trade relies on the metaphors of face, this article analyzes the political implications and limits of the trope. I first examine the intimate connection between gift-exchange and face based on Marcel Mauss’s analysis of the gift and I present face as a locus of symbolic recognition and politics. Next, drawing on ethnographic research into Beautiful Coffee, the largest fair trade organization in South Korea, I illuminate fair trade as a hybrid practice of ‘marketized gift-exchange’ in which the various faces of producers and consumers are produced and circulated along with market transactions. In examining the meanings of those faces, I maintain that the prevalent metaphor of face in fair trade betrays the contradictory nature of market-based solidarity that is sought through the activism to redefine the whole economic structure based on moral and ethical practices.     

Moral barriers between work/life balance policy and practice in academia

ABSTRACT

Despite the proliferation of work/life balance policies in Australian universities, academic staff continue to report experiences of time pressure, anxiety, and over-work. This paper contributes to the research of academic time and career planning by exploring how early career academics engage with work/life balance policies, utilising a critical reading of Richard Sennett’s work on the corrosion of character in late capitalist economies. We find that policy engagement is tied into academics’ professional identities and perceptions of ‘good’ conduct. Drawing on interviews from a sample of 25 Australian early career academics, we argue that the failure of early career academics to use formal work/life balance policies is partially explained by the presence of workplace cultures that reward demonstrations of commitment to work roles. The use of work/life balance policies hence carries a moral cost, which participants report reflects on their character. This paper contributes to an understanding of how work/life balance policies are enacted at the level of department and individual, and argues that future research projects would benefit from attending to the construction of worker ideals within workplace cultures.     

Toward a moral economy of money? Money as a creature of democracy

ABSTRACT

This paper proposes a novel approach for understanding money users’ relation to monetary governance institutions. It first describes the stakes involved in monetary governance from a neo-chartalist/MMT perspective. In a second step, it discusses existing contributions on the relation between money issuer and money users, highlighting the literatures on central bank legitimacy and the social construction of money. It argues that neither allows for an analysis of the relation between monetary institutions and money users that takes the latter’s knowledge seriously. It then argues that the concept of moral economy can enrich scholarly analysis. Moral economies of money are defined as collective practices in which money users articulate demands as part of an understanding of money as a public good. Finally, the paper deploys the moral economy of money perspective to reconstruct the changing relation between institutions of monetary governance and money users since the Great Depression in the U.S. It shows how New Dealers silenced a moral economy of money, discusses fragmented moral economies after World War II, and the partial reemergence of such moral economies after the Great Financial Crisis. The paper concludes by discussing political implications and suggestions for further research.     

Arts sponsorship and the state of the city

This paper explores the correlation between metropolitan social and economic conditions and corporate arts support in the United States. It is hypothesized that the transition from a manufacturing sector economy to an advanced service sector economy is an important local factor for the increase in corporate arts support.By panel analysis, in eleven metropolitan areas between 1977 and 1991 changes in corporate arts support have been correlated with changes in social and economic conditions, i.e., service sector and manufacturing sector employment, service sector and manufacturing sector income, population's educational attainment, and the degree of dominance by the leading local arts supporting industry.Corporate arts support is higher in metropolitan areas where the population is better educated (=+0.60), the local service sector generates more income (=+0.37) and the local manufacturing sector generates less income (=–0.22).Corporations from the manufacturing sector are mostly indifferent towards arts support. In contrast, corporations from the service sector are supportive of the local arts but they also respond swiftly to a loss in their earnings by discontinuing their arts support.     

Moral Economies in Science: From Ideal to Pragmatic

In the following pages we discuss three historical cases of moral economies in science: Drosophila genetics, late twentieth century American astronomy, and collaborations between American drug companies and medical scientists in the interwar years. An examination of the most striking differences and similarities between these examples, and the conflicts internal to them, reveals constitutive features of moral economies, and the ways in which they are formed, negotiated, and altered. We critically evaluate these three examples through the filters of rational choice, utility, and American pragmatism, using the latter to support the conclusion that there is no single vision of moral economies in science and no single theory—moral, political, social—that will explain them. These filters may not be the only means through which to evaluate the moral economies examined, but aspects of each appear prominent in all three cases. In addition, explanations for decisions are often given in the language of these theories, both at the macro (policy) level and at the local level of the moral economies we discuss. In light of such factors, the use of these frameworks seems justified. We begin with an attempt to define the nature of moral economies, then move to a consideration of scientific communities as moral communities operating within material and other constraints which we relate to wider questions of political economy and societal accountabilities.