Culture and Commerce

The cost aspects of supplying cultural goods and services have raised many basic questions concerning the economic activity of cultural institutions. There is more or less a consensus that the same criteria that apply to the cost aspects of any business also apply to cultural institutions. The nature of the products supplied and the stress on revenues earned are different. A key question to be asked by each society is how to balance the product mix offered by its cultural institutions taking into consideration both the societal valuation of the public goods provided and the earning potential of the institution. This essay examines some of the questions that occur at this intersection of culture and commerce.