TY - JOUR
T1 - Do artists suffer from a cost-disease?
AU - Cowen, Tyler
AU - Grier, Robin
PY - 1996
Y1 - 1996
N2 - We consider the Baumol-Bowen cost-disease argument from the perspective of an artist's occupational choice. Both theory and evidence suggest that the incentives to create art do not diminish and probably increase in a growing market economy. First, countervailing factors may check or limit the operation of the cost-disease. Second, artists can increase their productivity by generating new ideas. New ideas provide the base for all productivity improvements, whether in the arts or in industry. Third, the arts are not necessarily labor-intensive, as cost-disease proponents allege. Fourth, the available statistical evidence implies that economic growth has favorable effects on artistic production.
AB - We consider the Baumol-Bowen cost-disease argument from the perspective of an artist's occupational choice. Both theory and evidence suggest that the incentives to create art do not diminish and probably increase in a growing market economy. First, countervailing factors may check or limit the operation of the cost-disease. Second, artists can increase their productivity by generating new ideas. New ideas provide the base for all productivity improvements, whether in the arts or in industry. Third, the arts are not necessarily labor-intensive, as cost-disease proponents allege. Fourth, the available statistical evidence implies that economic growth has favorable effects on artistic production.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=21344451827&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1177/104346396008001001
DO - 10.1177/104346396008001001
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:21344451827
SN - 1043-4631
VL - 8
SP - 5
EP - 24
JO - Rationality and Society
JF - Rationality and Society
IS - 1
ER -