In a famous experiment, Stanley Milgram showed in 1969 that, on the average, 6 links (therefore passing through 5 intermediates) were sufficient to connect two strangers in the United States. These six degrees of separation have been observed by other studies but also carrying on small samples....

Consumer sovereignty is taken to be the aim of policy by which the nature and form of public intervention is identified, both in order to influence the provision of and also the demand for cultural services. Such services are defined by enumeration and include creative arts, performing arts and...

The aim of this chapter is to analyze the economic properties and the institutions governing the start-up and evolution of cultural districts. Cultural districts are a good example of economic development based on localized firms and local culture. The first part of the chapter (Sections 1-2)...

The revolutionary growth in economic prosperity and technological change that underlie the "new economy" have profoundly affected the arts. They have evidently contributed new and previously unimaginable methods of dissemination and preservation. But they have even had revolutionary effects on...

Culture, defined as shared values and beliefs, can influence the performance of an economy in many ways. The culture of a group, whether national, regional or ethnic, may be regarded as a particular type of intangible public good. The chapter summarizes and critiques a positive theory of...

It is argued that human capital theory applies only weakly to artists' decisions about investment in schooling and training and about occupational choice. However, the same can be said about the sorting model. What is lacking in cultural economics is an understanding of talent and creativity,...

This chapter critically assesses, from an economic viewpoint, the role of the arts and culture in urban and regional development and growth. This includes the analysis of short run spending impacts, and longer term effects on location quality and creativity. In addition, the specific...

This chapter begins by noting that culture as an element in economic development in the Third World has been largely neglected in traditional development economics, most writers either seeing culture as an obstacle to development or ignoring it altogether. Recently a shift in thinking has...

No good comparable data on sizes of cultural sectors of the countries of Europe exist. Still, local and national governments of Europe spend substantial resources on culture and cultural sectors contribute significantly to employment and national income. After briefly describing special features...

This chapter considers economic issues and trends in the rock and roll industry, broadly defined. The analysis focuses on concert revenues, the main source of performers' income. Issues considered include: price measurement; concert price acceleration in the 1990s; the increased concentration of...