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Museums in Utility-Enhancing Consumption

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Museums in Utility-Enhancing Consumption
Ryan Charlie
New School for Social Research
Draft: 12/16/2013

II The Role of Museums in Utility-Enhancing Consumption and Relatedly an Empirical Study of Museums in the USA1

II.1 Introduction II.1.1 Introduction to Research and Method II.1.2 Introduction to Economics of Museums II.1.3 Consumption and “The Finer Things in Life” II.2 Relevant Issues in the Political Economy of Art Museums II.2.1 Tax Exemptions for Not-for-Profit Organizations II.2.2 Museums and The Market II.2.3 Is Art Really for the Rich and Should We Care? II.3 The Difficulty in Measuring Museum Performance II.4 Generational Equity and Art Museums II.4.1 Current-Generation Equity and Preference- Formation for Art as Welfare Enhancing II.4.2 The “Price Gap” for Art II.5 Survey Methodology and Results II.5.1 The “Top” Museums in the USA II.5.2 The Investment Rate for Current Generation Equity- Creation through Education II.5.3 On Museum Finance and the Great Recession II.6 Summary of Results II.6.1 Further Research Bibliography
Appendix: Notes on Data Methodology
Chapter 2
The Role of Museums in Welfare-Enhancing Consumption and Relatedly an Empirical Study of Museums in the USA

II.1 Introduction

II.1.1 Introduction to Research and Method

The theme of this essay is the economics of museums. There are two main related research subthemes forming the research question. The first is consumer theory and human flourishing. Tibor Scitovsky (1976 and 1988) writes that people consume too much for comfort and not enough for novelty, by which he means the finer arts, because there is the risk of



Bibliography: American Association of Museums. 2006. 2006 Museum Financial Information, edited and with commentary by Elizabeth E. Merritt. Washington, DC: American Association of Museums. American Association of Museums Anderson, Maxwell L. 2004. “Metrics of Success in Art Museums,” report commissioned by Getty Leadership Institute. Los Angeles: Getty Foundation. http://www.cgu.edu/pdffiles/gli/metrics.pdf The Art Newspaper Bailey, Stephan J. and Peter Falconer. 1998. “Charging for Admission to Museums and Galleries: A Framework for Analyzing the Impact on Access.” Journal of Cultural Economics 22(2-3): 167-177. Bennett, Oliver. 2004. “Review Essay: the Torn Halves of Cultural Policy Research.” International Journal of Cultural Policy 10(2): 237-248 Champarnaud, Luc, Victor Ginsburgh and Philippe Michel Currid, Elizabeth. 2007. The Warhol Economy: How Fashion, Art and Music Drive New York City. Princeton: Princeton University Press. Darnell, Adrian C. 1989. “Some Simple Analytics of Access and Revenue Targets (Museum Entrance Fees).” Journal of Cultural Economics 22(2-3): 189-196. Dutton, Denis. 2009. The Art Instinct: Beauty, Pleasure & Human Evolution. New York: Bloomsbury Press. The Foundation Center Frey, Bruno. 2003. Art & Economics: Analysis & Cultural Policy (2nd Edition). New York: Springer. Frey, Bruno and Stephan Meier Gee, Constance B. 2007. “Valuing the Arts on Their Own Terms? (Ceci N’est Pas Une Pipe).” Arts Education Policy Review 108(3): 3-12. Ginsburgh, Victor and David Throsby, eds. 2006. Handbook of the Economics of Art and Culture. Amsterdam: North Holland Goetzmann William N., Luc Renneboog and Christophe Spaenjers Grampp, William D. 1989. Pricing the priceless: Art, Artists and Economics. New York: Basil Books. Grampp, William D. 2007 [1996]. “A Colloquy about Art Museums; Economics Engages Museology,” in Towse, ed., Recent Developments in Cultural Economics. Cheltenham, UK and Northampton, MA: Edward Elgar. Gray, Charles M. 1998. “Hope for the Future? Early Exposure to the Arts and Adult Visits.” Journal of Cultural Economics 22(2-3): 87-98. Halle, David. 1993. Inside Culture: Art and Class in the American Home. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. Hesmondhalgh, David and Andrew C. Pratt. 2005. “Cultural Industries and Cultural Policy.” International Journal of Cultural Policy 11(1): 1-13. Hume, David. 1757. “Of the Standards of Taste.” http://www.mnstate.edu/gracyk/courses/phil%20of%20art/hume%20on%20taste.htm. Accessed 4/9/2010. Johnson, Peter S. 2003. “Museums,” in Towse, ed.: 315-320. Johnson, Peter S Jung, Carl G. and Marie-Louise von Franz, eds. 1964. Man and His Symbols. New York: Random House. Kenyon, Daphne and Adam Langley. 2011. “The Property Tax Exemption for Nonprofits and Revenue Implications for Cities.” http://www.urban.org/UploadedPDF/412460-Property-Tax-Exemption-Nonprofits.pdf Lévy-Garboua, Louis and Claude Montmarquette. 2003. “Demand,” in Towse, ed.: 177-189. Luksetich, William A and Mark D. Partridge. 1997. “Demand Functions for Museum Services.” Applied Economics 29: 1553-1559. McCain, Roger. 2006. “Defining Cultural and Artistic Goods,” in Ginsburgh and Throsby, eds.: 1047-1067. O’Hagan, John. 2003. “Tax Concessions,” in Towse, ed.: 451-457. Paulus, Odile. 2003. “Measuring Museum Performance: A Study of Museums in France and the United States.” International Journal of Arts Management 6(1): 50-63. Peacock, Alan T. and Christine Godfrey. 1976 [1974]. The Economics of Museums and Galleries,” in Blaug, ed., The Economics of the Arts. London: Martin Robinson & Company, 189-204. Pignataro, Giacomo. 2003. “Performance Indicators,” in Towse, ed.: 332-338. Plattner, Stuart Pogrebin, Robin. 2010. “Criticism Flies after State Eases Ban on Art Sales,” New York Times, October 5. Prommerehne, Werner W. and Lars P. Feld. 1997. “The Impact of Museum Purchase on the Auction Prices of Paintings.” Journal of Cultural Economics 21: 249-271. Rawls, John Schuster, J. Mark. 1998. “Neither Public or Private: The Hybridization of Museums.” Journal of Cultural Economics 22(2-3): 127-150. Scitovsky, Tibor. 1976. The Joyless Economy: An Inquiry into Human Satisfaction and Consumer Dissatisfaction. New York: Oxford University Press. Seaman, Bruce A. 2003. “Economic Impact of the Arts,” in Towse, ed.: XXXXX Smith, Thomas Taylor, K. 2011. “Deal Could Help Asian Art Museum in San Francisco Fend Off Bankruptcy,” New York Times, January 1 http://artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/01/11/deal-could-help-asian-art-museum-in-san-francisco-fend-off-bankruptcy/?_r=01. Throsby, David Throsby, David. 2003b. Economics and Culture (2nd Edition). Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. Throsby, David. 2010. The Economics of Cultural Policy. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. Throsby, David. 2011. “The Political Economy of Art: Ruskin and Contemporary Cultural Economics.” History of Political Economy 43(2): 275-294. Throsby, David and Withers, Glenn A. 1979. The Economics of the Performing Arts. London: Arnold. Towse, Ruth, ed. 2003. A Handbook of Cultural Economics. Cheltenham, UK and Northampton, MA: Edward Elgar. Towse, Ruth. 2003. “Introduction,” in Towse, ed.: XXXX

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