Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of figures and tables
- Preface
- Part I The arts sector: Size, growth, and audiences
- Part II The microeconomics of demand and supply
- 4 Consumer demand: An introduction
- 5 The characteristics of arts demand and their policy implications
- 6 Production in the performing arts
- 7 Firms and markets in the performing arts
- 8 Productivity lag and the financial problem of the arts
- Part III The fine arts and museums
- Part IV Public policy toward the arts
- Part V Art, economy, and society
- Index
6 - Production in the performing arts
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 September 2012
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of figures and tables
- Preface
- Part I The arts sector: Size, growth, and audiences
- Part II The microeconomics of demand and supply
- 4 Consumer demand: An introduction
- 5 The characteristics of arts demand and their policy implications
- 6 Production in the performing arts
- 7 Firms and markets in the performing arts
- 8 Productivity lag and the financial problem of the arts
- Part III The fine arts and museums
- Part IV Public policy toward the arts
- Part V Art, economy, and society
- Index
Summary
Chapters 3, 4, and 5 dealt with audiences for the arts and with the measurement and analysis of the economic demand those audiences generate in their role as arts consumers. The concept of supply was introduced in summary fashion in Chapter 4 to show how supply and demand interact in the market to yield the prices paid by consumers. We now take a closer look at the supply side. The technical process of production in the performing arts is examined in this chapter. In Chapter 7 we analyze the way in which the performing arts firm finds the optimum price-output combination by bringing together information on market demand and on its own production costs. Production and supply are organized very differently in the visual arts than in the performing arts and so are treated below in Chapter 9.
THE MEASUREMENT OF OUTPUT
In analyzing the economics of production, economists have conventionally chosen their examples from agriculture or manufacturing, probably because the measurement of output in those industries is relatively straightforward. A farm produces bushels of wheat or gallons of milk. A factory turns out yards of cloth, tons of steel, or cases of beer. In the service industries, including the arts, it is typically much harder to measure output. First, it may be difficult even to define satisfactory quantitative units. How do you measure the output of a bank or a police department or an art museum? Second, in the service industries a quality dimension may be important, and yet even harder to identify than quantity.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- The Economics of Art and Culture , pp. 107 - 115Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2001