In this second edition of The Economics of Art and Culture the authors have retained the structure of the first edition while broadening its scope to cover arts activity in Western Europe, Canada, and Australia as well as in the United States. They have also incorporated the latest available information into the text, tables, and footnotes. Thus the book's contents are thoroughly up-to-date.

Although U.S. economists have been writing about the economics of art and culture since the mid-1960s, this is the first work to cover not only key segments of the fine arts and the performing arts, but also public policy toward the arts at the federal, state, and local levels. It is thus the first attempt at a comprehensive survey of the subject.

The authors have planned the level and scope of the book to meet the requirements of two groups of readers: first, an academic audience for whom the book can serve as the principal text in a course on the economics of the arts or on arts management, or as a supplementary text in a course dealing with the sociology or politics of the arts; second, those general readers who are ready for a systematic analysis of the economics and the political economy of the arts in the United States.

The book is divided into five parts. Part I, consisting of Chapters 1, 2, and 3, serves as a general introduction, suitable for both the academic and the general reader.