Introduction to cultural and art economics

The economic basis of cultural institutions has become more than ever a public problem: Increased efforts are needed to avoid cultural loss when art, artists and cultural institutions increasingly fall directly or indirectly under the dictates of the market. On the other hand, a sensible organization of market relations, which is determined by respect for the intrinsic importance of culture, can open up conceivable ways of escaping state paternalism and yet not buckling before commerce. It is a matter of counteracting cultural policy and helping to shape the signals of the coming change culturally. The prerequisite for this is a deeper understanding of the interrelationships between culture and business. The book offers approaches and suggestions from the perspective of cultural economics, which unite the orthodox economic doctrine of neo-classicism with that of cultural economics.