Chapter 29 The Economics of Museums

Abstract Museums fulfill many important functions in the art world and visits to museums are becoming an important leisure and holiday activity. This chapter surveys research about the functioning of museums from an economic point of view. Museum services are shaped by demand and supply factors and by the institutional setting constraining the decision makers in a museum. This chapter argues that the institutional factors, e.g., whether a museum is private or public, influence greatly how the museum is run with respect to the management of the collection, price setting, or the focus on commercial activities. Two current trends, the evolution of superstar museums and the growing importance of special exhibitions, are analysed from an economic point of view.

[1]  Faye Steiner.  Optimal Pricing of Museum Admission , 1997 .

[2]  Bruno S. Frey,et al.  Economics As A Science Of Human Behaviour , 1992 .

[3]  David Maddison,et al.  Valuing congestion costs in the British Museum , 2001 .

[4]  Lars P. Feld,et al.  The Impact of Museum Purchase on the Auction Prices of Paintings , 1997 .

[5]  Mark Blaug.  The Economics of the arts , 1976 .

[6]  A. Peacock.  Paying the Piper: Culture, Music, and Money , 1994 .

[7]  J. O’Hagan.  The Wexford Opera Festival: A Case for Public Funding? , 1992 .

[8]  E. Smolensky.  Municipal Financing of the U.S. Fine Arts Museum: A Historical Rationale , 1986, The Journal of Economic History.

[9]  Beatriz Plaza.  The Guggenheim-Bilbao Museum Effect: A Reply to María V. Gomez''Reflective Images: The Case of Urban Regeneration in Glasgow and Bilbao' , 1999 .

[10]  J. Montias.  Are museums betraying the public's trust? , 1995 .

[11]  B. Weisbrod,et al.  To Profit or Not to Profit: Interdependence of commercial and donative revenues , 1998 .

[12]  Douglas S. Noonan.  Contingent Valuation Studies in the Arts and Culture: An Annotated Bibliography , 2003 .

[13]  W. Luksetich,et al.  Cost functions for symphony orchestras , 1985 .

[14]  Richard E. Caves,et al.  Book Review , 2001 .

[15]  J. H. Gapinski.  The Economics of Performing Shakespeare , 1984 .

[16]  V. Ginsburgh,et al.  Defining a museum: suggestions for an alternative approach , 1997 .

[17]  Bruno S. Frey,et al.  CULTURAL ECONOMICS AND MUSEUM BEHAVIOUR , 1994 .

[18]  María V. Gómez,et al.  A Reply to Beatriz Plaza’s ‘The Guggenheim‐Bilbao Museum Effect’ , 2001 .

[19]  Kenneth J. Arrow,et al.  To profit or not to profit : the commercial transformation of the nonprofit sector , 1998 .

[20]  P. Bourdieu.  La distinctíon: Critique sociale du jugement , 1980 .

[21]  J. O’Hagan.  Art Museums: Collections, Deaccessioning and Donations , 1998 .

[22]  P. Temin.  An Economic History of American Art Museums , 1991 .

[23]  M. Blaug.  Where Are We Now On Cultural Economics , 2001 .

[24]  John Ashworth,et al.  Sources of “value for money” for museum visitors: Some survey evidence , 1996 .

[25]  S. Weil,et al.  Making Museums Matter , 2002 .

[26]  D. Getz.  Special events: defining the product. , 1989 .

[27]  Jennifer L. White.  When It's OK to Sell the Monet: A Trustee-Fiduciary-Duty Framework for Analyzing the Deaccessioning of Art to Meet Museum Operating Expenses , 1996 .

[28]  S. Globerman,et al.  Statistical Cost Functions for Performing Arts Organizations , 1974 .

[29]  María V. Gómez.  Reflective images: the case of urban regeneration in Glasgow and Bilbao , 1998 .

[30]  H. Hansmann,et al.  Nonprofit Enterprise in the Performing Arts , 1981 .

[31]  Does Governance Matter? The Case of Art Museums , 2003 .

[32]  John W. O'hagan,et al.  National museums: To charge or not to charge? , 1995 .

[33]  H. Klein,et al.  Der gläserne Besucher : Publikumsstrukturen einer Museumslandschaft , 1990 .

[34]  E. Glaeser.  The Governance of Not-for-Profit Firms , 2002 .

[35]  Paul DiMaggio,et al.  Cultural Democracy in a Period of Cultural Expansion: The Social Composition of Arts Audiences in the United States , 1978 .

[36]  P. Boorsma,et al.  Privatization and Culture. Experiences in the Arts, Heritage and Cultural Industries in Europe , 1998 .

[37]  S. Rosen.  The Economics of Superstars , 1981 .

[38]  G. Becker,et al.  The Economic Approach to Human Behavior , 1978 .

[39]  J. H. Gapinski.  The Lively Arts as Substitutes for the Lively Arts , 1986 .

[40]  Luca Zan.  Management and the British Museum , 2000 .

[41]  Paul DiMaggio.  Nonprofit Enterprise in the Arts: Studies in Mission and Constraint. , 1989 .

[42]  R. Towse.  Cultural Economics: The Arts, the Heritage and the Media Industries , 1997 .

[43]  E James,et al.  How nonprofits grow: a model. , 1983, Journal of policy analysis and management : [the journal of the Association for Public Policy Analysis and Management].

[44]  Bruno S. Frey,et al.  Superstar Museums: An Economic Analysis , 1998 .

[45]  Michael Belcher.  Exhibitions in Museums , 1992 .

[46]  Peter Johnson,et al.  The Economics of Museums: A Research Perspective , 1998 .

[47]  D. Throsby.  The Production and Consumption of the Arts: A View of Cultural Economics , 1994 .

[48]  Victor Ginsburgh,et al.  Sharing the Income of a Museum Pass Program , 2001 .

[49]  W. Baumol,et al.  Baumol's cost disease: the arts and other victims. , 1997 .

[50]  D. Netzer,et al.  The State and the Arts: An Analysis of Key Economic Policy Issues in Europe and the United States , 1999 .

[51]  W. Grampp.  Pricing the priceless : art, artists, and economics , 1989 .

[52]  Robert C. Blattberg,et al.  Marketing of Art Museums , 1991 .

[53]  David C. Ribar,et al.  Altruistic and Joy‐of‐Giving Motivations in Charitable Behavior , 2002, Journal of Political Economy.

[54]  Lionel Robbins.  Unsettled questions in the political economy of the arts , 1994 .

[55]  F. Martin.  Determining the size of museum subsidies , 1994 .

[56]  H. Read,et al.  Art and Society , 1937 .

[57]  G. Kirchgässner.  Homo oeconomicus : das ökonomische Modell individuellen Verhaltens und seine Anwendung in den Wirtschafts- und Sozialwissenschaften , 1991 .

[58]  James Heilbrun,et al.  The Economics of Art and Culture , 2002 .

[59]  Walter Santagata.  Cultural Districts, Property Rights and Sustainable Economic Growth , 2002 .

[60]  Ray Jackson,et al.  A museum cost function , 1988 .

[61]  D. Marburger.  Optimal ticket pricing for performance goods , 1997 .

[62]  Avner Ben-Ner,et al.  The Nonprofit Economy. , 1985 .

[63]  A. Peacock.  Welfare economics and public subsidies to the Arts , 1994 .

[64]  William A. Luksetich,et al.  Demand functions for museum services , 1997 .

[65]  Unbalanced Growth and the Demand for Performing Arts: An Econometric Analysis , 1980 .

[66]  Isabelle Vautravers-Busenhart.  Special Exhibitions and Festivals: Culture’s Booming Path to Glory , 2003 .

[67]  William T. Harbaugh.  What do donations buy?: A model of philanthropy based on prestige and warm glow , 1998 .

[68]  Françoise Benhamou,et al.  L'économie de la culture , 2004 .

[69]  B. Frey,et al.  PRIVATE FACES IN PUBLIC PLACES:THE CASE OF A PRIVATE ART MUSEUM IN EUROPE , 2003 .

[70]  C. M. Gray.  Hope for the Future? Early Exposure to the Arts and Adult Visits to Art Museums , 1998 .

[71]  David Lucking-Reiley,et al.  The Effects of Seed Money and Refunds on Charitable Giving: Experimental Evidence from a University Capital Campaign , 2002, Journal of Political Economy.

[72]  Glenn R. Carroll,et al.  Organizations in industry : strategy, structure, and selection , 1995 .

[73]  Amihai Glazer,et al.  A Signaling Explanation for Charity , 1996 .

[74]  Bruno S. Frey,et al.  Muses and Markets: Explorations in the Economics of the Arts , 1989 .

[75]  H. Anheier,et al.  To Profit or Not to Profit: Commerce and the muse: Are art museums becoming commercial? , 1998 .

[76]  R. Thaler.  Toward a positive theory of consumer choice , 1980 .

[77]  T. Cowen.  Why I do not believe in the cost-disease , 1996 .

[78]  Martin Feldstein.  The Economics of Art Museums , 1991 .

[79]  François Mairesse,et al.  Museum Assessment and FDH Technology: Towards a Global Approach , 2002 .

[80]  Burton A. Weisbrod,et al.  Modeling the nonprofit organization as a multiproduct firm: A framework for choice , 1998 .

[81]  B. Weisbrod.  The Voluntary Nonprofit Sector: An Economic Analysis , 1977 .

[82]  Barry Lord,et al.  The Cost of collecting: collection management in UK museums ; a report commissioned by the Office of Arts and Libraries , 1989 .

[83]  R. Filer.  The "Starving Artist"--Myth or Reality? Earnings of Artists in the United States , 1986, Journal of Political Economy.

[84]  William G. Bowen,et al.  Performing Arts: The Economic Dilemma , 1967 .

[85]  Susan Rose-Ackerman,et al.  Altruism, Nonprofits, and Economic Theory , 1996 .

[86]  Peter Johnson,et al.  Choice and Demand in Tourism , 1993 .

[87]  Victor Ginsburgh,et al.  Economics of the arts : selected essays , 1996 .

[88]  J. Blau,et al.  Art and society : readings in the sociology of the arts , 1990 .

[89]  H. Ursprung,et al.  La Donna e Mobile – or is She? Voter Preferences and Public Support for the Performing Arts , 2000 .

[90]  Victor Ginsburgh,et al.  The museum pass game and its value , 2003, Games Econ. Behav..

[91]  Jack Hirshleifer,et al.  The Expanding Domain of Economics , 1985 .

[92]  Richard N. Rosett.  Art Museums in the United States: A Financial Portrait , 1991 .

[93]  D. E. Clark,et al.  THE SOCIAL BENEFITS OF URBAN CULTURAL AMENITIES , 1988 .

[94]  J. Schuster,et al.  Neither Public Nor Private: The Hybridization of Museums , 1998 .

[95]  Optimal pricing and grant policies for museums , 2006 .

[96]  B. Weisbrod,et al.  COMPETITION BETWEEN FOR‐PROFIT AND NONPROFIT ORGANIZATIONS IN COMMERCIAL MARKETS , 1991 .