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To put the ARTS & ECONOMICS next to each other, as in the title to this book, may be shocking to some readers. Must not creative art be free of economic constraints, must it not lead a life of its own? And is economics not the realm of mean commercial dealings? This book argues that it is not so: the ARTS & ECONOMICS go well together, indeed need each other. Without a sound economic base, art cannot exist, and without creativity the economy cannot flourish. There is a second way in which the Arts and Economics go together, namely in the sense of applying economic thinking to the arts. Over the last decades, this scholarly endeavor has been established under the name of 'The Economics of Art' or 'Cultural Economics'. But this may also sound revolting to some readers as it suggests an imperialistic extension of a lowly benefit-cost calculus to the world of art. This fear is unwarranted. On the contrary, cultural economists stress the social value of art and defend it against a crude business view of art. Rather than dismissing art without direct commercial profit, art economists seek ways and means of supporting it. This book is not a textbook summarizing the achievements attained by the economics of art. Such books already exist, among them the author’s own, Muses and Markets, Explorations in the Economics of Art, written jointly with Werner Pommerehne. VI Preface ARTS & ECONOMICS charters little known territories.
