An Economic Theory of Avant-Garde and Popular Art, or High and Low Culture

Tyler Cowen and Alexander Tabarrok ()

Southern Economic Journal, 2000, vol. 67, issue 2, pages 232-253

Abstract: Artists face choices between the pecuniary benefits of selling to the market and the nonpecuniary benefits of creating to please their own tastes. We examine how changes in wages, lump-sum income, and capital-labor ratios affect the artist’s pursuit of self-satisfaction versus market sales. Using our model of labor supply, we consider the economic forces behind the high/low culture split, why some artistic media offer greater scope for the avant-garde than others, why so many artists dislike the market, and how economic growth and taxation affect the quantity and form of different kinds of art.

Date: 2000
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Persistent link: http://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:sej:ancoec:v:67:2:y:2000:p:232-253

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