Towards a European Market for Arts and Culture Goods: Some Proposals

Abstract

In a paper on an apparently unrelated question — supply of and demand for economists — Frey and Eichenberger (1992) discuss both the desirability and possibility of removing the obstacles to a truly integrated European market (an E market). They demonstrate that in most European countries higher education is supplied by state institutions, their personnel being really bureaucrats, and competition is hindered by strict nationwide regulations. As the two authors note:

America has one very large, uniform and competitive academic market [call it the A market], whereas Europe consists of a substantial number of countries, each of which essentially forms an academically closed and highly regulated market…. Because of its size, this market [that is, the A market] is (relatively) impersonal and provides a reliable indicator of an individual scholar’s quality: his or her journal publications and citations record. (Frey and Eichenberger, 1992)

A similar problem seems to be present in assigning a role to the market for arts and culture goods in general. I do not want here to pursue the analogy and differences between the European market for art and culture goods — let us call them AC goods — and the A market in the same sector. It suffices for the purpose of the present chapter to note that, in the AC goods market, the stock is much more important than the flow and that the problem of preserving it in the interests of present and future consumers is a peculiar problem which one does not find in such an area as scientific work. This is because neglect of these goods is a reversible choice, whereas this is not the case with AC goods.