Journal of Cultural Economics 

About: Journal of Cultural Economics is an academic journal published by Springer Science+Business Media. The journal publishes majorly in the area(s): Cultural economics & The arts. It has an ISSN identifier of 0885-2545. Over the lifetime, 914 publications have been published receiving 23997 citations. The journal is also known as: jce.

Uncertainty in the Movie Industry: Does Star Power Reduce the Terror of the Box Office?

Abstract: Everyone knows that the movie business is risky. But how risky is it? Do strategies exist that reduce risk? We investigate these questions using a sample of over 2000 motion pictures. We discover that box-office revenues are asymptotically Pareto-distributed and have infinite variance. The mean is dominated by rare blockbuster movies that are located in the far right tail. There is no typical movie because box-office revenue outcomes do not converge to an average: revenues diverge over all scales. The studio model of risk management lacks a foundation in theory or evidence, and revenue forecasts have zero precision. Movies are complex products and the cascade of information among film-goers during the course of a film's run can evolve along so many paths that it is impossible to attribute the success of a movie to individual causal factors. The audience makes a movie a hit and no amount of “star power” or marketing can alter that. The real star is the movie.

Social network markets: a new definition of the creative industries

Abstract: We propose a new definition of the creative industries in terms of social network markets The extant definition of the creative industries is based on an industrial classification that proceeds in terms of the creative nature of inputs and the intellectual property nature of outputs We propose, instead, a new market-based definition in terms of the extent to which both demand and supply operate in complex social networks We review and critique the standard creative industries definitions and explain why we believe a market-based social network definition offers analytic advance We discuss some empirical, analytic and policy implications of this new definition

An empirical study of the determinants of revenues and marketing expenditures in the motion picture industry.

Abstract: This paper presents an empirical study of the determinants of a motion picture's financial success. Among the many factors which are included in this study, we find that quality and marketing expenditures are important determinants. Film ratings, production cost, and the presence of star performers are only important determinants when marketing is not included. We find that marketing expenditures are positively related to production costs, winning Academy Awards and the presence of major stars.

Determining the Value of Cultural Goods: How Much (or How Little) Does Contingent Valuation Tell Us?

Abstract: Contingent valuation methods (CVM) are now well established as a means of measuring the nonmarket demand for cultural goods and services. When combined with valuations provided through market processes (where relevant), an overall assessment of the economic value of cultural commodities can be obtained. Within a neoclassical framework, such assessments are thought to provide a complete picture of the value of cultural goods. But are there aspects of the value of cultural goods which are not fully captured, or not captured at all, within such a model? This paper argues that CVM provides an incomplete view of the nonmarket value of cultural goods, and that alternative measures need to be developed to provide a fuller account. of Sydney which sought to measure the community's willingness to pay (WTP) for the perceived public-good benefits of the arts. Around 825 respondents were questioned about the nature and extent of the nonmarket benefits they enjoyed from the existence of the subsidised arts in Australia - literature, visual arts, music, theatre, dance, etc. - and they were asked to nominate the dollar amounts they would be willing to pay out of their taxes to support the arts, under conditions of both liability and nonliability for actual payment. With appropriate caveats, we concluded from our research that aggregate WTP for the public-good benefits of the arts in Australia at that time exceeded the then-prevailing tax-price of cultural subsidy. What did we think we were measuring in this study and what did we actually measure? As far as the arts were concerned, our work was predicated on two princi- pal motivations, one theoretical and one practical. The theoretical drive came from a desire to test the longstanding proposition that the arts were a case of market failure. This hypothesis, first articulated in the 1960s (Baumol and Bowen, 1966; Peacock, 1969) and elaborated at length in our own book of 1979 (Throsby and

Contingent Valuation and Cultural Resources: A Meta-Analytic Review of the Literature

Abstract: Contingent valuation methodology (CVM) has been increasingly applied to cultural re- sources. CVM employs survey methods to gather stated preference information, which can be used to estimate economic values of various cultural resources and projects. Although popular in other fields, the application of CVM in the cultural arena is relatively recent. This article summarizes this growing body of empirical literature and its range of findings. A meta-analysis gives a statistical view of the "state of the art" of the literature. This preliminary analysis sheds light on the consistency and validity of the use of this method in cultural applications.