{"id":1861,"date":"2015-03-17T05:56:10","date_gmt":"2015-03-17T12:56:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/?p=1861"},"modified":"2015-03-17T05:56:10","modified_gmt":"2015-03-17T12:56:10","slug":"does-cultures-share-of-gdp-matter","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/2015\/03\/does-cultures-share-of-gdp-matter\/","title":{"rendered":"Does culture&#8217;s share of GDP matter?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/03\/Art-works.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-medium wp-image-1865\" src=\"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/03\/Art-works-300x168.jpg\" alt=\"what's your share?\" width=\"300\" height=\"168\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/03\/Art-works-300x168.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/03\/Art-works-360x200.jpg 360w, https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/03\/Art-works.jpg 730w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a>I don&#8217;t see how it does. Americans for the Arts sees it differently &#8211; writing about the recent Bureau of Economic Analysis accounts, <a href=\"http:\/\/blog.artsusa.org\/2015\/03\/11\/whats-measured-matters\/\">they write<\/a>:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>Much has been written about the truly mind-bending sum of $698.7 billion in industry expenditures\u2014a substantial contributor to the economy that supported 4.7 million jobs in 2012 and represented 4.32 percent of GDP.<\/p>\n<p>How big is $698.7 billion and 4.3 percent of GDP?<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<ul>\n<li>\n<blockquote><p>If the arts and culture in the U.S. was a state, its $698.7 billion would be larger than the Gross State Product for 45 out of 50 states.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<blockquote><p>Arts and culture\u2019s 4.3 percent of GDP in 2012 represented a larger share of the economy than Travel and Tourism (2.6 percent), Agriculture (1.2 percent), and Transportation (2.9 percent). Worth remembering is that transportation and agriculture have major federal agencies to ensure their stability and effectiveness, and are represented in the President\u2019s Cabinet.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>But let&#8217;s think about this.<\/p>\n<p>Start with agriculture. That it accounts for 1.2 percent of GDP is one of the great miracles of the past century of economic growth and technological change. That we can have such an abundance of food at such low cost is a wonder. As <a href=\"https:\/\/www.quandl.com\/c\/economics\/agriculture-share-of-gdp-by-country\">this chart <\/a>shows, in growing countries where people move off the land and into services and manufacturing, incomes rise and agriculture&#8217;s share of GDP falls. So we would not say agriculture is a troubled industry based on its low GDP share.<\/p>\n<p>Now consider health care. As <a href=\"http:\/\/kff.org\/health-costs\/issue-brief\/snapshots-health-care-spending-in-the-united-states-selected-oecd-countries\/\">this chart <\/a>shows (see especially exhibit 6), the US leads the world, by a long way, in terms of health care&#8217;s share of GDP, at 16 percent, with France coming in second place at a distant 11 percent of GDP. Is there anyone who believes this truly &#8216;mind-bending sum&#8217; represents success? In fact it is a policy priority of the US government to contain and reverse that figure, to bring it closer into line with other rich nations, who, for a much smaller proportion of GDP, obtain comparable, or better, health outcomes.<\/p>\n<p>So I don&#8217;t get awfully excited about culture representing 4.3 percent of US GDP, it is hard to see how that is either a positive or negative result. I expect it to increase &#8211; after all, that is the story of &#8216;cost disease&#8217; that every arts manager is familiar with. The measure of the cultural life of Americans lies elsewhere, in the degree of enjoyment we get from making and contemplating and taking joy in stories, sculptures and songs. How much we spend on it &#8211; which is what share-of-GDP measures &#8211; is not the point.<\/p>\n<p>Now I don&#8217;t get too worried about Americans for the Arts making a big deal out of these statistics. But I do worry about the National Endowment for the Arts getting on this track. In the <a href=\"http:\/\/blog.artsusa.org\/2015\/03\/11\/whats-measured-matters\/\">same piece<\/a>, they quote NEA Research Director Sunil Iyengar as saying:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p><em>\u201cIn 2015 and 2016 the NEA and BEA will pilot an effort to collect and report data on arts\/cultural production for as many states as possible, and to understand distinctive regional patterns shaping the arts\u2019 contribution to U.S. economic growth. Ultimately, we want to know not only what the numbers and trends are, but how the data can be used by state and regional policy-makers and arts practitioners to spur their local creative economies. It\u2019s doubtful that we\u2019ll get to such detail at the MSA level, but our exploration of the state data is a promising start.\u201d<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>But how does the BEA data aid policy-makers and arts practitioners to spur their local creative economies? I don&#8217;t understand this. There will be variations in share of state-level GDP across states, but there are no policy implications from that, no guide as to whether public spending through grants or tax credits or other policy tools ought to be increased (or decreased). Does it mean that the figures can be used in &#8216;advocacy&#8217;? Again, I don&#8217;t get it &#8211; how does share-of-GDP indicate anything about whether public spending on culture ought to rise?<\/p>\n<p>In <a href=\"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/2015\/01\/new-research-from-the-nea\/\">an earlier post<\/a> I criticized the NEA for moving to use the BEA reports &#8211; which are very useful in understanding economic trends, no doubt &#8211; in producing ill-considered &#8216;economic impact&#8217; estimates. And I am increasingly worried that the NEA is losing the plot regarding the point of this research. It is to better understand the sector; the estimates do not contribute to arts policy or funding. As they begin to use the BEA estimates in advocacy it throws into question the whole point of the research.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I don&#8217;t see how it does. Americans for the Arts sees it differently &#8211; writing about the recent Bureau of Economic Analysis accounts, they write: Much has been written about the truly mind-bending sum of $698.7 billion in industry expenditures\u2014a substantial contributor to the economy that supported 4.7 million jobs in 2012 and represented 4.32 [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":1865,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[26],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-1861","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-issues","8":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/03\/Art-works.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3dIW5-u1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":2849,"url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/2023\/03\/does-arts-share-of-gdp-matter\/","url_meta":{"origin":1861,"position":0},"title":"Does arts&#8217; share of GDP matter?","author":"Michael Rushton","date":"March 17, 2023","format":false,"excerpt":"In the US, in 1900, over 40 percent of the workforce was devoted to agriculture. Agriculture's share of GDP was 7.7 percent in 1930, 6.8 percent in 1945, 2.3 percent in 1970, and is less than 1 percent today, according to this study from the USDA. According to this study\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;issues&quot;","block_context":{"text":"issues","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/category\/issues\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/tomatoes.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/tomatoes.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/tomatoes.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/tomatoes.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":2160,"url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/2016\/12\/what-do-we-actually-mean-by-intrinsic-benefits\/","url_meta":{"origin":1861,"position":1},"title":"What do we actually mean by intrinsic benefits?","author":"Michael Rushton","date":"December 26, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"At Stanford Social Innovation Review, Ian David Moss has a thoughtful\u00a0blog post on whether there is coherence in the notion of separating intrinsic and instrumental benefits from the arts. He writes: One problem with the intrinsic vs. instrumental distinction is that it\u2019s something of a false dichotomy: Interrogate a dedicated\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;issues&quot;","block_context":{"text":"issues","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/category\/issues\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"No. 1 Durum","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/12\/silos.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/12\/silos.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/12\/silos.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/12\/silos.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":2962,"url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/2024\/02\/museums-are-not-like-highways\/","url_meta":{"origin":1861,"position":2},"title":"Museums are not like highways","author":"Michael Rushton","date":"February 14, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"In a New York Times op-ed, Laura Raicovich and Laura Hanna call for a generous increase in the way the government, in particular the federal government, funds arts institutions: As policymakers in Washington gather to draft a new budget for fiscal year 2025, they could solve culture\u2019s current financial crisis\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;issues&quot;","block_context":{"text":"issues","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/category\/issues\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/image.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/image.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/image.png?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/image.png?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/image.png?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/image.png?resize=1400%2C800&ssl=1 4x"},"classes":[]},{"id":2135,"url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/2016\/11\/why-its-time-to-completely-totally-finally-give-up-on-economic-impact-studies-in-the-arts\/","url_meta":{"origin":1861,"position":3},"title":"Why it&#8217;s time to completely, totally, finally give up on economic impact studies in the arts","author":"Michael Rushton","date":"November 12, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"This is my last attempt at this topic, based on some recent (friendly!) twitter conversations and questions. One. Let me start with some data. Here, from the US Bureau of Economic Analysis, are sector shares of GDP (i.e. the total value added from each sector) for recent years. If you\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;issues&quot;","block_context":{"text":"issues","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/category\/issues\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"no, I don't think it will really work","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/kill-projects-like-vampire.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/kill-projects-like-vampire.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/kill-projects-like-vampire.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":1129,"url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/2014\/03\/the-future-of-nonprofits\/","url_meta":{"origin":1861,"position":4},"title":"The future of nonprofits?","author":"Michael Rushton","date":"March 16, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"Commercial or nonprofit? In studying the cultural sector one of the key questions asked is why we see both kinds of firms in the arts, where nonprofits are more concentrated in some sub-sectors than in others, and I pose the question to my students: how does an entrepreneur choose the\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"zero marginal cost?","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/03\/teapot.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/03\/teapot.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/03\/teapot.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":2097,"url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/2016\/08\/about-that-italian-e500\/","url_meta":{"origin":1861,"position":5},"title":"About that Italian \u20ac500","author":"Michael Rushton","date":"August 23, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"The Italian government has announced that it will give all eighteen-year olds, on their birthday, a \u20ac500 voucher to spend on books, film, music or theatre. The Independent reports here, and The Atlantic here, which says: The initiative \u201creminds [youth] how important cultural consumption is, both for enriching yourself as\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;issues&quot;","block_context":{"text":"issues","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/category\/issues\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"I'm a boy and I'm a man","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/08\/eighteen.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1861","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1861"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1861\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1871,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1861\/revisions\/1871"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1865"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1861"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1861"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1861"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}