{"id":2849,"date":"2023-03-17T07:02:38","date_gmt":"2023-03-17T14:02:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/?p=2849"},"modified":"2023-03-17T07:02:41","modified_gmt":"2023-03-17T14:02:41","slug":"does-arts-share-of-gdp-matter","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/2023\/03\/does-arts-share-of-gdp-matter\/","title":{"rendered":"Does arts’ share of GDP matter?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

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<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to this study from Peterson-KFF<\/a>, health care in the US, as a percentage of GDP, has risen from around 7 percent in 1970, to 13.3 percent in 2000, to 18.3 percent in 2021.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

These numbers are certainly interesting in gaining an understanding of economic trends. Baumol and Bowen’s theory of cost disease carries at least some of the explanation – agriculture is amenable to labor-saving technological change in ways that much of health care (and the arts) are not.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But can we judge the success or failure of these sectors by their share of GDP<\/em>? Would we say that over the past five decades American agriculture has fared poorly whilst the health care sector is an unparalleled success?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This week new stats were released on the creative sector’s share of US GDP for 2021 – you can listen to or read an interview with our friend Sunil Iyengar from the National Endowment for the Arts, about the newly-released stats, here<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The numbers are worth looking at, in terms of short run patterns of adjustment during Covid, and in trying to gain an understanding of long run trends in income and in employment. All cultural sector researchers should be grateful for this partnership between the NEA and the Bureau of Economic Analysis.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But care must be taken in the interpretation of the numbers. What constitutes “good news” and “bad news” in aggregate cultural sector statistics misses changes that we would expect to occur in any case owing to technological change, and misses the larger point, understood since Adam Smith, that the point of production in any sector is the benefits we gain from consumption, and not the generation of employment. That we have an abundance of food produced by a very small number of people is not a bad thing…<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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 from Peterson-KFF, health care in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":2850,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","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-2849","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\/2023\/03\/tomatoes.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3dIW5-JX","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":1861,"url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/2015\/03\/does-cultures-share-of-gdp-matter\/","url_meta":{"origin":2849,"position":0},"title":"Does culture’s share of GDP matter?","author":"Michael Rushton","date":"March 17, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"I don't see how it does. Americans for the Arts sees it differently - 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\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "issues"","block_context":{"text":"issues","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/category\/issues\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"what's your share?","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/03\/Art-works.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/03\/Art-works.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/03\/Art-works.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/03\/Art-works.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":1129,"url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/2014\/03\/the-future-of-nonprofits\/","url_meta":{"origin":2849,"position":1},"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":1222,"url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/2014\/04\/at-the-record-store\/","url_meta":{"origin":2849,"position":2},"title":"At the record store","author":"Michael Rushton","date":"April 15, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"I used to love going to record stores when I was a teenager. I couldn't buy much - a back-of-the-envelope calculation tells me it would have taken me 3 or 4 hours of work at my Saturday job at the Oasis Car Wash (it's still there!) to afford one LP\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "issues"","block_context":{"text":"issues","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/category\/issues\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"I just called to say I love you","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/04\/jack-black-high-fidelity.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/04\/jack-black-high-fidelity.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/04\/jack-black-high-fidelity.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/04\/jack-black-high-fidelity.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":1641,"url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/2014\/10\/what-do-college-students-in-the-arts-do-after-graduation\/","url_meta":{"origin":2849,"position":3},"title":"What do college students in the arts do after graduation? (updated)","author":"Michael Rushton","date":"October 20, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"They get to use what they have learned in college?: Among ... respondents\u00a0employed at the time they completed the survey, 64% of recent grads and 69% of prior graduates were in jobs they described as either \u201cvery relevant\u201d or \u201crelevant\u201d to their educational training. Or not?: The majority of arts\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "issues"","block_context":{"text":"issues","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/category\/issues\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"What does my future hold?","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/art-students.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1144,"url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/2014\/03\/the-economic-impact-of-everything\/","url_meta":{"origin":2849,"position":4},"title":"The economic impact of everything","author":"Michael Rushton","date":"March 16, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"Going to a bar to watch basketball, for example. From the New Republic: Nearly one-third of Americans plan to watch games at work this year, according to a\u00a0survey\u00a0from the consumer site RetailMeNot. One in five men said they\u2019d go to a bar to watch at lunch. But? March Madness may\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "issues"","block_context":{"text":"issues","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/category\/issues\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"I feel you","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/03\/sisyphus.jpeg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1156,"url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/2014\/03\/gays-the-creative-class-and-the-ecological-fallacy\/","url_meta":{"origin":2849,"position":5},"title":"Gays, the ‘Creative Class’, and the Ecological Fallacy","author":"Michael Rushton","date":"March 21, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"Gay men tend to live in expensive cities with nice amenities, both cultural and climactic. Does that mean they are rich? At the Atlantic, Nathan McDermott reports: Who are America\u2019s gays? To hear it as Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia would have it, gays are a privileged set, living it\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "issues"","block_context":{"text":"issues","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/category\/issues\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"nice amenities you have here","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/03\/San-Francisco-43.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/03\/San-Francisco-43.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/03\/San-Francisco-43.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/03\/San-Francisco-43.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/03\/San-Francisco-43.jpg?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/03\/San-Francisco-43.jpg?resize=1400%2C800&ssl=1 4x"},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2849","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=2849"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2849\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2851,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2849\/revisions\/2851"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2850"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2849"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2849"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2849"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}