Human capital and artists’ labour markets.

Abstract

It is argued that human capital theory applies only weakly to artists’ decisions about investment in schooling and training and about occupational choice. However, the same can be said about the sorting model. What is lacking in cultural economics is an understanding of talent and creativity, what economic factors motivate artists and how creativity can be encouraged as part of government cultural policy. Bringing social and cultural capital into the equation do not seem to add much in the way of understanding artists’ labour markets. A novel argument is made that the reproducibility of works of art in combination with copyright law alters the established view that human capital cannot be separated from labour, in this case that of the artist.