Chapter 4

The Economic and Cultural Value of Paintings: Some Empirical Evidence

David Throsby and Anita Zednik,    Macquarie University, Sydney, Australia

Abstract

A long-standing debate in the economics of art and culture is concerned with the adequacy or otherwise of the theory of value in economics to capture a full representation of the value of cultural phenomena. At a theoretical level it has been proposed that a distinct form of value is embodied in or yielded by cultural goods and services that is related to, but not synonymous with, the goods’ economic value. This form of value, termed cultural value, is congruent with the concepts of the value of art works that are discussed in aesthetics and the philosophy of art. Although the parallel ...

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