July 14, 2026
WHY SPOTIFY MIGHT WORK BETTER IF IT WERE WORSE AT ITS JOB
Hip-hop was born at block parties in the 1970s Bronx, dismissed as a fad, and ignored by mainstream gatekeepers for years. Would a modern...
June 30, 2026
WHO VALUES MEMORY? PUBLIC PERCEPTIONS ABOUT A STATE ARCHIVE IN BRAZIL
How much do people value a public archive? This study examines community perceptions of the Public Archive of Minas Gerais by measuring citizens’ willingness...
June 15, 2026
THE TRADE BETWEEN US: BARRIERS AND PREDICTORS FOR EXPORTS OF CULTURAL GOODS FROM CHILE
Cultural exports are essential for many Global South countries, yet access to major markets remains unequal. Using Chile as a case study, this research...
June 2, 2026
PSYCHOLOGICAL CAPITAL AND THE LIFE CYCLE OF CREATIVE CAREERS
Why do similarly talented creators follow such different career paths? We develop an economic framework in which psychological capital shapes the perceived cost of...
May 21, 2026
GIFT WITH A PRICE TAG
What is a gift’s true price? By analyzing thousands of paintings given as gifts, I put a number on the social value of art....
May 5, 2026
WHAT TRADE DATA SAY ABOUT THE ILLICIT TRAFFICKING OF CULTURAL GOODS
Cultural goods carry economic and identity value and are therefore subject to strict regulation. Yet their illicit trade is a global phenomenon, historically linked...
April 21, 2026
CREATIVE WORK IN THE AGE OF GENERATIVE AI: EARLY LABOR MARKET SIGNALS
Debates about generative AI and creative work often collapse into a single substitution story. If systems can draft, compose, and edit at near zero...
April 7, 2026
WHEN WEATHER DAMPENS GENEROSITY: WHAT EDINBURGH’S BUSKERS TEACH US ABOUT DIGITAL TIPPING
There’s something ironic about street performers, who’ve spent centuries perfecting the psychology of the donation in a hat, now having to master QR codes...
March 24, 2026
HOW AUTONOMY RESHAPED THE COMPETITIVE BEHAVIOR OF ITALIAN MUSEUMS
The study investigates how organization and governance models shape museums’ behaviour. It show that the Italian Reform of museums, granting organizational and financial autonomy...
March 10, 2026
ASYMMETRIC CULTURAL GLOBALIZATION, TOP PERFORMERS’ INCOME AND INEQUALITY
The article models and analyses the impact of between-country asymmetric globalization in popular cultural activities (music, films, TV series and programmes) on inequality at...
February 23, 2026
HOW ORCHESTRAS CAN ADVANCE WOMEN COMPOSERS
What if a woman composer’s visibility hinges not on which work is performed, but on who shares the program with her? Our research shows...
February 10, 2026
STRONGER TOGETHER? HIGHER EDUCATION AND CULTURAL VIBRANCY IN ITALIAN CITIES
From Bologna to Trento, Florence to Naples, Italian cities have long embodied the coexistence of intellectual and cultural life. Universities and cultural institutions often...
January 19, 2026
CAN 500€ CHANGE CULTURAL HABITS? EVIDENCE FROM ITALY’S 18APP
We identify the causal impact of 18app, a universal cultural voucher for 18-year-olds introduced in Italy with the aim of fostering cultural participation. The...
January 6, 2026
EMPOWERING WOMEN THROUGH CULTURE, CREATIVITY, AND ENTREPRENEURSHIP FOR THE SDGS
The chapter, published by Elsevier in the book Women’s Entrepreneurship and the Sustainable Development Goals, starts from a simple question: If you care about...
December 23, 2025
ECONOMISTS TALK ART WISHES YOU A HAPPY HOLIDAY AND A WONDERFUL NEW 2026
Dear ETA readers! As 2025 draws to a close, we’re taking a moment to look back at an incredible year of research and insights...
December 15, 2025
AMATEUR ARTISTS AND STARTUP INNOVATION
Imagination is a requisite for innovation that is rarely acknowledged by innovation economists. Artistic imagination provides an empirical toehold for testing whether the richness...
