Handbook of the Economics of Art and Culture

Chapter 1

Introduction and Overview

Victor Ginsburgh^a,b and David Throsby^c,    ^aECARES, Université libre de Bruxelles, Brussels,    ^bCORE, Université catholique de Louvain, Louvain-la-Neuve,    ^cMacquarie University, Sydney, Australia

JEL Classification Code

Z1

1.1 Introduction

The introductory chapter to the first volume of the Handbook of the Economics of Art and Culture gave an account of the historical evolution of the discipline known as cultural economics, now more appropriately referred to as the economics of art and culture. It was pointed out there that from its initial (and continuing) preoccupation with the economics of the arts, this area of economic theory and analysis has grown considerably in recent years, widening its focus to ...