Arts and cultural activity may play an important role in regional economic
development. But to what end and by what means? Traditional economic development
theory identifies export expansion and import substitution as the means by which an
industrial sector may add to a region’s economic base. Recorded and visual arts may
produce exports in some regions, but live performing arts are incapable of exportation.
Instead, they must generate tourism to capture extra-regional dollars.
Contemporary research argues two additional means by which the arts may
encourage growth. First, the presence of a great many artists and arts institutions may
increase firm productivity and efficiency by reducing the cost of arts services, increasing
the quality of and accessibility to arts services, and promoting innovation. Second, an
abundance of arts and cultural activity may attract a highly skilled, competitive
workforce, which then attracts firm relocation. This report presents original research
designed to test this last hypothesis as applied to Austin, Texas. Results indicate that
while the arts in Austin may not attract a competitive workforce, they do appear to have
at least some significance in retaining creative professionals. / text
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:UTEXAS/oai:repositories.lib.utexas.edu:2152/22563 |
| Date | 05 December 2013 |
| Creators | Sullivan, Ryan James |
| Source Sets | University of Texas |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
| Format | electronic |
| Rights | Copyright is held by the author. Presentation of this material on the Libraries' web site by University Libraries, The University of Texas at Austin was made possible under a limited license grant from the author who has retained all copyrights in the works., Restricted |
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