IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/wly/soecon/v81y2015i4p1096-1116.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Age and productivity: An empirical study of early American artists

Author

Listed:
  • Robert B. Ekelund
  • John D. Jackson
  • Robert D. Tollison

Abstract

Economist David Galenson, using both statistical and anecdotal methods, divides artists into two types, innovative or conceptual (who “peak” at younger ages) and experimental (peaking at older ages), to investigate how age is related to creativity. This well‐known distinction has met with criticism and alternative theories of artistic productivity. We here extend Galenson's formal statistical methods to a new sample of American artists born prior to 1900, a period when according to Galenson, “most” American artists can be identified as experimental. Specifically, we explore the use of quantitative and qualitative analysis to shed light on the relationship between age and artistic productivity. We investigate whether this classification has substantial explanatory power for the age at which the most important artistic work is achieved over the life cycle. Our results do not support the bifurcation but indicate that a number of factors must be used in any life cycle investigation linking age to artistic creativity.

Suggested Citation

  • Robert B. Ekelund & John D. Jackson & Robert D. Tollison, 2015. "Age and productivity: An empirical study of early American artists," Southern Economic Journal, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 81(4), pages 1096-1116, April.
  • Handle: RePEc:wly:soecon:v:81:y:2015:i:4:p:1096-1116
    DOI: 10.1002/soej.12050
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1002/soej.12050
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1002/soej.12050?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Victor Ginsburgh & Sheila Weyers, 2006. "Creation and life cycles of artists," ULB Institutional Repository 2013/5257, ULB -- Universite Libre de Bruxelles.
    2. David W. Galenson, 2005. "The Methods and Careers of Leading American Painters in the late Nineteenth Century," NBER Working Papers 11545, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    3. Christiane Hellmanzik, 2009. "Artistic styles: revisiting the analysis of modern artists’ careers," Journal of Cultural Economics, Springer;The Association for Cultural Economics International, vol. 33(3), pages 201-232, August.
    4. Hellmanzik, Christiane, 2010. "Location matters: Estimating cluster premiums for prominent modern artists," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 54(2), pages 199-218, February.
    5. David W. Galenson, 2009. "Conceptual Revolutions in Twentieth-Century Art," NBER Books, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc, number gale08-1, October.
    6. David W. Galenson & Bruce A. Weinberg, 2000. "Age and the Quality of Work: The Case of Modern American Painters," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 108(4), pages 761-777, August.
    7. Benjamin F. Jones, 2010. "Age and Great Invention," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 92(1), pages 1-14, February.
    8. Bruno S. Frey, 2008. "Happiness: A Revolution in Economics," MIT Press Books, The MIT Press, edition 1, volume 1, number 0262062771, December.
    9. Victor Ginsburgh & Sheila Weyers, 2006. "Creativity and Life Cycles of Artists," Journal of Cultural Economics, Springer;The Association for Cultural Economics International, vol. 30(2), pages 91-107, September.
    10. David W. Galenson, 2009. "Introduction to "Conceptual Revolutions in Twentieth-Century Art"," NBER Chapters, in: Conceptual Revolutions in Twentieth-Century Art, pages 1-2, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    11. Rosen, Sherwin, 1981. "The Economics of Superstars," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 71(5), pages 845-858, December.
    12. David W. Galenson & Bruce A. Weinberg, 2001. "Creating Modern Art: The Changing Careers of Painters in France from Impressionism to Cubism," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 91(4), pages 1063-1071, September.
    13. David W. Galenson, 2002. "Was Jackson Pollock the Greatest Modern American Painter? A Quantitative Investigation," NBER Working Papers 8830, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. John Galbraith & Douglas Hodgson, 2015. "Innovation, experience and artists’ age-valuation profiles: evidence from eighteenth-century rococo and neoclassical painters," Journal of Cultural Economics, Springer;The Association for Cultural Economics International, vol. 39(3), pages 259-275, August.
    2. Douglas Hodgson, 2011. "Age–price profiles for Canadian painters at auction," Journal of Cultural Economics, Springer;The Association for Cultural Economics International, vol. 35(4), pages 287-308, November.
    3. Douglas J. Hodgson & Christiane Hellmanzik, 2019. "Relationships between artistic movements and careers of modern artists: evidence from hedonic regressions with auction data," Journal of Cultural Economics, Springer;The Association for Cultural Economics International, vol. 43(2), pages 309-337, June.
    4. Galbraith, John W. & Hodgson, Douglas J., 2012. "Dimension reduction and model averaging for estimation of artists' age-valuation profiles," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 56(3), pages 422-435.
    5. Zanola, Roberto & Vecco, Marilena & Jones, Andrew, 2021. "A place for everything and everything in its place: New York's role in the art market," Research in Economics, Elsevier, vol. 75(3), pages 215-224.
    6. Börsch-Supan, Axel & Weiss, Matthias, 2016. "Productivity and age: Evidence from work teams at the assembly line," The Journal of the Economics of Ageing, Elsevier, vol. 7(C), pages 30-42.
    7. Karol Jan BOROWIECKI, 2011. "War and Creativity: Solving the War-Art Puzzle for Classical Music Composition," Trinity Economics Papers tep0711, Trinity College Dublin, Department of Economics.
    8. Kathryn Graddy & Carl Lieberman, 2018. "Death, Bereavement, and Creativity," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 64(10), pages 4505-4514, October.
    9. Borowiecki, Karol Jan & Dahl, Christian Møller, 2021. "What makes an artist? The evolution and clustering of creative activity in the US since 1850," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 86(C).
    10. Jose Sanchez-Fung, 2019. "Examining the life-cycle artistic productivity of Latin American photographers," ACEI Working Paper Series AWP-05-2019, Association for Cultural Economics International, revised Dec 2019.
    11. Christiane Hellmanzik, 2009. "Artistic styles: revisiting the analysis of modern artists’ careers," Journal of Cultural Economics, Springer;The Association for Cultural Economics International, vol. 33(3), pages 201-232, August.
    12. Bayer Thomas & Page John & Raviv Yaron & Rosett Joshua, 2013. "Age, Human Capital, and the Quality of Work: New Evidence from Old Masters," The B.E. Journal of Economic Analysis & Policy, De Gruyter, vol. 13(2), pages 687-708, July.
    13. John W. Galbraith & Douglas J. Hodgson, 2018. "Econometric Fine Art Valuation by Combining Hedonic and Repeat-Sales Information," Econometrics, MDPI, vol. 6(3), pages 1-15, June.
    14. Heinrich W. Ursprung & Christian Wiermann, 2011. "Reputation, Price, And Death: An Empirical Analysis Of Art Price Formation," Economic Inquiry, Western Economic Association International, vol. 49(3), pages 697-715, July.
    15. Robert B. Ekelund & John D. Jackson & Robert D. Tollison, 2013. "Are Art Auction Estimates Biased?," Southern Economic Journal, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 80(2), pages 454-465, October.
    16. Christiane Hellmanzik, Department of Economics and IIIS, Trinity College Dublin, 2009. "Artistic Clusters and Modern Artists’ Mobility - An Empirical Study," The Institute for International Integration Studies Discussion Paper Series iiisdp296, IIIS.
    17. Ennio E. Piano, 2022. "Specialization and the firm in Renaissance Italian art," Journal of Cultural Economics, Springer;The Association for Cultural Economics International, vol. 46(4), pages 659-697, December.
    18. Ufuk Akcigit & Murat Celik & Daron Acemoglu, 2014. "Young, Restless and Creative: Openness to Disruption and Creative Innovations," 2014 Meeting Papers 377, Society for Economic Dynamics.
    19. Hellmanzik, Christiane, 2013. "Democracy and economic outcomes: Evidence from the superstars of modern art," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 30(C), pages 58-69.
    20. Matthias Krapf, 2015. "Age and complementarity in scientific collaboration," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 49(2), pages 751-781, September.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:wly:soecon:v:81:y:2015:i:4:p:1096-1116. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://doi.org/10.1002/(ISSN)2325-8012 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.