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Death, Bereavement, And Creativity

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  • Kathryn Graddy

    (Department of Economics, International Business School, Brandeis University)

Abstract

Does creativity, on average, increase or decrease during bereavement? Dates of death of relatives and close friends of 33 French artists and 15 American artists were gathered from electronic sources and biographies, and information on over 15,000 paintings was collected from Blouin's Art Sales Index and the Metropolitan Museum of Art's online collection, including over 12,000 observations on price. To preview the results, an event study indicates that prices of paintings decrease by over one-third on average in the two years following the death of a friend or relative. Furthermore, paintings that were created during this bereavement period are less likely to be included in the Met's collection.

Suggested Citation

  • Kathryn Graddy, 2015. "Death, Bereavement, And Creativity," ACEI Working Paper Series AWP-07-2015, Association for Cultural Economics International, revised Jul 2015.
    • Handle: RePEc:cue:wpaper:awp-07-2015
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    Cited by:

    1. Borowiecki, Karol Jan & Graddy, Kathryn, 2021. "Immigrant artists: Enrichment or displacement?," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 191(C), pages 785-797.
    2. Karol Jan Borowiecki & Caterina Adelaide Mauri, 2024. "Originality, influence, and success: a model of creative style," Journal of Cultural Economics, Springer;The Association for Cultural Economics International, vol. 48(2), pages 221-258, June.
    3. Marchenko, Maria & Sonnabend, Hendrik, 2022. "The Never Ending Book: The role of external stimuli and peer feedback in user-generated content production," Department of Economics Working Paper Series 320, WU Vienna University of Economics and Business.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Auctions; economics of art;

    JEL classification:

    • O31 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Innovation; Research and Development; Technological Change; Intellectual Property Rights - - - Innovation and Invention: Processes and Incentives
    • Z1 - Other Special Topics - - Cultural Economics

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