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Is gender in the eye of the beholder? Identifying cultural attitudes with art auction prices

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  • Adams, Renée
  • Kräussl, Roman
  • Navone, Marco
  • Verwijmeren, Patrick

Abstract

In the secondary art market, artists play no active role. This allows us to isolate cultural influences on the demand for female artists' work from supply-side factors. Using 1.5 million auction transactions in 45 countries, we document a 47.6% gender discount in auction prices for paintings. The discount is higher in countries with greater gender inequality. In experiments, participants are unable to guess the gender of an artist simply by looking at a painting and they vary in their preferences for paintings associated with female artists. Women's art appears to sell for less because it is made by women.

Suggested Citation

  • Adams, Renée & Kräussl, Roman & Navone, Marco & Verwijmeren, Patrick, 2018. "Is gender in the eye of the beholder? Identifying cultural attitudes with art auction prices," CFS Working Paper Series 595, Center for Financial Studies (CFS).
    • Handle: RePEc:zbw:cfswop:595
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    Cited by:

    1. Géraldine David & Yuexin Li & Kim Oosterlinck & Luc Renneboog, 2024. "Art in times of crisis," Economic History Review, Economic History Society, vol. 77(4), pages 1362-1413, November.
    2. Amy Whitaker & Roman Kräussl, 2020. "Fractional Equity, Blockchain, and the Future of Creative Work," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 66(10), pages 4594-4611, October.
    3. Chad M. Topaz & Jude Higdon & Avriel Epps-Darling & Ethan Siau & Harper Kerkhoff & Shivani Mendiratta & Eric Young, 2022. "Race- and gender-based under-representation of creative contributors: art, fashion, film, and music," Palgrave Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 9(1), pages 1-11, December.
    4. Michał Szostak, 2021. "Impact of gender differences in perception of creative identities of artist, creator, manager, entrepreneur and leader on sustainability," Entrepreneurship and Sustainability Issues, VsI Entrepreneurship and Sustainability Center, vol. 9(2), pages 10-36, December.
    5. H. Dieter Dahlhoff & Tim Verriet, 2021. "Drivers of Buying Contemporary Art – Investoren und Family Offices als Marktakteure," Springer Books, in: Markt und Marketing der Contemporary Art, pages 173-247, Springer.
    6. Maria Marchenko & Hendrik Sonnabend, 2022. "Artists' labour market and gender: Evidence from German visual artists," Kyklos, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 75(3), pages 456-471, August.
    7. Thomas Baumert & Pedro Galván-Lamet & Esther Valbuena-García, 2023. "Is There Really a Gender Gap That Disfavors Female Painters? An Experimental Study in Spain," Springer Proceedings in Business and Economics, in: Nicholas Tsounis & Aspasia Vlachvei (ed.), Advances in Empirical Economic Research, chapter 0, pages 905-918, Springer.
    8. Li, Yuexin & Ma, X. & Renneboog, Luc, 2021. "Pricing Art and the Art of Pricing : On Returns and Risk in Art Auction Markets," Discussion Paper 2021-018, Tilburg University, Center for Economic Research.
    9. Lisa Farrell & Jane M. Fry & Tim R. L. Fry, 2021. "Gender differences in hammer prices for Australian Indigenous art," Journal of Cultural Economics, Springer;The Association for Cultural Economics International, vol. 45(1), pages 1-12, March.
    10. Laurie Cameron & William N. Goetzmann & Milad Nozari, 2019. "Art and gender: market bias or selection bias?," Journal of Cultural Economics, Springer;The Association for Cultural Economics International, vol. 43(2), pages 279-307, June.
    11. Li, Yuexin, 2021. "Pricing art: Returns, trust, and crises," Other publications TiSEM 8832c172-83dd-4ed9-8215-0, Tilburg University, School of Economics and Management.
    12. Shailendra Gurjar & Usha Ananthakumar, 2023. "The economics of art: price determinants and returns on investment in Indian paintings," International Journal of Social Economics, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 50(6), pages 839-859, January.
    13. Hoffmann, Robert & Coate, Bronwyn, 2022. "Fame, What’s your name? quasi and statistical gender discrimination in an art valuation experimentc," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 202(C), pages 184-197.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Art; Auction; Gender; Culture; Bias;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • Z11 - Other Special Topics - - Cultural Economics - - - Economics of the Arts and Literature
    • J16 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Economics of Gender; Non-labor Discrimination
    • D44 - Microeconomics - - Market Structure, Pricing, and Design - - - Auctions

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