01 September 2010

an economics of cultural policy

Have read - quickly, between marking - David Throsby's The Economics of Cultural Policy (Cambridge University Press, 2010) and Andrew Pettegree's The Book in the Renaissance (Yale University Press, 2010).

Pettegree is engaging, although lacking the bite of the great Elizabeth Eisenstein's The Printing Press as an Agent of Change. It offers a perceptive introduction to publishing, distribution, authorship and reading.

Throsby's book offers a tour of copyright and other cultural economics, for me somewhat less engaging than Richard Caves or Tyler Cowan but a good introduction for non-specialists with a legal rather than economics background.