Skip to main content

Advertisement

Log in

The happy artist: an empirical application of the work-preference model

  • Original Article
  • Published:
Journal of Cultural Economics Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

The artistic labor market is marked by several adversities, such as low wages, above-average unemployment, and constrained underemployment. Nevertheless, it attracts many young people. The number of students exceeds the available jobs by far. A potential explanation for this puzzle is that artistic work might result in exceptionally high job satisfaction, a conjecture that has been mentioned at various times in the literature. We conduct the first direct empirical investigation into artists’ job satisfaction. The analysis is based on panel data from the German Socio-Economic Panel Survey. Artists on average are found to be considerably more satisfied with their work than non-artists, a finding that corroborates the conjectures in the literature. Differences in income, working hours, and personality cannot account for the observed difference in job satisfaction. Partially, but not fully, the higher job satisfaction can be attributed to the higher self-employment rate among artists. Suggestive evidence is found that superior “procedural” characteristics of artistic work, such as increased variety and on-the-job learning, contribute to the difference in job satisfaction.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Subscribe and save

Springer+ Basic
$34.99 /Month
  • Get 10 units per month
  • Download Article/Chapter or eBook
  • 1 Unit = 1 Article or 1 Chapter
  • Cancel anytime
Subscribe now

Buy Now

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Fig. 1

Similar content being viewed by others

Notes

  1. The fact that many people turn to the arts as a leisure activity underpins the belief that artistic work yields high satisfaction. In Germany, for example, 14 % of the adult population in 2007 took part in artistic activities, such as painting, drawing, and sculpture (Eurostat 2011).

  2. Cowen and Tabarrok (2000) emphasize that artists are not unique in deriving non-pecuniary benefits from particular forms of labor. For a more general discussion on non-pecuniary benefits form work, see also the early works on psychic income by, e.g., Thurow (1978, 1980) or Katz and Syrquin (1982).

  3. Withers (1985) found the same result for Australian artists using data from an extensive survey specifically targeted at artists.

  4. Haak (2005) found the same result for German artists using official data from the “Mikrozensus.”

  5. An argument originally brought up by Santos (1976).

  6. An argument also prominent in Frank and Cook (1995).

  7. Influential articles from the superstar literature are Rosen (1981) and Adler (1985, 2006).

  8. According to Menger (2006), the oversupply of artists is a phenomenon reaching far back in history.

  9. A shortcoming of this literature is that it usually uses cross-sectional data only, so unobserved individual heterogeneity is rarely accounted for (D’Addio et al. 2007).

  10. It is also common to combine these criteria (see, e.g., Throsby and Hollister 2003; Throsby 2001).

  11. Karttunen (1998) notes that the degree of organization differs significantly between countries and art forms.

  12. UNESCO adopted a definition that corresponds to a large degree with this criterion: “Artist is taken to mean any person who creates or gives expression to, or recreates works of art, who considers his artistic creation to be an essential part of his life, who contributes in this way to the development of art and culture and who is or asks to be recognized as an artist, whether or not he is bound by any relations of employment or association” (UNESCO 1980, p. 149).

  13. If anything, our estimations would become more conservative. In the case of a positive correlation of an artistic activity with job satisfaction, those people who have an artistic job as a side occupation are counted as non-artists, thus increasing the average satisfaction of the non-artists and decreasing the probability of finding a significant effect.

  14. Detailed descriptions are given in Table 7 in the appendix.

  15. The regressions are estimated with an OLS model. Strictly, job satisfaction is an ordinally scaled variable, which would speak for an ordered response model. However, OLS models have the advantage that the estimated coefficients are easier to interpret, and experience shows that they are a close approximation of estimations of job and life satisfaction (Ferrer-i-Carbonell and Frijters 2004). To ascertain, we also estimated the regressions with an ordered logit model. As expected, the results remained largely unchanged.

  16. The coefficients/standard errors without controlling for self-employment are 0.1724/0.1010 (performing or visual artist), and 0.5718/0.1768 (performing artist).

  17. Note that the Hausman specification test favors the fixed effects over the random effects' specification. The same result was found in a Danish job satisfaction study by D’Addio et al. (2007). As such, the random effects' results should be viewed with a certain caution.

  18. These questions were only asked in two SOEP waves, namely in 1995 and 2001.

  19. A note on non-artists: Strictly, both groups of artists have their own “complementary set” in the labor force, that is, their own group of non-artists. However, these complementary sets are almost identical. Therefore, only one group of non-artists is depicted (complementary set of “Performing & Visual Artists”).

  20. For the sake of simplicity, squared working hours are disregarded.

  21. Note that the change of government did not create a natural experiment in the sense that people were randomly chosen to become artists. Rather, the term is here used to describe an exogenous change in conditions for artists. Also, note that the change of government was not completely exogenous, as the new government was elected by the individuals in the data set.

References

  • Abbing, H. (2002). Why are artists poor? The exceptional economy of the arts. Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Adler, M. (1985). Stardom and Talent. American Economic Review, 75(1), 208–212.

    Google Scholar 

  • Adler, M. (2006). Stardom and Talent. In Ginsburgh, V. A., & Thorsby, D., (Eds.), Handbook of the economics of arts and culture. Amsterdam: North-Holland.

  • Alper, N. O., & Wassall, G. H. (2006). Artists’ careers and their labor markets. In V. A. Ginsburgh, & D. Thorsby (Eds.), Handbook of the economics of arts and culture. Amsterdam: North-Holland

  • Benz, M., & Frey, B. S. (2004). Being independent raises happiness at work. Swedish Economic Policy Review, 11, 95–134.

    Google Scholar 

  • Benz, M., & Frey, B. S. (2008). Being independent is a great thing: Subjective evaluations of self-employment and hierarchy. Economica, 75, 362–383.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bertrand, M., & Mullainathan, S. (2001). Do people mean what they say? Implications for subjective survey data. American Economic Review, 91(2), 67–72.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bille, T. (2010). Creative labour: Who are they? What do they do? Where do they work?—A quantitative study from Denmark. Mimeo.

  • Clark, A. E. (1998). Measures of job satisfaction. What makes a good job? evidence from OECD countries. OECD Labour Market and Social Policy Occasional Papers, 34.

  • Clark, A. E. (2001). What really matters in a job? Hedonic measurement using quit data. Labour Economics, 8, 223–242.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Clegg, C. W. (1983). Psychology of employee lateness, absence, and turnover: A methodological critique and an empirical study. Journal of Applied Psychology, 68(1), 88–101.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Cowen, T., & Tabarrok, A. (2000). An economic theory of avant-garde and popular art, or high and low culture. Southern Economic Journal, 67(2), 232–253.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • D’Addio, A. C., Eriksson, T., & Frijters, P. (2003). An analysis of the determinants of job satisfaction when individuals’ baseline satisfaction levels may differ. Working Paper 2003-16, Centre for Applied Microeconomics, University of Copenhagen.

  • D’Addio, A. C., Eriksson, T., & Frijters, P. (2007). An analysis of the determinants of job satisfaction when individuals’ baseline satisfaction levels may differ. Applied Economics, 39, 2413–2423.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Di Tella, R., & MacCulloch, R. (2006). Some uses of happiness data in economics. The Journal of Economic Perspectives, 20(1), 25–46.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Erhardt, J., Saris, W., & Venhofen, R. (2000). Stability of life-satisfaction over time. Journal of Happiness Studies, 1(2), 177–205.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Eurostat (2011). Cultural statistics.Eurostat Pocketbooks. Office for Official Publications of the European Communities.

  • Ferrer-i-Carbonell, A., & Frijters, P. (2004). How important is methodology for the estimates of the determinants of happinessThe Economic Journal, 114, 641–659.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Frank, R., & Cook, P. (1995). The winner-take-all society. New York: The Free Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Frank, R. H. (2005). Does absolute income matter?. In L. Bruni, & P. L. Porta (Eds.), Economics and happiness: Framing the analysis (pp. 65–90). Oxford: Oxford University Press.

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Frey, B. S. (2003). Arts & economics: Analysis & cultural policy. Berlin: Springer.

    Google Scholar 

  • Frey, B. S. (2008). Happiness: A revolution in economics. Cambridge: The MIT Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Frey, B. S., & Pommerehne, W. W. (1989). Muses and markets: Explorations in the economics of the arts. Oxford: Blackwell.

    Google Scholar 

  • Green, F. (2007). Demanding work: The paradox of job quality in the affluent economy. Princeton: Princeton University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Haak, C. (2005). Künstler zwischen selbständiger und abhängiger Erwerbsarbeit. Discussion Paper 2005-107, Wissenschaftszentrum Berlin für Sozialforschung (WZB).

  • Hamermesh, D. S. (2001). The changing distribution of job satisfaction. Journal of Human Resources, 36(1), 1–30.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • IAB. (2011). Berufe im Spiegel der Statisik. http://bisds.infosys.iab.de/.

  • Karttunen, S. (1998). How to identify artists? Defining the population for ‘status-of-the-artist’ studies. Poetics, 26, 1–19.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Katz, E., & Syrquin, M. (1982). The failure of psychic income as a source of market failure. Journal of Post Keynesian Economics, 4(4), 623–627.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kristensen, N., & Johansson, E. (2008). New evidence on cross-country differences in job satisfaction using anchoring vignettes. Labour Economics, 15, 96–117.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Layard, R. (2006). Happiness: Lessons from a new science. London: Penguin.

    Google Scholar 

  • Menger, P.-M. (1999). Artistic labor markets and careers. Annual Review of Sociology, 25, 541–574.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Menger, P.-M. (2001). Artists as workers: Theoretical and methodological challenges. Poetics, 28, 241–254.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Menger, P.-M. (2006). Artistic labor markets: Contingent work, excess supply and occupational risk management. In V. A. Ginsburgh, & D. Thorsby, (Eds.), Handbook of the economics of arts and culture. Amsterdam: North-Holland.

  • Pugno, M. (2004). Rationality and affective motivation: New ideas from neurobiology and psychiatry for economic theory? Discussion Paper 0501, Department of Economics, University of Trento.

  • Rengers, M. (2002). Economic lives of artists: Studies into careers and the labour market in the cultural sector. Doctoral Thesis. Utrecht University.

  • Robinson, M. D., & Montgomery, S. S. (2000). The time allocation and earnings of artists. Industrial Relations, 39(3), 525–534.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rose, M. (2007). Why so fed up and footloose in IT? Spelling out the associations between occupation and overall job satisfaction shown by WERS 2004. Industrial Relations Journal, 38(4), 356–384.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Rosen, S. (1981). The economics of superstars. American Economic Review, 71(5), 845–858.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sandvik, E., Diener, E., and Seidlitz, L. (1993). Subjective well-being: The convergence and stability of self-report and non-self-report measures. Journal of Personality, 61(3), 317–342.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Santos, F. (1976). Risk, uncertainty and the performing artist. In M. Blaug (Ed.), The economics of the arts. Boulder: Westview Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Söndermann, M. (2004). Kulturberufe—Statistisches Kurzportrait zu den erwerbstätigen Künstlern, Publizisten, Designern, Architekten und verwandten Berufen im Kulturberufemarkt in Deutschland 1995–2003. Arbeitskreis Kulturstatistik (ARKStat) im Haus der Kultur, Bonn.

  • Throsby, D. (1994). A work-preference model of artist behaviour. In A. Peacock, & I. Rizzo (Eds.), Cultural economics and cultural policies. Dordrecht: Kluwer.

    Google Scholar 

  • Throsby, D. (2001). Defining the artistic workforce: The Australian experience. Poetics, 28, 255–271.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Throsby, D., & Hollister, V. (2003). Don’t give up your day job: An economic study of professional artists in Australia. Australia Council.

  • Thurow, L. C. (1978). Psychic income: Useful or useless? American Economic Review, 68(2), 142–148.

    Google Scholar 

  • Thurow, L. C. (1980). Psychic income: A market failure. Journal of Post Keynesian Economics, 68(2), 142–148.

    Google Scholar 

  • Towse, R. (1992). The earnings of singers: An economic analysis. In R.Towse & A. Kahkee (Eds.), Cultural Economics. Berlin: Springer.

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Towse, R. (2006). Human capital and artists’ labour markets. In V. A. Ginsburgh, & D. Thorsby (Eds.),Handbook of the economics of arts and culture. Amsterdam: North-Holland.

  • UNESCO. (1980). Records of the general conference, twenty-first session, Belgrade 1980. Volume 1: Resolutions. Imprimerie des Presses Universitaires de France.

  • van Praag, B. M. (1991). Ordinal and cardinal utility: An integration of the two dimensions of the welfare concept. Journal of Econometrics, 50(1–2), 69–89.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Wagner, G. G., Frick, J. R., & Schupp, J. (2007). The German Socio-Economic Panel Study (SOEP)-Scope, Evolution and Enhancements. Schmollers Jahrbuch, 127(1), 139–169.

    Google Scholar 

  • Warr, P. (1999). Well-being and the workplace. In D. Kahneman, E. Diener, & N. Schwarz (Eds.), Well-being: The foundations of hedonic psychology. Russell Sage Foundation.

  • Withers, G. (1985). Artists’ subsidy of the arts. Australian Economic Papers, 24, 290–295.

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgments

For helpful suggestions, we are indebted to Bruno S. Frey, Reto Cueni, Christoph Engel, Margit Osterloh, and Trine Bille.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Lasse Steiner.

Appendix

Appendix

See Tables 6, 7

Table 6 Occupations included in the two definitions of artists
Table 7 Variables

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Steiner, L., Schneider, L. The happy artist: an empirical application of the work-preference model. J Cult Econ 37, 225–246 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10824-012-9179-1

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10824-012-9179-1

Keywords

JEL Classification

Navigation