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Quality in the Performing Arts: Aggregating and Rationalizing Expert Opinion

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Abstract

The article is concerned with the issue of quality in drama, opera, and ballet, respectively. Relying on data from an expert opinion survey and from the statistical yearbook on theatres in Germany, the problem is addressed to what extent quality is linked to certain economic variables. After appropriately aggregating the ordinal expert judgments while controlling for expert-specific standards it is shown that this link is considerably closer for ballet and opera than for drama. Furthermore, in all three art forms positive but decreasing marginal returns of artistic expenses in terms of quality prevail.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. HIS – Hochschul-Informations-System GmbH, Postfach 2920, 30029, Hannover, Germany

    Stefan Tobias

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  1. Stefan Tobias
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Tobias, S. Quality in the Performing Arts: Aggregating and Rationalizing Expert Opinion. Journal of Cultural Economics 28, 109–124 (2004). https://doi.org/10.1023/B:JCEC.0000019472.97483.8c

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1023/B:JCEC.0000019472.97483.8c

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