Culture Brings Prosperity, According to ifo Research Report

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Key findings of cesifo research paper “Music in the Air: Estimating the Social Return to Cultural Amenities” include:

  • Culture is expensive but worth it: Expenditure on cultural institutions have a positive effect on income in the region
  • The ifo researchers understand their results as an argument supporting subsidies for cultural institutions
  • According to their research on opera houses it is unclear, however, whether a country as a whole benefits from investment into individual region’s cultural sector

The report is available for download, with a summary in English.

A comment in the SZ hence warns cities and municipalities to cut the culture budgets under the influence of current financial pressure: These cuts may seem quick and easy but could have devastating indirect effects.