How Creative are the Super-Rich?

Abstract

This paper seeks to analyse the contribution of the ‘creative industries’ to the ranks of the super-rich. Rich list 2005-6 data for Australia and several other countries, indicate that while the creative industries represent only a small share of aggregate income (about five per cent) and an even smaller share of the largest national and global companies, they are disproportionately represented as generators of extreme personal wealth (about 10 per cent) and even more-so forthe young rich (approximately one-third). Young fortunes are the stand-out feature of the creative industries from this perspective, and a tangible sign of their economic significance in both an open economy and an open society. The paper seeks to explain, from the evolutionary economic perspective, what this empirical finding might mean for public policy.