The economic benefits of the arts: A neuropsychological comment

Abstract

It is often difficult to provide hard economic justification for the support of the arts. Usually the barrier is one of immeasurable costs and benefits; that social investment in the arts is not practical if one seeks high rates of return. In using the "measuring rod of money" it is likely that many alternative public projects would yield a more favorable cost/benefit result than would funding for museums, symphonies, literary subsidies, music and art classes, and so on. In addition to the immeasurability problem, one is pressed to provide a convincing cause-and-effect or means-to-end relationship between the arts and the so-called practical side of life. To argue that there is vital connection between the arts and economic growth or the amelioration of social problems is difficult at best. Consequently arts funding decisions are based on cultural, aesthetic or educational grounds since any linkage between cultural pursuits and direct economic benefits has been weak. The major purpose of this paper is to argue that a nontraditional link can be made; that is, social and economic advances can be realized through the increased use of the arts. These benefits obtain from gains in the physical and social sciences that often yield substantial rewards in economic terms. It will be maintained that the essence of scientific advancement comes through creativity and that the creative process is, to a large degree, stimulated by the arts. A theoretical psychological model, applied to the science of economics, will be the basis for the conceptualization.