Museum Public Finance Readings
The following publications examine the economic role that museums play as institutions, the ways in which public, private and commercial sources of funding impact museums and the economic relationship between museums and local communities. This selected bibliography is provided as a resource to museums stakeholders, though it should not be seen as a exhaustive list of readings in each subject area. If you notice publications that are missing, we invite you to send the complete citations to Carlos Manjarrez for inclusion in subsequent postings.

1) Economics of Museums as Institutions: This list includes readings that address issues such as pricing, efficiency, value, demand and other aspects of the roles that museums play as economic institutions in the market.

Alexander, Victoria D. 1999. “A Delicate Balance: Museums and the Market-place.” Museum International. Vol. 51, No. 2. pp. 29-34.

Anheier, Helmut K.; and Stefan Toepler . 1998. “Commerce and the Muse: Are Art Museums Becoming Commercial?” To Profit or Not to Profit: The Commercial Transformation of the non-profit sector. Ed. Burton A. Weisbrod. Cambridge University Press. pp. 233-248.

Ashworth, John; and Peter Johnson. 1996. “Sources of Value for Money for Museum Visitors: Some Survey Evidence.” Journal of Cultural Economics. Vol. 20, No. 1. pp. 67-83.

Basso, Antonella ; and Stefania Funari. 2004. “A Quantitative Approach to Evaluate the Relative Efficiency of Museums.” Journal of Cultural Economics. Vol. 28, No. 3. pp. 195-216.

Bishop, Paul; and Steven Brand. 2003. “The Efficiency of Museums: A Stochastic Frontier Production Function Approach.” Applied Economics. Vol. 35, No. 17. pp. 1853-58.

Esteves- Fernandez, Arantza; Peter Borm; and Herbet Hamers. 2004. “The Museum Pass Game and Its Value Revisited.” CentER Discussion Paper no. 2004-07.
Feldstein, Martin, ed. 1991. The Economics of Art Museums. Chicago, IL: The University of Chicago Press.

Frey, Bruno S.; and Stephan Meier. 2003.” The Economics of Museums.” Institute for Empirical Research in Economics, University of ZurichWorking Paper Series, Working Paper No. 149. ISSN 1424-0459. May 2003. Also published in Frey, Bruno S. 2003. Arts & Economics: Analysis & Cultural Policy. 2nd Edition. Berlin et al.: Springer Verlag. pp. 95-104.

Frey, Bruno S. 1998. “Superstar Museums: An Economic Analysis.” Journal of Cultural Economics. Vol. 22, No. 2.

Johnson, Peter; and Berry Thomas. 1998. “The Economics of Museums: A Research Perspective.” Journal of Cultural Economics. Vol. 22, No. 2-3. pp. 75-85.

Luksetich, William A.; and Mark D. Partridge. 1997. “Demand Functions for Museum Services.” Applied Economics. Vol. 29, No. 12. pp. 1553-1559.

Maddison, David; and Terry Foster. 2003. “Valuing Congestion Costs in a British Museum.” Oxford Economic Papers. Vol. 55, No. 1. pp. 173-190.

Mairesse, Francoise; and Philippe Vanden Eeckaut. 2002. “Museum Assessment and FDH Technology: Towards a Global Approach.” Journal of Cultural Economics. Vol. 18, No. 4. Pp. 261-286.

Merritt, Elizabeth, ed. 2006. Museum Financial Information. Washington, DC: American Association of Museums.

Merritt, Elizabeth, ed. 2003. Museum Financial Information. Washington, DC: American Association of Museums.

O’hagan, John W. 1995. “National Museums: To charge or not to charge?” Journal of Cultural Economics. Vol. 19, No. 1. pp. 33-47.

Pommerehne, Werner; and Bruno S. Frey. 1980. “The Museum from an Economic Perspective.” International Social Science Journal. Vol. 32, No. 2. pp. 323-333.

Prieto- Rodríguez, Juan; and Víctor Fernandéz-Blanco. 2006. “Optimal Pricing and Grant Policies for Museums.” Journal of Cultural Economics. Vol.30, No. 3. pp. 169-181.

Sanz, Jose Angel; Luis Cesar Herrero; and Ana Maria Bedate. 2003. “Contingent Valuation and Semiparametric Methods: A Case Study of the National Museum of Sculpture in Valladolid, Spain.” Journal of Cultural Economics. Vol. 27, No. 3-4. pp. 241-257.

Toepler, Stefan. 2006. “The Role and Changing Face of Non-market Provision of Culture in the United States.” Museum International. Vol. 58, No. 4. pp. 54-63.

Toepler, Stefan; and Sarah Dewees. 2005. “Are there Limits to Financing Culture through the Market?” International Journal of Public Administration. Vol. 28, No. 1-2. pp. 131-146.

Toepler, Stefan. 2006. “Caveat Venditor? Museum Merchandizing, Nonprofit Commercialization, and the Case of the Metropolitan Museum in New York.” Voluntas: International Journal of Voluntary and Nonprofit Organizations. Vol. 17, No. 2. pp. 95-109.

Tohmo, Timo; and U Jyvaskyla. 2004. “Economic Value of a Local Museum: Factors of Willingness-to-Pay.” Journal of Socio-Economics. Vol. 33, No. 2. pp. 229-240.

van der Burg, Tsjalle; and Wilfred Dolfsma. 2000. “PPPs for the Arts: Joining up Museums and Finance.” New Economy. Vol. 7, No. 3. pp. 165-167.

2) Role of Public and Other Sources of Funding in Museums: The following list examines the relationship between public and other sources of funding in museums and the ways in which they influence museum practice .

Alexander, Victoria. 1996. Museums and Money: The Impact of Funding on Exhibitions, Scholarship and Management. Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press.

Andreoni, James; and A. Abigail Payne. 2003. “Do Government Grants to Private Charities Crowd out Giving or Fund-Raising?” The American Economic Review. Vol. 93, No. 3. pp. 792-812.

Bailey, Jann L. M.; and Lon Dubinsky. 2005. “PERSPECTIVES: Les musées et les
villes.” Muse. Vol. 23, No. 4. pp. 2-3.

Creigh-Tyte, Stephen W.; and Sara Selwood. 1998. “Museums in the U.K.: Some Evidence on Scale and Activities.” Journal of Cultural Economics. Vol. 22, No. 2-3. pp. 151-165.

Feld, Alan; Micheal O’hare and J. Mark Davidson Schuster. 1983. Patrons Despite Themselves: Taxpayers and Arts Policy. New York, NY: New York University Press.

Frame, Robert W. 1998. “Excellence and Museum Funding in Nova Scotia.” Canadian Public Administration/Administration Publique du Canada. Vol. 41, pp. 147-152.

Garcia- Sobrecases, Francisco; and Sanghack Lee. 2000. “Art, Museums and Contests: Private vs. Public Provision.” Seoul Journal of Economics. Vol. 13, No. 1. pp. 1-20.

Hughes, Patricia Nold; and William A. Luksetich. 1999. “The Relationship among Funding Sources for Art and History Museums.” Nonprofit Management and Leadership. Vol. 10, No. 1. pp. 21-37.

Herr, Lois. 2003. “Looking to the Past for the Future.” History News. Vol. 58, No. 2. pp. 18-19.
Lewis, Gregory B.; and Arthur C. Brooks. 2005. “A Question of Morality: Artist’s Values and Public Funding for the Arts.” Public Administration Review. Vol. 65, No. 1. pp. 8-17.

L’Ecuyer, Anne. 2004. “Public Funding for the Arts at the Local Level.” Americans for the Arts Monograph Series.

Maddison, David. 2004. “Causality and Museum Subsidies.” Journal of Cultural Economics. Vol. 28, No. 2. pp. 89-108.

Martin, Ferdinand. 1994. “Determining the Size of Museum Subsidies.” Journal of Cultural Economics. Vol. 18, No. 4. pp. 255-270.

O’hagan, John W. 1998. The State and the Arts: An Analysis of Key Economic Policy Issues in Europe and the United States. Northhampton, MA: Edward Elgar Press.

O’hagan, John W. 1998. “Art Museums: Collections, Deaccessioning and Donations.” Journal of Cultural Economics. Vol. 22, No. 2. pp. 197-207.

Peacock, Allan. 2000. “Public Financing of the Arts in England.” Fiscal Studies. Vol. 21, No. 2. pp. 171-205.

Ridge, Michael; Damien O’Flaherty; Amy Caldwell-Nichols; Richard Bradley; and Catherine Howell. 2007. A Framework for Evaluating Cultural Policy Investment. Report to the Department of Culture Media and Sport. Submitted May 2007.

Rushton, Michael. 2000. “Public Funding of Controversial Art” Journal of Cultural Economics. Vol. 24, No. 4. pp. 267-282.

Schuster, J. Mark. 1998. “Neither Public Nor Private: The Hybridization of Museums.” Journal of Cultural Economics. Vol. 22, No. 2-3. pp. 127-150.

Smith, Ralph A.; and Ronald Berman. 1992. Public Policy and the Aesthetic Interest. Urbana, IL: University of Illinois Press.

Stuart, Reginald. 2007. “The Ongoing Struggle to Finance Black History.” The Crisis. Vol. 114, No. 1. pp. 39-41.

Smolensky, Eugene. 1986. “Municipal Financing of the U.S. Fine Arts Museum: A Historical Rationale.” The Journal of Economic History. Vol. 46, No. 3. pp. 757-768.

van der Burg, Tsjalle; Wilfred Dolfsma; and Celeste P.M. Wilderom. 2004. “Raising Private Investment Funds for Museums.” International Journal of Arts Management. Vol. 6, No. 3. pp. 50-59.

Varhola, Michael J. 2007. “Civil War Today: Rough Waters for the Museum of the Confederacy.” Civil War Times. Vol. 45, No. 10. pp. 19-20.

3) Economic Relationship between Museums and Local Communities.

Getzner, Michael; and Caroline Oberlercher. 2003. “Small Museums and the Regional Economy: An Austrian Case Study.” Wirtschaftspolitische Blatter. Vol. 50, No. 2. pp. 271-284.

Hanable, William S. 2004. “Oregon’s Cultural Trust: triumph or tragedy.” History News. Vol. 59. No. 3. pp. 23-25.

Johnson, Peter; and Barry Thomas. Tourism, museums and the local economy: The economic impact of the North of England Open Air Museum at Beamish. Brookfield, VT: Ashgate Publishing Co.

Plaza, Beatriz. 2006. “The Return on Investment of the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao.” International Journal of Urban and Regional Research. Vol. 30, No. 2. pp. 452-467.