Description
Since the 1980’s in most developed countries there has been a decrease of public support to the cultural setor, especially of direct support. The fact is justified by significant budget constraints faced by public institutions and led to an increasing need of economic assessment of public projects and choices, also in the cultural field. In the United States, the first economic studies inthe cultural setor emerged in the 1960’s and 1970’s, when art was still considered a luxury good. In Portugal, the making of economic assessments in the cultural setor still has a long way to go. In this work, the Cost-Benefit Analysis (CBA) methodology is used to assess the economic
performance of the Orquestra de Jazz Matosinhos (OJM) in the last decade. The OJM is today one of the most dynamic Portuguese jazz formations, with increasing international recognition. Its major cultural goods are the big band concerts and the school sessions to children. CBA starts with a private analysis, with policies and considering observable market prices for outputs and inputs, and it is followed by a social or efficiency analysis, without policies and considering shadow or efficiency prices for outputs and inputs. Results show that the OJM project is not only viable for the musicians of the orchestra (private
analysis) but also generates wealth for society (efficiency analysis), justifying the public support of the project on an efficiency ground. Although the net benefits of the project are positive for society, with the current allocation of resources (efficiency analysis) producer surplus is negative. The latter points for the possibility of another allocation of resources being more efficient that the current one. This work also provides a discussion of the rational behind policy
support of a cultural project like the OJM in the scenario in which the project represents a sacrifice of wealth for society.
| Period | 7 Apr 2013 |
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| Degree of Recognition | Master |