Narrowing the Gap: Implications of Arts Entrepreneurship Curricula on Artist Labor Market Outcomes

Abstract

This paper studies the role of arts entrepreneurship training among artists. First, we present results from a new hand-collected dataset on the incidence of arts entrepreneurship across leading colleges and conservatories. We find that such entrepreneurship training is exceedingly rare and limited. Second, using data from the American Community Survey, we show that artists who also have some business background earn greater wages in the labor market and exhibit better labor market prospects. We subsequently explore the expansion of arts entrepreneurship training for artists and discuss emerging trends.

Keywords: arts, employment, earnings, entrepreneurship