Municipal elections and cultural expenditure

Arts of the states in crisis–Revisiting determinants of state-level appropriations to arts agencies

“…Education levels remain an insignificant predictor, consistent with other studies of determinants of cultural expenditures (e.g., Benito et al 2013) that find no education effect. The previous significant coefficients of the first year of a presidential term and balanced budget rules become insignificant when the sample is extended.…”

“…It may not matter much at all, like Getzner (2002, this issue) and Benito et al (2013) find. Rather the very strong role of lagged SAA appropriations underscores a path dependency in public arts funding and suggests a "stickiness" and inertia in funding that belies an approach to public arts funding driven by either permanent conditions or by contemporary circumstances.…”

“…In a sense, the last decade has revealed these states to be differently hospitable to SAA appropriations than they once were. Second, comparing the state-level fixed effects to the high-profile cases of severe budget cuts, or threats of budget cuts, in Table 1 Benito et al (2013) and Bertelli et al (2014) find evidence of politically strategic cultural spending, SAAs spread their spending so widely (Rosenstein et al 2013) that it can leave them vulnerable and without political champions.…”

“…Hard economic times pose funding challenges for many public services, and the arts may not be "special" in this regard. Several previous studies have examined drivers of public arts funding (e.g., Getzner 2002, Werck et al 2008, Benito et al 2013, Bertelli et al 2014. How the arts have fared in light of this new challenge, the deeper and longer "shock" to the fiscal health of the government support system, is ultimately an empirical question.…”

Public provision vs. outsourcing of cultural services: Evidence from Italian cities

“…A number of empirical papers have appeared in recent years adopting a positive approach to local governments' cultural policy and using public spending data (Getzner 2002;Noonan 2007;Werck, Heyndels and Geys 2008;Benito, Bastida and Vicente 2013), but they all aim at explaining the level of spending, not the type. Our focus is on the determinants a◆ecting the choice between direct production and outsourcing of cultural services at a local level of government.…”