Four models of the creative industries

Abstract

Cultural industries are now encompassed in a wider approach, the so-called creative industries. Then the difficult question about the economic role of culture for society can be revised through an extended approach: What is the dynamic value of the creative industries from the economic perspective? This paper seeks to answer this question by proposing four models of the relationship between the creative industries and the whole economy: (1) welfare, (2) competition, (3) growth and (4) innovation. Very different policy frameworks thus follow from each of the four basic dynamic models relating the creative industries to the rest of the economy. This paper will outline these four models and marshal a sample of existing evidence to begin the process of sorting among them.