Economic Engagements with Art

Book excerpt: Economists historically have had very little to say about art. In the latter part of the twentieth century, however, difficult issues such as pricing and art valuation, the influence of the fashionable on pricing, and the nature of auction all began to be explored. Economic Engagements with Art suggests that taste and fashion in art need not be mysterious or outside rational discourse and that these matters can be studied by economists to the benefit of the discipline.