IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/bla/ecinqu/v53y2015i1p365-387.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The Labor Market In The Art Sector Of Baroque Rome

Author

Listed:
  • Federico Etro
  • Silvia Marchesi
  • Laura Pagani

Abstract

We analyze the labor market for painters in Baroque Rome using unique data on primary sales of portraits, still lifes, genre paintings, landscapes, and figurative paintings. In line with the traditional artistic hierarchy of genres, average price differentials between them were high. The matched painter‐patron nature of the dataset allows us to evaluate the extent to which price heterogeneity is related to unobservable characteristics of painters and patrons. We find that the market allocated artists between artistic genres to the point of equalizing the marginal return of each genre. Residual price differences at the employer level can be explained in terms of incentive mechanisms to induce effort in the production of artistic quality and compensating wage differentials. (JEL C23, D8, J3, Z11)

Suggested Citation

  • Federico Etro & Silvia Marchesi & Laura Pagani, 2015. "The Labor Market In The Art Sector Of Baroque Rome," Economic Inquiry, Western Economic Association International, vol. 53(1), pages 365-387, January.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:ecinqu:v:53:y:2015:i:1:p:365-387
    DOI: 10.1111/ecin.12115
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1111/ecin.12115
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1111/ecin.12115?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Abowd, John M. & Kramarz, Francis & Margolis, David N. & Troske, Kenneth R., 2001. "The Relative Importance of Employer and Employee Effects on Compensation: A Comparison of France and the United States," Journal of the Japanese and International Economies, Elsevier, vol. 15(4), pages 419-436, December.
    2. Jan Eeckhout & Philipp Kircher, 2011. "Identifying Sorting--In Theory," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 78(3), pages 872-906.
    3. Federico Etro & Laura Pagani, 2012. "The Market for Paintings in the Venetian Republic from Renaissance to Rococ�," Working Papers 2012_10, Department of Economics, University of Venice "Ca' Foscari".
    4. David W. Galenson & Bruce A. Weinberg, 2000. "Age and the Quality of Work: The Case of Modern American Painters," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 108(4), pages 761-777, August.
    5. Etro, Federico & Pagani, Laura, 2012. "The Market for Paintings in Italy During the Seventeenth Century," The Journal of Economic History, Cambridge University Press, vol. 72(2), pages 423-447, May.
    6. Gruetter, Max & Lalive, Rafael, 2009. "The importance of firms in wage determination," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 16(2), pages 149-160, April.
    7. Brandt, Loren & Hosios, Arthur J, 1996. "Credit, Incentives, and Reputation: A Hedonic Analysis of Contractual Wage Profiles," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 104(6), pages 1172-1226, December.
    8. Marianne Bertrand & Claudia Goldin & Lawrence F. Katz, 2010. "Dynamics of the Gender Gap for Young Professionals in the Financial and Corporate Sectors," American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, American Economic Association, vol. 2(3), pages 228-255, July.
    9. Daniel A. Ackerberg & Maristella Botticini, 2002. "Endogenous Matching and the Empirical Determinants of Contract Form," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 110(3), pages 564-591, June.
    10. Federico Etro & Laura Pagani, 2013. "The market for paintings in the Venetian Republic from Renaissance to Rococò," Journal of Cultural Economics, Springer;The Association for Cultural Economics International, vol. 37(4), pages 391-415, November.
    11. Patrick Sevestre & Laszlo Matyas, 2008. "The Econometrics of Panel Data," Université Paris1 Panthéon-Sorbonne (Post-Print and Working Papers) halshs-00279977, HAL.
    12. Orley Ashenfelter & Kathryn Graddy, 2003. "Auctions and the Price of Art," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 41(3), pages 763-787, September.
    13. Austin Nichols, 2008. "FESE: Stata module to calculate standard errors for fixed effects," Statistical Software Components S456914, Boston College Department of Economics, revised 05 Sep 2008.
    14. Teulings, Coen N, 1995. "The Wage Distribution in a Model of the Assignment of Skills to Jobs," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 103(2), pages 280-315, April.
    15. David Galenson, 2009. "Old masters and young geniuses: The two life cycles of human creativity," Journal of Applied Economics, Universidad del CEMA, vol. 12, pages 1-9, May.
    16. Holmstrom, Bengt & Milgrom, Paul, 1991. "Multitask Principal-Agent Analyses: Incentive Contracts, Asset Ownership, and Job Design," The Journal of Law, Economics, and Organization, Oxford University Press, vol. 7(0), pages 24-52, Special I.
    17. Woodcock, Simon D., 2008. "Wage differentials in the presence of unobserved worker, firm, and match heterogeneity," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 15(4), pages 771-793, August.
    18. Epple, Dennis, 1987. "Hedonic Prices and Implicit Markets: Estimating Demand and Supply Functions for Differentiated Products," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 95(1), pages 59-80, February.
    19. Shapiro, Carl & Stiglitz, Joseph E, 1984. "Equilibrium Unemployment as a Worker Discipline Device," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 74(3), pages 433-444, June.
    20. Federico Etro & Elena Stepanova, 2013. "The Market for Paintings in the Netherlands during the Seventeenth Century," Working Papers 2013:16, Department of Economics, University of Venice "Ca' Foscari".
    21. László Mátyás & Patrick Sevestre (ed.), 2008. "The Econometrics of Panel Data," Advanced Studies in Theoretical and Applied Econometrics, Springer, number 978-3-540-75892-1.
    22. Goux, Dominique & Maurin, Eric, 1999. "Persistence of Interindustry Wage Differentials: A Reexamination Using Matched Worker-Firm Panel Data," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 17(3), pages 492-533, July.
    23. Weiss, Andrew W, 1980. "Job Queues and Layoffs in Labor Markets with Flexible Wages," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 88(3), pages 526-538, June.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Etro, Federico & Marchesi, Silvia & Stepanova, Elena, 2020. "Liberalizing art. Evidence on the Impressionists at the end of the Paris Salon," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 62(C).
    2. Federico Etro & Elena Stepanova, 2017. "Art collections and taste in the Spanish Siglo de Oro," Journal of Cultural Economics, Springer;The Association for Cultural Economics International, vol. 41(3), pages 309-335, August.
    3. Federico Etro & Elena Stepanova, 2017. "Art Auctions and Art Investment in the Golden Age of British Painting," Scottish Journal of Political Economy, Scottish Economic Society, vol. 64(2), pages 191-225, May.
    4. Etro, Federico & Stepanova, Elena, 2021. "Art return rates from old master paintings to contemporary art," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 181(C), pages 94-116.
    5. Federico Etro & Elena Stepanova, 2016. "Entry of painters in the Amsterdam market of the Golden Age," Journal of Evolutionary Economics, Springer, vol. 26(2), pages 317-348, May.
    6. Etro, Federico, 2018. "The Economics of Renaissance Art," The Journal of Economic History, Cambridge University Press, vol. 78(2), pages 500-538, June.
    7. Laura Pagani, 2021. "Diana S. Greenwald: Painting by numbers—data-driven histories of nineteenth-century art, Princeton University Press, 2021," Journal of Cultural Economics, Springer;The Association for Cultural Economics International, vol. 45(4), pages 735-738, December.
    8. Anne-Sophie V. Radermecker & Koenraad Brosens, 2023. "Valuing European tapestry: from riches to rags," Journal of Cultural Economics, Springer;The Association for Cultural Economics International, vol. 47(3), pages 359-406, September.
    9. Ennio E. Piano & Tanner Hardy, 2022. "Rent seeking and the decline of the Florentine school," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 192(1), pages 59-78, July.
    10. Etro, Federico, 2024. "Art and Markets in the Greco-Roman World," The Journal of Economic History, Cambridge University Press, vol. 84(2), pages 432-478, June.
    11. Ennio E. Piano, 2022. "Specialization and the firm in Renaissance Italian art," Journal of Cultural Economics, Springer;The Association for Cultural Economics International, vol. 46(4), pages 659-697, December.
    12. Federico Etro & Elena Stepanova, 2015. "The Market for Paintings in Paris between Rococo and Romanticism," Kyklos, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 68(1), pages 28-50, February.
    13. Cellini, Roberto & Cuccia, Tiziana, 2014. "The artist–art dealer relationship as a marketing channel," Research in Economics, Elsevier, vol. 68(1), pages 57-69.
    14. Anne-Sophie Radermecker & Koenraad Brosens, 2023. "Valuing European tapestry: from riches to rags," ULB Institutional Repository 2013/371370, ULB -- Universite Libre de Bruxelles.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Federico Etro & Silvia Marchesi & Laura Pagani, 2011. "The Labor Market in the Seventeenth-Century Italian Art Sector," Working Papers 215, University of Milano-Bicocca, Department of Economics, revised Nov 2011.
    2. Nilsen, Øivind Anti & Raknerud, Arvid & Skjerpen, Terje, 2011. "Using the Helmert-transformation to reduce dimensionality in a mixed model: Application to a wage equation with worker and firm heterogeneity," Discussion Paper Series in Economics 11/2011, Norwegian School of Economics, Department of Economics, revised 04 Oct 2011.
    3. Mittag, Nikolas, 2016. "A Simple Method to Estimate Large Fixed Effects Models Applied to Wage Determinants and Matching," IZA Discussion Papers 10447, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    4. repec:eee:labchp:v:3:y:1999:i:pb:p:2373-2437 is not listed on IDEAS
    5. Davidson, Carl & Heyman, Fredrik & Matusz, Steven & Sjöholm, Fredrik & Zhu, Susan Chun, 2014. "Globalization and imperfect labor market sorting," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 94(2), pages 177-194.
    6. Federico Etro & Elena Stepanova, 2017. "Art collections and taste in the Spanish Siglo de Oro," Journal of Cultural Economics, Springer;The Association for Cultural Economics International, vol. 41(3), pages 309-335, August.
    7. Annaïg Morin, 2023. "Workplace heterogeneity and wage inequality in Denmark," Journal of Applied Econometrics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 38(1), pages 123-133, January.
    8. David Card & Jörg Heining & Patrick Kline, 2013. "Workplace Heterogeneity and the Rise of West German Wage Inequality," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 128(3), pages 967-1015.
    9. repec:eee:labchp:v:3:y:1999:i:pb:p:2291-2372 is not listed on IDEAS
    10. Federico Etro & Elena Stepanova, 2015. "The Market for Paintings in Paris between Rococo and Romanticism," Kyklos, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 68(1), pages 28-50, February.
    11. Pownall, Rachel A.J. & Graddy, Kathryn, 2016. "Pricing color intensity and lightness in contemporary art auctions," Research in Economics, Elsevier, vol. 70(3), pages 412-420.
    12. Nikolas Mittag, 2015. "A Simple Method to Estimate Large Fixed Effects Models Applied to Wage Determinants and Matching," CERGE-EI Working Papers wp532, The Center for Economic Research and Graduate Education - Economics Institute, Prague.
    13. Torben Sørensen & Rune Vejlin, 2013. "The importance of worker, firm and match effects in the formation of wages," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 45(1), pages 435-464, August.
    14. Maristella Botticini & Aloysius Siow, 2003. "Why Dowries?," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 93(4), pages 1385-1398, September.
    15. repec:spo:wpecon:info:hdl:2441/6ggbvnr6munghes9od0s108ro is not listed on IDEAS
    16. Jeremy Lise & Costas Meghir & Jean-Marc Robin, 2016. "Matching, Sorting and Wages," Review of Economic Dynamics, Elsevier for the Society for Economic Dynamics, vol. 19, pages 63-87, January.
    17. Jeremy Lise & Costas Meghir & Jean-Marc Robin, 2013. "Mismatch, Sorting and Wage Dynamics," Cowles Foundation Discussion Papers 1886, Cowles Foundation for Research in Economics, Yale University.
    18. Mitchell Hoffman & Elizabeth Lyons, 2020. "A time to make laws and a time to fundraise? On the relation between salaries and time use for state politicians," Canadian Journal of Economics/Revue canadienne d'économique, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 53(3), pages 1318-1358, August.
    19. Constança Esteves-Sorenson, 2018. "Gift Exchange in the Workplace: Addressing the Conflicting Evidence with a Careful Test," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 64(9), pages 4365-4388, September.
    20. Yolanda F. Rebollo-Sanz, 2017. "Decomposing the structure of wages into firm and worker effects: some insights from a high unemployment economy," Working Papers 17.10, Universidad Pablo de Olavide, Department of Economics.
    21. Lionel Wilner, 2016. "Worker-firm matching and the parenthood pay gap: Evidence from linked employer-employee data," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 29(4), pages 991-1023, October.
    22. repec:spo:wpmain:info:hdl:2441/6ggbvnr6munghes9od0s108ro is not listed on IDEAS
    23. Herbold, Daniel & Schumacher, Heiner, 2020. "The agency costs of on-the-job search," Games and Economic Behavior, Elsevier, vol. 121(C), pages 435-452.
    24. Federico Etro & Laura Pagani, 2013. "The market for paintings in the Venetian Republic from Renaissance to Rococò," Journal of Cultural Economics, Springer;The Association for Cultural Economics International, vol. 37(4), pages 391-415, November.

    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • C23 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Single Equation Models; Single Variables - - - Models with Panel Data; Spatio-temporal Models
    • D8 - Microeconomics - - Information, Knowledge, and Uncertainty
    • J3 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Wages, Compensation, and Labor Costs
    • Z11 - Other Special Topics - - Cultural Economics - - - Economics of the Arts and Literature

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:bla:ecinqu:v:53:y:2015:i:1:p:365-387. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/weaaaea.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.