The Fine Arts Degrees That Make Economic and Financial Sense

Abstruse

This written report examines the office of college graduates with degrees in the arts, Stem, and other creative fields as entrepreneurs and innovators in the US economic system. Every bit creativity is a trait of art students and is of import for those acting equally entrepreneurs and innovators in an economy, arts majors have the potential to play an of import function in these areas. Using American Community Survey information, we expect to identify arts, STEM, and other creative majors who are working in entrepreneurial occupations, those where self-employment is mutual, and innovative industries, those that are copyright intensive. As information technology is possible that the nature of arts occupations may be inherently more entrepreneurial and innovative, we compare arts majors to Stem and other creative majors as well likely to work in such occupations. Using logistic regression, nosotros detect that majoring in a cadre arts field more than doubles an individual's likelihood of working in an entrepreneurial occupation or an innovative industry relative to not-creative majors. Other creative majors, similar communications and Stalk majors, are as well associated with an increased likelihood of working as entrepreneurs or innovators. Relative to STEM and other creative majors, majoring in a core arts field is associated with the greatest increment in the likelihood of working in an entrepreneurial occupation and 3rd greatest increase in the likelihood of working in an innovative manufacture. While arts graduates play an important role in creative creation, this paper highlights a part for these graduates as entrepreneurs and innovators in the Usa economy.

Introduction

Innovation and entrepreneurship are terms often associated with economic growth. Entrepreneurs create new businesses that can spur employment and economic growth (Fölster 2000). Innovation, through the development of intellectual property, also has the potential to spur economic growth (Park 2010; Towse et al. 2008). Since entrepreneurs generate new business organization ideas and innovators generate new works of intellectual property, creativity is important in determining success as an entrepreneur or an innovator (Kritikos 2014). One group of college graduates for whom creativity is an integral part of pedagogy are arts majors (Tepper and Kuh 2011). Still, their function in entrepreneurship and innovation has non been studied.

The role of entrepreneurs and innovators in economical growth increasingly aligns with the cosmos of small-scale businesses (Kritikos 2014). Economical activity shifted from large to pocket-sized firms in the Usa in the late twentieth century. Fortune 500 companies accounted for 20% of employment in 1970; they accounted for 8.5% in 1996 (Carlsson 1999). In 2016, the USA had approximately 5.6 1000000 firms. The majority of these were pocket-size businesses; 89.0% employed fewer than 20 workers and 98.2% employed fewer than 100 workers. Small businesses contribute substantially to employment and the cosmos of intellectual property ("Facts & Data on Small Business and Entrepreneurship" 2018). Firms with few employees are especially common within creative and creative industries (Bujor and Avasilcai 2014). Arts entrepreneurship and promotion of the arts have increasingly been used every bit strategies to create economic evolution and to attract other industries and loftier-skilled workers (Phillips 2010).

To sympathize the office arts majors play in entrepreneurship and innovation in the US economy, nosotros use American Customs Survey (ACS) data. Nosotros notice considerable evidence of this role. Arts majors are far more probable to piece of work in an entrepreneurial occupation or an innovative industry than higher graduates on average. While merely under xx% of college graduates work in entrepreneurial occupations and just under 10% work in innovative industries, having an arts major more than doubles the likelihood of each. Many Stalk and other creative majors are too more likely to piece of work in entrepreneurial occupations or innovative industries.

We present findings for Stalk and other creative majors in add-on to arts majors for two reasons. First, Stem and other creative majors are likely to involve creative thinking. Understanding the function graduates of these majors play in entrepreneurship and innovation is of import. Second, the careers that arts majors pursue may exist intrinsically more entrepreneurial and innovative than those of college graduates generally. Past comparing arts majors to Stalk and other creative majors who are as well probable to pursue fields that are intrinsically more entrepreneurial and innovative, our findings that arts majors compare favorably to persons in these fields holds greater value.

Literature review

In the literature review, we talk over 5 topics. We begin with the literature on the careers of arts majors. 2nd, we review the literature on the definition and identification of entrepreneurs. Tertiary, we explore the theoretical and empirical work connecting entrepreneurship and self-employment. 4th, we examine innovation. Last, nosotros summarize the key takeaways of these sections and necktie them to our written report.

Careers of arts majors

The careers of arts majors take been examined using large-calibration surveys, such as the Strategic National Arts Alumni Project (SNAAP) survey, the American Customs Survey (ACS), and national surveys outside the United states.

Lindemann et al. (2012), Lena et al. (2014), Gerber and Childress (2017), and Frenette and Dowd (2018) use the SNAAP data to clarify the career experience of US arts graduates. Lindemann et al. (2012) observe that more half of arts graduates hold jobs associated with the arts. For the others, sixty% report that their arts training is relevant to their jobs. Over sixty% of respondents had previously been or were currently self-employed, working freelance or working every bit independent contractors. A small number of respondents had also founded companies. Lena et al. (2014) find that among contempo graduates, the well-nigh common reasons for not working every bit professional artists were that artistic work was not available, that they held higher paying or steadier jobs in other fields, or that they had debt. For not-recent graduates, having a higher paying or steadier job was the most common reason. Gerber and Childress (2017) use SNAAP data to highlight the roles of arts graduates in teaching and serving other functions in non-profit settings. Frenette and Dowd (2018) use SNAAP information to determine what predicts employment in the arts for arts graduates. Being male and being white are both positively predictive of arts employment. Having a double major where an arts and non-arts major are paired decreases the likelihood of employment in the arts, while having a graduate arts caste increases this likelihood.

Wassall and Alper (2018) and BFAMFAPhD (2014) utilise ACS data to study the occupations and earnings of The states arts graduates. Approximately 40% of working artists practise not have any higher degree, and most higher educated artists accept a degree in a field exterior the arts. Amid arts majors, a majority work in non-arts occupations. For those working in the arts, having an arts major leads to an earnings premium. However, earnings for arts majors are depression relative to nearly other college graduates.

Bille and Jensen (2018), using Danish data, examine which factors influence whether an individual is employed in the arts. Their primary finding is that for three of five groups of art occupations, having a college degree in an arts major is a significant predictor of remaining employed in the arts. Rengers (2002) looks at the employment and earnings of arts graduates in the Netherlands. Having a partner is plant to increment the likelihood of being employed, while having children is found to decrease it.

Entrepreneurship/entrepreneurs

What is entrepreneurship, and who are entrepreneurs? These concepts lack universally accepted definitions. The Centre for American Entrepreneurship states that "Entrepreneurship is an elusive concept to pin down" ("What is Entrepreneurship?" n.d.). This is considering entrepreneurship is a concept that is studied by a diverse range of disciplines, with differing foci and differing vocabulary.

Economists' dominant definition of the entrepreneurial process is from Schumpeter (Audretsch 2003). Schumpeter viewed entrepreneurship as a process that leads to marketplace disequilibrium rather than equilibrium. A difficulty in defining the entrepreneurial procedure suggested past Audretsch (2003) is that it tin can involve a variety of organizational structures. In the arts, it can involve the activities of an individual, groups of individuals, projects, the product of a performance, and firms that are either for-profit or not-for-profit.

A universally accepted definition of entrepreneurs is difficult to come with. An all-encompassing definition comes from Dictionary.com: "Entrepreneurs, in the purest sense, are those who place a need---any need---and fill up information technology. It'due south a primordial urge, contained of product, service, manufacture or market" (Nelson 2012). A definition that's more economic science focused is: "... a person, who through innovation and/or insight, adds value to a product or service and moves it to a college level of economic render" (Radich 2014). Radich (2014) identifies social entrepreneurs who produce products or services that do not necessarily generate college levels of economic return merely do good specific groups or gild every bit a whole. These entrepreneurs are in government, teaching, and politics. They innovate and have risks but create non-monetizable benefits from the products and services they produce. Taken collectively, entrepreneurship is a procedure of new cosmos, with entrepreneurs equally the creators.

Defining entrepreneurs empirically is mostly much simpler and often revolves around self-employment (Christnacht et al. 2018). According to Blanchflower and Oswald (2007), "(t)he most usually studied grade of entrepreneurs is those who are cocky-employed." This is especially true for studies that utilise national samples of the labor force. Blanchflower and Oswald (2007) study cocky-employed entrepreneurs using labor strength surveys for the UK, Canada, and the USA. In a separate report of Us self-employed entrepreneurs, Blanchflower expands the definition to include people who ain small firms (Blanchflower 2007).

Woronkowicz and Noonan (2019) provide a review of the empirical literature describing what is known virtually the basic characteristics of self-employed entrepreneurs. This includes education, labor market characteristics, family and individual fiscal matters, earnings, and demographic characteristics. Blanchflower and Oswald (2007) find that having a self-employed parent is positively correlated with self-employment. A contempo study past the Kauffman Foundation on early-stage entrepreneurs finds a negative correlation between educational attainment and becoming a new entrepreneur. It likewise finds that immigrants are twice as probable to get new entrepreneurs every bit native born (Fairlie et al. 2019). From a sample of US residents with scientific bachelors' degrees, Kahn et al. (2017) find an immigrant entrepreneurship premium. Lazear'due south written report of MBA graduates finds that "(e)ntrepreneurs are individuals who are multifaceted. Although not necessarily superb at anything, entrepreneurs accept to be sufficiently skilled in a variety of areas to put together the many ingredients required to create a successful business. Equally a result, entrepreneurs tend to be more balanced individuals" (Lazear 2005).

Self-employed

Due to the empirical relationship betwixt self-employment and entrepreneurship, it is important to empathize what it ways to be self-employed. Szaban and Skrzek-Lubasinska (2018) classify the cocky-employed into five categories: dependent self-employed, hybrid cocky-employed, one-person replicative business owners, one-person innovative start-up owners, and freelancers/individual professionals. These five groups differ in their level of entrepreneurship. Innovative start-up owners meet all but ane of 33 characteristics of entrepreneurship. Business owners and freelancers also come across nigh characteristics, while hybrid self-employed and dependent self-employed run into fewer than half the characteristics (Szaban and Skrzek-Lubasinska 2018). Two factors that may determine the type of self-employment a person may appoint in are educational status and the phase of the business bike.

The link between self-employment and entrepreneurship has been tested empirically. A study of the cocky-employed in Andalusia found that about 60% innovated or acted in an entrepreneurial mode and that the likelihood of innovating was positively related to pedagogy (Plotnikova et al. 2016). An empirical study of German language workers found that relative to other workers, self-employed workers perform more tasks, and those tasks performed require more than skill (Lechmann and Schnabel 2014).

Innovation/innovators

Like defining entrepreneurship, defining innovation is besides hard. The Merriam-Webster dictionary defines innovation as "the introduction of something new" or "a new idea, method, or device: novelty" ("Innovation" 2020). Innovation is a term that has unlike meanings across disciplines, like entrepreneurship. This interdisciplinarity is a key factor in the difficulty of formulating a universal definition.

Baregheg et al. (2009) present a multidisciplinary definition of innovation. The authors examine what language these definitions take in common. When defining the nature of innovation, "new" is past far the nigh frequently used discussion. "Change" and "better" are the second and third most frequent. In defining the means of innovation, the terms "thought," "invention," "technology," "market," and "inventiveness" all occur at high frequencies. In defining the type of innovation, the terms "product," "service," "process," and "technical" occur most oftentimes. Innovations are new, changed, or improved products, services, or processes, and the process of innovation involves generating ideas and being artistic.

Measuring innovation creates fewer challenges. Works of intellectual property are frequently used as measures of innovation (Teese 2018; Park 2010; Towse et al. 2008). Intellectual property law protects creators of concrete products through the awarding of patents, creators of artistic works through copyrights, and creators of brands through trademarks. While patents, copyrights, and trademarks may non exhaustively encompass all innovation that occurs inside an economy, these practise serve as quantifiable starting points to measure out innovation.

Summary

The literature on the careers of arts majors finds that most piece of work exterior the arts and many are cocky-employed. The importance of creativity in both entrepreneurship and innovation makes them candidates to contribute in these areas. In defining entrepreneurship and innovation empirically, it is mutual to relate self-employment to entrepreneurship and intellectual holding to innovation. While non perfect measures of these concepts, nosotros will use these in our empirical definitions.

Data

The American Customs Survey

Our principal data source is the Census Bureau's American Community Survey (ACS). ^{Footnote i} The ACS is an annual survey of United states residents; it began after the completion of the 2000 Census. A unique random sample of households is chosen every yr; the samples tin can be appropriately weighted using Census population weights to combine ACS Public Utilise Micro Sample (PUMS) data from different years. Nosotros utilise a combined 2013–2017 ACS PUMS equally our chief source of data.

The primary reason we use the ACS is that get-go with the 2009 survey, it collected information well-nigh the major field of study from survey participants who graduated 4-year colleges. The ACS recognizes but over 150 majors. Also, the ACS PUMS contains up to two major codes for each college graduate. Thus, persons who were double majors are identified by both major codes. In addition, the size of the 5-year sample allows for reliable estimates for detailed majors, such as arts majors.

In that location is no accepted prepare of college majors that tin can exist called arts majors. We employ two definitions. The showtime gear up, called "core arts majors," consists of nine majors probable to be considered classic arts majors: fine arts; drama and theater arts; music; visual and performing arts; commercial fine art and graphic blueprint; motion picture, video, and photographic arts; art history and criticism; studio arts; and miscellaneous fine arts. ^{Footnote 2} The architecture major is besides included in this grouping considering architects are one of the National Endowment for the Arts' eleven arts occupations.

The second group, "extended arts majors" encompasses linguistic communication and drama education; fine art and music education; English language and literature; and composition and speech. These four majors accept less artistic content, but they provide skills that would help graduates enter creative fields.

Descriptive statistics

Table 1 presents descriptive statistics for the sample of college graduates. The full sample contains approximately 2.6 million observations. Using sampling weights, ^{Footnote 3} the population of college graduates is estimated at 52.iv meg. The starting time column presents results for the population of college graduates. The 2d and third columns present comparable data for cadre arts majors and extended arts majors. Core arts majors contain 5.four% of the sample, while extended arts majors comprise 4.3%. Relative to all higher graduates, arts majors are less likely to be employed, more likely to exist employed part-time, and have lower earned income conditional on being employed. Relative to cadre arts majors, extended arts majors are more likely to be employed and accept higher earned income conditional on being employed. Cocky-employment is more common among arts majors than all college graduates.

Table ane Descriptive statistics

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Arts majors also differ significantly from the all higher graduates in many demographic characteristics. Relative to the full sample, cadre arts majors are less likely to be male, more likely to exist white, and less likely to exist married. Core arts majors are less likely to take a caste across a available'south. Extended arts majors are more than likely to have a college caste.

Nigh arts majors do not work directly in the arts. Wassall and Alper (2018), using a 2009 to 2013 combined sample from the ACS, find that depending on i's definition of arts major, between 15 and 25% of all arts majors piece of work as artists in the U.s.a.. This finding is consistent with our updated data. In Table A – ii in the Online Appendix, nosotros run into that 23.nine% of core arts majors work in arts and entertainment occupations and 16.7% of all arts majors (core plus extended) work in these occupations. Every bit for industry of choice for arts majors, Online Appendix Table A – three shows that less than seven% work in arts, entertainment, and recreation.

Entrepreneurship and innovation

Entrepreneurship

Following the literature on entrepreneurship, we use self-employment in defining entrepreneurship when examining the role of majoring in the arts in entrepreneurship.

The ACS reports on 539 unique occupations and places them into 23 major occupation groups. ^{Footnote 4} Nosotros impose a cutoff, defining an entrepreneurial occupation as any that has at least twenty% self-employment. ^{Footnote 5} This left 84 four-digit ACS occupations ^{Footnote 6} with "farmers, ranchers and other agricultural managers" having the highest percentage self-employed (84%) and "electronic dwelling entertainment equipment installers and repairers" having the lowest (20%). One of the acme five entrepreneurial occupations, "artists and related workers" (60% self-employed), is in the "artists and entertainers" major occupation group, as is the "editors" occupation (20% self-employed). Our analysis is based on the aggregation of these occupations into their advisable major occupation groups, xvi of the 23 in the ACS.

The post-obit tables show the distribution of college graduates in entrepreneurial occupations. Table ii provides this information for core and extended arts majors. Tabular array three provides the aforementioned information for STEM and other creative majors.

Table two Distribution of arts majors in entrepreneurial occupations

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Table 3 Distribution of non-fine art creative majors in entrepreneurial occupations

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Core fine art majors business relationship for 40% of workers with bachelor's degrees in the entrepreneurial arts and entertainment occupations. A large segment comes from graphic blueprint, architecture, and fine arts majors. Another ten% of artists and entertainers take degrees in an extended arts major. Those with a caste in literature or composition account for a large segment of this group (lxxx%).

There are three additional entrepreneurial occupation groups in which core arts majors account for sizeable shares of workers. Core arts majors business relationship for one-quarter of college educated workers in entrepreneurial production occupations, most common of which are graduates with degrees in fine arts and graphic design. Core arts majors as well account for more than 10% of workers in both entrepreneurial computer and entrepreneurial educator occupations. Graphic design majors business relationship for about half of core arts majors in the entrepreneurial computer occupations, while music majors account for almost half of core arts majors in the entrepreneurial education occupations. Amidst STEM majors, figurer majors account for almost one-quarter of workers in entrepreneurial figurer occupations. Almost xiii% of web developers are advice majors, and nearly 9% are social science majors. The STEM majors comprise more of the entrepreneurial educator occupation than core arts majors. Not-art didactics majors account for close to 20% of those in this occupation.

Innovation

We define innovation based on intellectual property (IP) cosmos. We define IP intensive industries as either copyright, patent, or trademark intensive based on a joint report of the Economic science & Statistics Administration and the U.Southward. Patent and Trademark Office (Economics and Statistics Administration and U.S. Patent and Trademark Office 2016). For our assay, nosotros focus on only those industries that are copyright intensive. We do this for multiple reasons. Start, while patents and copyrights are innovative works directly, trademarks indirectly promote innovation through their ability to allow brands to build reputations and become recognizable to consumers. Second, while patents are innovative works, arts majors are unlikely to be directly involved in the creation of physical inventions. Although nosotros restrict our analysis to copyright-intensive industries, we present results for patent and trademark intensive industries in the online appendix.

The ACS reports only over 250 unique industries using the North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) code. 13 of those industries are identified every bit copyright intensive. These industries include newspaper, periodical, book, and directory publishers; software publishers; move picture and video industries; sound recording industries; radio and television broadcasting; cablevision and other subscription programming; other information services; specialized blueprint services; computer systems blueprint and related services; advertising and related services; other professional person and technical services; performing arts companies; and independent artists, writers, and performers ^{Footnote vii} (Economics and Statistics Administration and U.S. Patent and Trademark Office 2016). Some are newer, coming into relevance with the rise of the internet economy. A number of these industries are closely linked to artistic output; 8.ii% of college graduates work in one of the copyright-intensive industries. ^{Footnote 8}

The following tables show the distribution of college graduates in the innovative copyright-intensive industries. Table 4 provides this information for both the core arts majors and the extended arts majors. Tabular array 5 provides the same information for Stem majors and some other creative majors.

Table 4 Distribution of arts majors in innovative industries

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Table 5 Distribution of not-fine art creative majors in innovative industries

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College graduates with at least one cadre arts major account for more than than i quarter of all higher graduates who piece of work in four of the thirteen copyright-intensive industries. The greatest intensity is the specialized pattern services manufacture; over one-half of college graduates in this industry possess a core arts major. This manufacture includes businesses that provide interior, industrial, and graphic design services. More than half of cadre arts majors who work in this industry are graphic blueprint majors. None of the Stem or other creative major groupings individually account for greater than x% of workers in the specialized design services industry.

Core arts majors account for around 30% of graduates in three additional copyright-intensive industries. The first are the performing arts companies and independent artists, writers, and performers (artists and performers) industries. These include venues that produce or organize and promote live presentations of the performances of actors and actresses, singers, dancers, musical groups and artists, and the independent (freelance) artists. Music majors are one-third of these core arts majors; fine art and drama and theater arts majors each account for another 20% of them. The second of these three is the movement moving-picture show and video industries. This manufacture group includes businesses that are primarily engaged in the production and/or distribution of movies, videos, television set programs, or commercials, in the showing of movies; or providing postproduction and related services. Film, video, and photography majors account for 40% of the core arts majors working in this industry group. Drama and fine arts majors combined to business relationship for about an boosted xl% of these workers. Beyond cadre arts majors, almost one-quarter of those with college degrees who work in these industries are communication majors. The last of these 3 is the sound recording industries group. This industry group includes businesses that produce and distribute musical recordings, publish music, or provide sound recording and related services. More than two-thirds of cadre arts majors working in these industries are music majors. None of the Stem majors account for as much as viii% of the college graduate workers in this industry group; communication majors account for 14%.

Among the remaining innovative industry groups, other professional person and technical services, ^{Footnote 9} advertising and related services, and periodical, book, and directory publishers have cadre arts majors accounting for between 10 and 15% of the workers with college degrees. In the remaining innovative copyright industries, neither core arts majors nor extended arts majors are well represented. However, some of the non-arts creative majors are well represented within these industries. Computer, engineering, communication, and social science majors are well represented in these industries.

Empirical methodology

The descriptive evidence presented thus far suggests a substantial office for arts majors as entrepreneurs and innovators within the economy. Specifically, 44% of cadre arts majors are employed in an entrepreneurial occupation or innovative industry, with 37.5% employed in entrepreneurial occupations and 19.6% employed in copyright-intensive industries. Logistic regressions will be used to complement this descriptive evidence. This will permit us to test for differences in the employment of arts majors in entrepreneurial occupations and innovative industries relative to Stalk majors, other artistic majors, and non-creative majors, property constant demographic and employment-related characteristics.

Commencement, logistic regressions are estimated with an indicator for entrepreneurial occupation as the dependent variable. The estimating equation considered is

$$ {Entrepreneur}_i={\beta}_0+{\beta}_1{CoreArts}_i+{\beta}_2 Extended{Arts}_i+{\beta}_{\boldsymbol{M}}{\boldsymbol{M}}_i+{\beta}_{\boldsymbol{D}}{\boldsymbol{D}}_i+{\beta}_{\boldsymbol{E}}{\boldsymbol{E}}_i+{\varepsilon}_i $$

where CoreArts is a binary variable indicating that the individual majored in a core arts major and ExtendedArts is a binary variable indicating that the individual majored in an extended arts major. The vector Chiliad is a group of binary variables indicating the various non-arts creative major groupings. Demographic controls, the vector D , include age and age-squared, binary variables indicating married, white, Black, Asian, Hispanic, and male, as well as an interaction of male person and married. Employment related controls, the vector Due east , include indicators for role-time employment and having a degree beyond a bachelor's caste, likewise as regional indicators. Additionally, i regression includes binary variables indicating the wide occupational groupings as identified in Online Appendix Table A – 2. Majoring in the arts could increment the likelihood of working in an occupational grouping where entrepreneurship is common, or it could increase the likelihood of working in an entrepreneurial occupation within an occupational group. This regression will allow us to parse out those two effects.

A logistic regression is so estimated with an indicator for employment in innovative industries as the dependent variable. The estimating equation to be considered is

$$ {Innovator}_i={\beta}_0+{\beta}_1{CoreArts}_i+{\beta}_2 Extended{Arts}_i+{\beta}_{\boldsymbol{1000}}{\boldsymbol{K}}_i+{\beta}_{\boldsymbol{D}}{\boldsymbol{D}}_i+{\beta}_{\boldsymbol{E}}{\boldsymbol{Eastward}}_i+{\gamma}_{i.} $$

where the independent variables mirror those in the entrepreneur regressions.

Results

Logistic regression results testing for the impact of beingness an arts major on employment in entrepreneurial occupations and innovative industries are presented in Tabular array half-dozen. In the first ii regressions, the dependent variable is Entrepreneur. In the third regression, the dependent variable is Innovator. The coefficients presented in the Table 6 are marginal effects estimated at means.

Table 6 Logit regression: dependent variables are binaries for whether or not employed in entrepreneurial occupation, innovative industry

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The regression results suggest a substantial role for art majors as entrepreneurs and innovators. In the first specification, existence a core arts major is associated with a 22.0 percent point increase in employment in an entrepreneurial occupation relative to not-creative majors. Equally about 19.four% of the population of employed college graduates are employed in an entrepreneurial occupation, majoring in the core arts more than doubles this likelihood. While smaller, majoring in an extended arts field increases this likelihood by 4.one percentage points. The touch on of majoring in the core arts is substantial in comparison to having a STEM or other creative major. Among other creative majors, the coefficient on communication majors is highest at 8.6 percentage points. Among STEM majors, the coefficient on science majors is highest at viii.iv per centum points. The 2d specification adds controls for broad occupational groupings. When adding these controls, the coefficient on core arts major falls to viii.0 percentage points. Equally such, almost two-thirds of the impact of being a core arts major on entrepreneurship is due to an increased likelihood of being employed in an entrepreneurial occupation group, and one-third is due to an increased likelihood of entrepreneurship within occupational groupings.

The third specification tests for the impact of majoring in the arts on employment in innovative industries. ^{Footnote 10} Majoring in the cadre arts is associated with a 13.9 percent point increase in employment in copyright-intensive industries. Equally 8% of all college graduates are employed in copyright-intensive industries, core arts majors are more than twice as likely to exist employed in these industries. Majoring in an extended arts field is associated with a 6.3 per centum bespeak increment in the likelihood of innovative employment. Two other groups of artistic majors, computer, math, and stats majors at 18.v pct points and communication majors at 15.3 percentage points are more than likely than core arts majors to be employed in these industries.

Majoring in the arts besides increases their likelihood of succeeding in these areas. Online Appendix Table A – 6 presents the results of a logistic regression where the dependent variable indicates whether a worker has above average earnings in an entrepreneurial occupation or innovative industry. Of note are the positive and significant coefficients on the arts majors variables. These positive earnings impacts may also explain the motivation for arts majors to cull work equally entrepreneurs and innovators.

Conclusions

This paper investigates the role higher graduates with arts majors play as entrepreneurs and innovators in the US economy. As creativity is deeply intertwined with entrepreneurship and innovation, nosotros hypothesize that the role for arts majors in these areas is substantial. Using the American Community Survey data, we test this hypothesis. We ascertain entrepreneurial occupations as those in which self-employment is high, and innovative industries as those that are copyright intensive. We then identify a substantial office for arts majors in entrepreneurship and innovation. We find that majoring in the arts more than than doubles the likelihood of working in an entrepreneurial occupation or innovative industry. We observe that when compared to STEM and other creative majors, arts graduates compare favorably in their probability of working in these areas.

There are several reasons why these findings are important. First, entrepreneurship and innovation are important drivers of an economic system; having a better understanding of who is playing these roles can assist to inform policy geared at promoting these areas. Almost twenty% of college graduates work in entrepreneurial occupations and almost x% work in innovative industries. Of core arts majors working in innovative industries, nearly half work in professional, scientific, and technical services industries, and more than than a quarter piece of work in information industries. While more than than half of cadre arts majors working in entrepreneurial occupations work within arts, entertainment, and recreation, nearly 40% work in entrepreneurial occupations within management, education, and other fields.

Second, student loan debt in the U.s.a. is big and ascent, and at that place has been a concern well-nigh funding students in fields for which job prospects are bleak. Job prospects and salary income within the arts and entertainment fields are not strong (Wassall and Alper 2018). While at that place is value in artistic creation itself, these findings suggest that arts majors obtain skills that are transferable then that many can work every bit entrepreneurs and innovators.

Third, the findings of this work have important policy implications. As arts majors play an important office in entrepreneurship and innovation, which are drivers of economic growth, these findings provide support for further investment in arts teaching. While our work focuses on the function of higher graduates with degrees in the arts, investment in art education at the primary and secondary levels is necessary besides. Without exposure to the arts at the primary and secondary levels, it is unlikely that there would exist a pipeline of students interested in majoring in the arts at the higher level. Further, exposure at these earlier levels may as well nurture creativity in students who do not ultimately pursue a college degree or a creative college field.

In that location is a growing torso of piece of work stressing the importance of entrepreneurship educational activity within arts higher didactics programs (Bridgstock 2012; Pollard and Wilson 2013) too equally works providing guidance on how to do then (Hong et al. 2010; Toscher 2019). In light of this research, there is evidence that entrepreneurship educational activity in arts higher education is growing (White 2013; Essig and Guevara 2016). Even amidst the share of arts majors that continue to work in the public school system, evidence suggests that entrepreneurial grooming leads to increased entrepreneurial activities in and outside the classroom (Hanson 2019).

A terminal policy implication of this piece of work relates to the importance of interdisciplinarity in college education. Recent work studying firms in the U.k. has found significant economic returns to combining arts and science skills (Siepel et al. 2016). Works looking at the returns to double majoring similarly suggest economic returns to pairing arts skills with science and other skillsets (Del Rossi and Hersch 2008; Alper and Wassall 2016). Our findings of significant percentages of arts majors working in entrepreneurial occupations and innovative industries outside of the arts suggest that this interdisciplinarity is valued by The states firms as well.

While our findings take an important first step in identifying the role that arts majors play as entrepreneurs and innovators in the The states economy, there are many important avenues for futurity research all the same to exist explored. The size of the dataset allows for an assay at a more granular level. Some major US cities are known as being hubs for technology and innovation, and some are known as being artistic hubs. An understanding of where arts majors are about usually playing roles as entrepreneurs and innovators, and how creative and innovative hubs may collaborate in determining this, could add value. Further, analyses of this nature looking at this issue exterior the USA could be of value. Last, cost-benefit analyses to help inform policymakers about where resources dedicated to the arts could be nearly efficiently targeted would exist important, especially in light of the economic crises experienced in the twenty-first century, notably the Keen Recession and the coronavirus pandemic.

Data availability

All information used in this written report comes from publicly available sources.

Notes

2. Table A-1 in the Online Appendix gives detailed codes for all major groupings.

3. The ACS variable PERWT variable is used for frequency weights in all calculations.

5. Our primary findings are robust to using 15 and 25% as cutoffs.

6. See appendix Table A – 4 for a detailed list of the 84 entrepreneurial occupations and the 16 major occupation groups.

7. The corresponding NAICS codes, respectively, are 5111, 5112, 5121, 5122, 5151, 5152, 5191, 5414, 5415, 5418, 5419, 7111, and 7115.

8. Table A – 5 gives a more detailed breakdown of the distribution of copyright workers across these industries in the ACS sample.

9. ACS code 7490 or NAICS code 5419

10. Comparable results for employment in patent and trademark intensive industries are presented in Online Appendix Table A – vii.

References

• Alper, North. & Wassall, G. (2016). Double-majoring in the arts: cohort and related effects. 19th international conference on cultural economics. Conference Presentation.

• Audretsch, D. B. (2003). Entrepreneurship: a survey of the literature. Enterprise Directorate-general European Committee, Enterprise papers no. 14. https://op.europa.eu/en/publication-particular/-/publication/e6e50a79-612b-4e88-b3c9-88f1ff3f01ee.

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Affiliations

1. Department of Economics, Bloomsburg University of Pennsylvania, 228 Sutliff Hall, 400 East 2nd Street, Bloomsburg, PA, The states

   Richard J. Paulsen

2. Department of Economics, Northeastern University, Boston, MA, Usa

   Neil Alper & Gregory Wassall

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Correspondence to Richard J. Paulsen.

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Paulsen, R.J., Alper, Northward. & Wassall, Chiliad. Arts majors as entrepreneurs and innovators. Small Charabanc Econ 57, 639–652 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11187-020-00416-x

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• Accepted: 08 September 2020

• Published: 27 October 2020

• Issue Appointment: August 2021

• DOI : https://doi.org/ten.1007/s11187-020-00416-x

Keywords

• Entrepreneurship
• Innovation
• Arts
• Arts majors

JEL classifications

• J24
• L26
• O34
• Z11

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