The Department for Culture Media and Sport (DCMS) today published a report entitled 'Measuring the value of culture'. It was written by UKCEM's Dr Dave 0'Brien during his six-month placement fellowship at the DCMS. The project was funded jointly by the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC), the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) and the DCMS.
As the DCMS web site notes: 'The report marks the start of a new programme of work on measuring cultural value, aiming to take a role in leading a step- change in understanding and methodology in this area. Dr O' Brien explores the debates around cultural value, considering the meaning of culture and the reasons why valuation of culture is such a difficult task. The report considers several solutions to the problem of how to value culture, giving an overview of techniques from environmental and health economics, arts and humanities research and recent studies on subjective wellbeing. Overall the report concludes that, in the context of HM Treasury's Green Book, the economic valuation techniques supported by the Green Book should be used by the cultural sector when articulating its value to central government.'
The full report can be downloaded for free here. (PDF. 524kb)
