Evolutionary Economics of Creative Industries

This now-major project has developed out of Creative Economy Mapping (project 4) over the life of the Centre. It develops the theoretical and analytic foundations of an evolutionary economic approach to analysis of the creative industries. This includes analysis of models of creative industries growth and their effect on the broader economy; models of ‘social networks’; models of ‘multiple games’; models of institutional evolution; analysis of the ‘economics of creativity’, the ‘economics of identity’ and the ‘evolutionary economics of happiness’; and innovation policy in the creative industries. It now also includes projects to develop creative city indices and cultural consumption indices. The project brings together a cross-disciplinary research group with a broad publication and agenda-setting schedule.

Progress in 2010
During 2010 the evolutionary economics of creative industries stream has continued to develop conceptual and theoretical papers on consumer co-creation, signalling, innovation policy, creative industries and innovation models, and on the dynamics of creative competition. Several books were completed this year (including Potts’s ‘Creative industries and economic evolution’). Ten or so journal articles have been published or submitted to international economics and innovation journals. Several book chapters and working papers were also produced. A new stream of work has also opened on happiness economics and its application to cultural science. Connections were made to work of economic sociologists (particularly David Stark) through contact with the Social Science Research Center Berlin, (WZB) in Germany.

Plans for 2011
2011 will see further conceptual and theoretical papers published on themes of the economics of creative competition, further work on creative industries labour markets using HILDA data base, and further developing models and applications of cultural science. 2011 will expect to see the development of a new suite of work on cultural and creative industries indices. Further work will develop the Cultural Science Program through conceptual and theoretical working papers.

Some outputs and impacts included:
- Potts edited a special issue of ‘Innovation: Management, Practice and Policy on ‘public sector innovation.
- Cunningham and Potts’s ‘four models paper was reprinted in Revue d’Economie Politique.
- Potts’s work on behavioural foundations of innovation economics was published in the journal Prometheus.
- Potts presented happiness economics work at the Mont Pelerin Society meeting in October.
- Potts’ work on happiness economics was quoted in the UK’s Daily Telegraph in November and was also mentioned on a Channel 4 program on ‘happiness policy’.

New Knowledge Generated
2010 saw the further advance of several ongoing projects to develop the evolutionary economic foundations of cultural science. Several new projects were also initiated on happiness economics and also on a cultural consumption price index, for which preliminary results have been estimated.