Miscellaneous Artwork as Capital Assets

In 2007, I estimate that playwrights, artists, photographers and designers created miscellaneous artwork worth $3.3 billion. By category, theatrical play scripts were $1.4 billion, greeting card designs were $0.5 billion and commercial stock photography was $1.4 billion. Taken individually, each of the entertainment categories described earlier are too small to examine in a single paper. Therefore, I combine all three categories into a single paper. These diverse categories of artwork will earn revenue for their creators for decades to come. Because of their long working life, the international guidelines for national accounts recommends that countries classify production of all entertainment originals as an investment activity and then depreciation those entertainment originals over time. However, BEA did not capitalize this category of intangible assets until the July 2013 benchmark revision. In order to change the national accounts, I collected data on miscellaneous artwork production back to 1900. I then calculated how the GDP statistics would change when miscellaneous artwork is classified as a capital asset.

To preview, my empirical results are:

1. Miscellaneous artwork has grown slower than the overall entertainment industry. In 1929, miscellaneous artwork accounted for 9% of total entertainment investment. In 2007, miscellaneous artwork was only 5% of entertainment. Therefore, I would underestimate historical investment and overestimate growth rates if I ignored miscellaneous artwork;
2. Miscellaneous artwork includes a heterogeneous group of products. Each individual category has different nominal growth rates, price indexes and depreciation schedules.