15th ACEI International conference

The 15th ACEI International conference on Cultural Economics will be held at Northeastern University, Boston.

June 12-15, 2008.

Call for Papers: The conference invites the submission of papers on any aspect of cultural economics.  Papers are invited from members and non-members in all areas of the application of economics to the arts, heritage, media, cultural industries, cultural policy and related areas. The complete call for papers can be found on the ACEI's website: www.acei.neu.edu

Association for Cultural Economics International

(ACEI)

The Association for Cultural Economics International (ACEI) is a scientific society of (at present) around 150 members including academic scholars, government officials, foundation officials, managers of arts and cultural organizations and artists, who share an interest in furthering understanding of the economic aspects of the arts and culture in their own countries and throughout the world. It holds international conferences every two years, sponsors small conferences, workshops, and sessions concerned with cultural economics at meetings of other scientific societies. A brief history is provided further down this page.

One of the most important activities of ACEI is its publications - the Journal of Cultural Economics and the ACEI Newsletter.  The Journal is the only professional journal in the field and is the official journal of the ACEI. It publishes original papers that deal with the theoretical development of cultural economics as a subject, the application of economic analysis and econometrics to the field of culture, and with the economic aspects of cultural policy. Besides full-length papers, short papers and book reviews are also published. The Newsletter is published twice a year with news and updates of publications, events and people and organisations working in the field.  Click here for more information on these publications.

What is cultural economics ?

Cultural economics is the application of economic analysis to the creative and performing arts, the heritage and cultural industries, in both the public and private sectors. It is concerned with the economic organization of the cultural sector and with the behavior of producers, consumers and governments in that sector. The subject includes a range of approaches, mainstream and radical, neoclassical, welfare economics, public policy and institutional economics and it also espouses interdisciplinary analysis connected to these topics.

Select any of the following for more information on current and previous activities of ACEI:

The next conference will be held in June 2008 in Montreal, Canada, and more details will be announced in due course.

Membership and how to join

The ACEI welcomes new members.  Membership of the ACEI includes a subscription to the Journal of Cultural Economics in hard copy (4 issues each year), the ACEI Newsletter (2 issues per year) and reduced registration fees at ACEI conferences.  The ACEI has regular and student membership: regular membership is for 1 or 2 years.  Applications for membership may be made to the Executive Secretary-Treasurer, Neil Alper (acei@neu.edu).  Click here to access the Application Form for membership.

Brief history of the ACEI

In 1973, Professor William Hendon of the University of Akron, Ohio, founded the Journal of Cultural Economics and he organized the first international conference on cultural economics, at Edinburgh in 1979. He also started an Association for Cultural Economics (ACE) that held conferences in collaboration with host organizations in Maastricht, Netherlands (1982), Akron, Ohio, USA (1984), Avignon, France (1986), Ottawa, Canada (1988), Umea, Sweden (1990) and Fort Worth, Texas, USA (1992). In 1993, the ACE was transformed into the presently organized ACEI as a membership society with the election for officers and the adoption of the constitution.