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“Mournful and yet grand is the destiny of the artist.” Some Economic History of Music Composers and their Creativity

Borowiecki, Karol Jan LU (2015)
Abstract
This dissertation provides new insights on creativity and the lives of creative people, by availing of unique data-sets covering the lives, works and emotional states of famous music composers. The underlying research documents the long-run persistence of a society’s preference towards cultural goods and shows that the geography of composer births displays remarkable continuity over a period of seven centuries. It formalizes and documents the trade-off between agglomeration economies (beneficial peer effects) and diseconomies (peer crowding) experienced by music composers. Furthermore, it is explored how peer crowding impacts composers’ emotional well-being. The results point to a large reduction in composers’ longevity, if they are... (More)
This dissertation provides new insights on creativity and the lives of creative people, by availing of unique data-sets covering the lives, works and emotional states of famous music composers. The underlying research documents the long-run persistence of a society’s preference towards cultural goods and shows that the geography of composer births displays remarkable continuity over a period of seven centuries. It formalizes and documents the trade-off between agglomeration economies (beneficial peer effects) and diseconomies (peer crowding) experienced by music composers. Furthermore, it is explored how peer crowding impacts composers’ emotional well-being. The results point to a large reduction in composers’ longevity, if they are located in cities where the peer competition has been greater. Finally, the determinants of psychological well-being are studied and quantitative evidence is provided on the existence of a causal impact of negative emotions on outstanding creativity - an association hypothesized across several disciplines since Antiquity; however, not yet convincingly established. (Less)
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author
supervisor
opponent
  • Wolf, Nikolaus, Humboldt University of Berlin
organization
publishing date
type
Thesis
publication status
published
subject
defense location
EC3:211
defense date
2015-03-25 10:15:00
language
English
LU publication?
yes
additional info
This record is to be approved by Fredrik Gallo .
id
9d718bcc-7e02-420f-a6d7-40a81c7c82ff (old id 5051337)
date added to LUP
2016-04-04 09:10:39
date last changed
2018-11-21 20:51:18
@phdthesis{9d718bcc-7e02-420f-a6d7-40a81c7c82ff,
  abstract     = {{This dissertation provides new insights on creativity and the lives of creative people, by availing of unique data-sets covering the lives, works and emotional states of famous music composers. The underlying research documents the long-run persistence of a society’s preference towards cultural goods and shows that the geography of composer births displays remarkable continuity over a period of seven centuries. It formalizes and documents the trade-off between agglomeration economies (beneficial peer effects) and diseconomies (peer crowding) experienced by music composers. Furthermore, it is explored how peer crowding impacts composers’ emotional well-being. The results point to a large reduction in composers’ longevity, if they are located in cities where the peer competition has been greater. Finally, the determinants of psychological well-being are studied and quantitative evidence is provided on the existence of a causal impact of negative emotions on outstanding creativity - an association hypothesized across several disciplines since Antiquity; however, not yet convincingly established.}},
  author       = {{Borowiecki, Karol Jan}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  school       = {{Lund University}},
  title        = {{“Mournful and yet grand is the destiny of the artist.” Some Economic History of Music Composers and their Creativity}},
  year         = {{2015}},
}