2015/07 | LEM Working Paper Series | |
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Art Collections and Taste in the Spanish Siglo de Oro |
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Federico Etro and Elena Stepanova |
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Keywords | ||
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Hedonic price index, Lopez hypothesis, Schumpeterian hypothesis
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JEL Classifications | ||
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Z11, N0, L14, D4
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Abstract | ||
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We analyze art pricing in a unique dataset on Madrid inventories
between 1600 and 1750. Hedonic regressions reveal a number of
interesting facts about the taste of Baroque Spanish collectors and
the imports of foreign paintings. The hedonic price index shows an
impressive increase in the price of paintings (relative to the cost of
living) during the XVII century, in line with the Lopez hypothesis for
which investment in art increases in wealthy societies without new
productive investment opportunities. We examine price differentials
between domestic and imported paintings: at the beginning of the
century local works were priced substantially below imported
paintings, but the price gap is gradually reduced during the century,
with an increasing contribution of the younger painters. This is in
line with a Schumpeterian hypothesis for which increasing demand
induced increasing domestic quality, as priced by the market, and
created the conditions for what is known as the Siglo de Oro of
Spanish art.
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