The Great Recession of 2007 to 2009 Its Impact on Funding and the Perception of the Value of Art

Abstruse

This report uses American Community Survey data to examine the impact of the Great Recession on college graduates majoring in the arts. Arts graduates play important roles in an economic system, through both artistic cosmos and in careers outside of the arts. While the Great Recession took a significant price on the United states of america economic system generally, arts majors faced additional vulnerabilities as industries that rely on discretionary spending, like the arts and entertainment, are especially hard hit in times of economic downturn. This newspaper assesses the impact of graduating during or shortly after the recession relative to graduating shortly earlier this period on educational choices, including option of major, double majoring, and completing an advanced degree, and career outcomes, including employment status, type of employment, hours worked, and earnings, for college graduates majoring in the arts. Graduating before or afterwards the recession is found to have a negative impact on the share of graduates majoring in traditional arts fields, merely a positive impact on the share majoring in related creative fields. Using a departure-in-difference estimation strategy, relative to non-art college graduates, traditional arts majors graduating during or after the Corking Recession are more likely to complete a double major, exist self-employed, be unemployed, work longer hours, and earn less income than those graduating prior to the recession. These impacts are likely to have a negative issue on the pipeline of college-educated artists working in the arts into the future.

Introduction

The Slap-up Recession was a time of significant economic hardship for many Americans. Officially, the Peachy Recession began in December of 2007 and concluded in June of 2009, only the negative impact on employment lasted much longer. During this period, the unemployment rate increased from a pre-recession level of about 5% to a peak of 10%, with rates growing far higher for disadvantaged groups, immature adults, and those with lower levels of education (Cunningham, 2018). While economic downturns have a negative impact across the board, those industries that rely on discretionary consumer spending, like the arts and entertainment, are specially probable to suffer. Arts organizations and funding for the arts took significant hits during the Peachy Recession. Many arts organizations closed, saw endowment losses, or saw budget cuts during this period. Adult attendance of the performing arts roughshod. Adults and children were less likely to go to the movies and attend live performances (Miringoff & Opdycke, 2010). Perceptions of the value of arts educational activity and funding for arts education also took a hit during this menses (Ramos & Baugher, 2013).

Equally the arts suffered during the Bully Recession, it is natural to wonder how the labor market and educational attainment in the arts were affected. During this time artists were unduly unemployed or underemployed relative to other types of workers. Further, many artists switched to non-arts occupations or pursued self-employment (Woronkowicz, 2015). 1 group of workers likely to pursue piece of work in the arts are higher graduates with degrees in the arts. While studies have looked at the employment experiences of artists during this time, the labor market and educational experiences of art majors directly take not been explored.

This report will look at the touch on of the Swell Recession on art majors. ^{Footnote 1} Specifically, this study will explore how the Great Recession impacted the educational decisions of arts majors and their long-term employment outcomes in the The states. Educational decisions explored include the determination to major in an arts field, the decision to double major, and the decision to pursue an advanced caste. Parental approval is an important determinant of major choice, and economical conditions may bear upon which majors earn parental approval (Zafar, 2012). Every bit employers demand greater skills of workers during economic downturns, students may take steps to increase their human capital (Modestino et al., 2020). Employment-related outcomes considered include employment status, earnings, hours worked, and job type. These outcomes mirror the employment outcomes of Woronkowicz (2015) which focused on the impact of the Great Recession on the employment of artists.

Overall, this written report finds notable impacts of graduating during or following the Great Recession on the educational choices and career outcomes of art majors relative to non-fine art college graduates. Relative to those who graduated presently prior to the Swell Recession, those who graduate during or shortly after were less likely to major in a traditional art field, like music or performing arts, though more probable to major in a related creative field, like art education or literature. Graduating during or shortly after the recession had a positive impact on double majoring and a negative impact on completing advanced degrees for those majoring in traditional arts or related creative fields, though the opposite effect was observed for compages majors. With regard to career outcomes, art majors who graduated during the Great Recession are more likely to be self-employed and accept lower earnings conditional on being employed despite working significantly longer hours. For compages majors, graduating during or subsequently the recession is found to have a positive impact on earnings, though this is likely owing to an increased likelihood of completing an advanced degree. Fine art majors who graduated during the recession are significantly more likely to be working in the arts, in occupations like histrion or musician, than those who graduated before the recession, but this may be attributable to the increased likelihood of cocky-employment.

Before proceeding, it is important to call attention to the contributions of this work. First, while other works have focused on the employment impacts of the Great Recession on the employment of artists, this work focuses specifically on college graduates with major fields of study in the arts. While in that location is some overlap between these groups, that overlap is modest. Only about a quarter of traditional arts majors within the sample used for this assay work directly in an arts occupation. Among those working as artists, only a modest share has completed education relevant to working in their field (Bille & Jensen, 2018). Second, while other works have focused on employment-related outcomes, this work too looks at the impact on educational outcomes for art majors. Beyond playing a role in creative creation, college graduates with majors in the arts play an important function in entrepreneurship and innovation (Paulsen et al., 2021). As entrepreneurship and innovation are important drivers of economical growth, understanding how economical downturns affect the educational choices and employment of arts majors can take important implications for both adult and developing economies. While the Neat Recession was a significant economic downturn, it will exist far from the last downturn. Already nosotros take seen an economic downturn associated with the COVID-19 pandemic, and so insights gained in analyzing the impacts of the Swell Recession can be used in informing reactions to future downturns.

Literature

As this work looks to contribute to iv literatures, this review of the literature will introduce the existing works in these areas. First, I discuss literature looking at the labor marketplace for artists. 2d, I explore literature assessing the careers of college graduates who majored in the arts. Third, I introduce literature looking at the impact of recessions on higher graduates. Last, literature connecting these areas, looking at recessions and the arts, is discussed.

Labor marketplace for artists

A vast empirical literature highlights a number of means in which the labor market for artists differs from the labor markets of other workers. Artists accept low income relative to other professional workers and average workers generally (Alper & Wassall, 2006; Throsby, 1986). While a formal educational activity is required in many professional person fields, a formal teaching is not required to exist an creative person (Baldin & Bille, 2021) and many studies take found that a formal education has little impact on earnings (Bille & Jensen, 2018; Throsby, 1996). Across having depression average incomes, artists differ from much of the rest of the workforce in a variety of other means. Artists have college levels of unemployment (Alper & Wassall, 2006; Menger, 2006), are more likely to work office-time (Alper & Wassall, 2006; Throsby & Peteskaya, 2017), are more likely to agree multiple jobs (Alper & Wassall, 2000; Menger, 2006; Throsby & Peteskaya, 2017) and are more likely to be self-employed (Alper & Wassall, 2006; Woronkowicz & Noonan, 2019). Despite these negative characteristics, at that place are still many aspiring artists with hopes of successfully entering into the artistic workforce (Alper & Wassall, 1998).

Beyond the empirical work highlighting differences betwixt the labor market for artists and not-artists, a vast theoretical literature looks to explicate these differences. While the backward-bending labor supply curve derived from the tradeoff between consumption and leisure may be an appropriate model for analyzing labor supply in some professions, some workers, similar academics and artists, are likely to derive utility from their piece of work beyond the utility generated from increased consumption. The work preference model of Throsby (1994) suggests that artists are "driven past an irresistible desire to create" and will therefore maximize time spent engaged in artistic creation, subject field to a constraint of needing some minimal level of income for survival. This may explicate the willingness of artists to proceed to create and the excess supply in the artistic labor market place despite the lower levels of compensation. This theory finds empirical support in the works of Steiner and Schneider (2013) and Bille et al. (2013) which find that artists experience greater levels of chore satisfaction than other workers. Another caption for the differences in artist labor markets compared to other labor markets relates to the earnings of superstars (Adler, 1985; Rosen, 1981) or "winner-accept-all markets" (Frank & Cook, 1995). Meaning earnings differentials ascend as a select few become superstars and have very big incomes while the residual at the bottom have low incomes. This competition for superstar earnings leads to many entrants in artistic labor markets, and this is exacerbated as individuals tend to over-gauge their likelihoods of success.

Careers of arts majors

Beyond the literature looking at the labor markets for artists, a number of studies have looked at labor market place outcomes of college graduates who majored in arts fields. Many authors take used the Strategic National Arts Alumni Project (SNAAP) survey to appraise the career outcomes of arts graduates in the U.s.. With this dataset, the most common questions explored look to identify whether arts graduates are in fact working in the arts (Lindemann et al., 2012), why or why non (Frenette & Dowd, 2018; Lena et al., 2014), and if not, what those graduates are doing instead (Gerber & Childress, 2017; Lindemann et al., 2012). Lindemann et al. (2012) notice that over 50% of respondents are in fact working in the arts, with a large share currently self-employed or working freelance. Common reasons for not working in the arts include the not-availability of arts jobs, debt, and higher pay elsewhere (Lena et al., 2014). Further, being male person, white, and having a graduate degree in the arts are all predictive of existence employed in the arts, while having a double major where the other major is not an arts major is predictive of not working in the arts (Frenette & Dowd, 2018).

While the American Community Survey (ACS) does not specifically focus on arts graduates, the large sample size and breadth of questions have allowed researchers to explore the occupations, industries, and earnings of arts graduates in the Usa. In contrast to findings using the SNAAP survey, authors using the ACS have found that the bulk of college graduates with majors in the arts work in a non-arts field (BFAMFAPhD, 2014; Wassall & Alper, 2018). Paulsen et al. (2021) find that graduates of the arts play a significant function in entrepreneurship and innovation in the Us, perhaps suggesting an culling mode in which arts majors tin contribute to an economy beyond creative cosmos. Having a college degree in the arts is associated with higher earnings among those who work in the arts, merely the earnings of arts majors are withal very depression relative to the earnings of college graduates more than by and large in the Us (Wassall & Alper, 2018).

Researchers have also looked to assess the career outcomes of arts majors exterior of the U.s.. Using data from holland, Rengers (2002) finds that having children decreases the likelihood of employment in the arts, while having a partner increases it. Using a panel dataset from Denmark, Bille and Jensen (2018) observe that amid those employed in the arts in the beginning catamenia of the panel, having a college degree in the arts increases the likelihood of remaining employed in the arts in the future.

As the labor market for artists differs considerably from not-arts labor markets, it is probable that artists and arts majors volition be differentially impacted as well. Graduating during the recession or recovery period could have a differential touch on arts majors with regard to employment outcomes like self-employment, unemployment, part-time piece of work, and earnings.

Recessions and college graduates

Especially following the Keen Recession, agreement how economic fluctuations touch on college graduates is a topic that has received a good bargain of attention from researchers. Scholars have looked to appraise whether economic downturns impact higher enrollment choices. This is an interesting question as there are two potential alien forces. A weak labor market would encourage college attendance due to a decreased opportunity cost, but financial hardship may make it more hard for families to transport their children to college. Kisswani (2008) looked to assess the impact of the Smashing Depression on educational attainment. He finds some show that that educational attainment of white Americans was negatively affected, but no evidence of effects for other groups. Barr and Turner (2015) explore a like question looking at the Bully Recession and college enrollment in the USA, only with special attention paid to the impact of expanded unemployment insurance (UI) benefits. While the Nifty Recession had an overall positive impact on higher enrollment, they find that increased availability of UI benefits increases this touch further. Hampf et al. (2020) look to assess the affect of graduating loftier school during a recession on college enrollment using data from 28 developed countries. They discover positive impacts on college enrollment and graduation. While the overall impact of the Great Recession on enrollment has been found to exist positive, this impact was heterogenous, with a larger bear upon for those from advantaged economical backgrounds in both the USA (Cozzolino et al., 2018) and Europe (Ayllon &Nollenberger, 2020).

Beyond looking at the impact of graduating high school during a recession on college enrollment, attention has been paid to understanding how graduating higher during a recession impacts labor market outcomes. Graduating during a recession leads to lower wages and employment for contempo higher graduates (Kondo, 2015; Oreopoulos et al., 2012; Rothstein, 2020). Kondo (2015) finds that this effect on wages is weaker for women than men. This negative impact on wages persists over the long-term, though more advantaged graduates are able to encounter their wages recover through switching to amend firms over time, while less advantaged graduates, those students majoring in lower earning fields, can be permanently afflicted (Oreopoulos et al., 2012). While the labor marketplace overall saw recovery from the Corking Recession, new higher graduate entrants appear to have suffered from a permanent structural interruption in employment rates (Rothstein, 2020). Interestingly, enrolling in college at a time of economic downturn has a positive impact on subsequent earnings, possibly due to these students exerting greater effort during college (Bicakova et al., 2020).

Collectively, the literature on the impacts of recessions on college graduates suggests that recessions lead to increased college enrollment, enrolling during a recession leads to greater effort exerted during college, and graduating during a recession has negative simply heterogeneous furnishings on employment. These findings would propose potential implications for arts majors. Commencement, every bit arts majors have lower earnings than the average college graduate, negative impacts on employment and earnings for arts majors may exist strong and persist longer relative to higher graduates of college earning fields. 2nd, arts majors enrolling in college during the recession may exert additional try during higher to offset these potential future employment affects, which could be observed through deportment like pursuing a double major.

Recessions and the arts

When unemployment rises and incomes fall during periods of economical downturn, consumer expenditure on normal appurtenances, and peculiarly on luxury appurtenances, should fall. As arts and amusement are typically viewed by many consumers every bit luxury goods, the arts workforce is probable to exist particularly negatively affected by recessions relative to industries producing necessities. Empirical prove suggests that spending on luxury appurtenances was negatively impacted by the Great Recession. Consumer spending decreased on amusement (Gao & Kim, 2018), tourism (Alegre et al., 2013; Ritchie et al., 2010), and gambling (Eadington, 2011). The Corking Recession had a negative impact on attendance at movies and alive performances. Fine art organizations saw budget cuts, endowment losses, and in some cases had to close (Miringoff & Opdycke, 2010).

Not surprisingly, artists were especially negatively afflicted by the Great Recession. The unemployment rate for artists during 2008 was at a similar level to that of the overall workforce (Nichols, 2009), while in 2009 information technology was higher than that of the overall workforce (Nichols, 2010). This is specially notable as the unemployment charge per unit for other "professional" workers remained significantly beneath that of the overall workforce during this time (Nicholas, 2010). Fifty-fifty in the menstruation merely afterward the end of the Cracking Recession, college graduates with majors in the arts had amid the highest rates of unemployment amid all majors (Carnevale et al., 2012).

Using Current Population Survey (CPS) data, Woronkowicz (2015) explored the labor market experiences of artists during the Smashing Recession. Artists roughshod as a share of the creative workforce during and after the recession and increased as a share of workers in pedagogy. Relative to other artistic occupational groups, artists disproportionately shifted into cocky-employment or became unemployed or underemployed during and subsequently the recession. College educational attainment, being male, and being married were all plant to exist significant predictors of maintaining quality employment as an artist following the Slap-up Recession. While Woronkowicz (2015) focuses on the employment outcomes of artists post-obit the Cracking Recession, this paper seeks to focus on both educational and employment outcomes, for arts majors rather than artists, two important gaps in the literature that this work seeks to fill up.

Data

To understand how the Great Recession impacted art majors, I use individual-level data from the 2014–2018 (5-year sample) American Community Survey (ACS), accessed through the Integrated Public Use Microdata Series (IPUMS) (Ruggles et al. 2020). The ACS is run through the US census and surveys a one% sample each year. Each yearly cross-sectional sample consists of approximately three 1000000 individuals.

In looking to identify the impact of the Corking Recession on art majors, the sample is restricted to college graduates estimated to accept graduated ^{Footnote 2} between 2004 and 2015. Because at that place is no accustomed set of undergraduate college majors defined as art majors, two definitions are utilized, consistent with Paulsen et al. (2021). Core fine art majors include fine arts, drama and theater, music, visual and performing arts, commercial art and graphic design, motion-picture show, video and photographic arts, art history and criticism, studio arts, and miscellaneous fine arts. ^{Footnote 3} Paulsen et al. (2021) also include the architecture major, as architects are one of the National Endowment for the Art'south (NEA) arts occupations. In this analysis, architecture majors volition be considered separately, consequent with Woronkowicz (2015), as the crash of the housing market during the Peachy Recession likely had an outsized issue on architects. Extended art majors include language and drama pedagogy, art and music education, English linguistic communication and literature, and composition and speech. While these majors are less directly related to practicing equally an artist, they likely provide similar skills that could allow graduates to enter into artistic fields.

Descriptive statistics are presented in Table 1. ^{Footnote iv} The first column includes the full sample of higher graduates. Columns two, three, four, and five present descriptive statistics for core fine art majors, extended art majors, compages majors, and non-art majors, respectively. Given the large sample size, all pair-wise means between columns are statistically dissimilar at the ane% level. Cadre art majors differ from the non-art majors in educational, employment, and demographic characteristics. Educationally, core art majors are more likely to accept completed a double major and less probable to take pursued an advanced degree beyond a bachelor's degree. Core fine art majors are more than likely to be unemployed, more likely to be cocky-employed, work fewer hours per week, and have lower average incomes. Demographically, core art majors are less likely to be male, more likely to be white, less likely to be married, and have fewer children. Extended art majors in many, but not all, ways await more like core art majors than non-fine art majors. Alternatively, architecture majors in many means expect more like non-art majors.

Table 1 Descriptive statistics

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Empirical methodology

To empirically test for the impact of graduating during the recession on a variety of outcomes, logistic and ordinary least squares (OLS) regressions will exist run, using a difference-in-differences identification strategy where it is possible to compare fine art majors to not-fine art majors. Such a strategy will allow for the testing of a differential impact of having graduated during or later the Great Recession on educational decisions and employment outcomes for graduates of art fields. The fourth dimension periods considered in this analysis are having graduated earlier the Great Recession, defined as the menstruum 2004 to 2007, during the Great Recession, defined as the period 2008 to 2011, or afterward the Dandy Recession, defined every bit the period 2012 to 2015. Officially, the Great Recession lasted from December 2007 to June 2009 in the USA. Defining the graduated during the recession catamenia to include 2008 to 2011 allows the sample to include individuals who were enrolled in college during this fourth dimension. Extending this flow to 2011 also allows for the inclusion of the early years of the economic recovery when unemployment rates remained far to a higher place pre-recession levels.

Where it is not possible to directly compare art majors to non-art majors, the regression specifications considered are either linear regressions for continuous effect variables or logistic regressions for binary outcome variables of the form:

$$ {\text{Outcome}}_{i} = \beta_{0} + \beta_{1} {\text{During}}_{i} + \beta_{2} {\text{Afterward}}_{i} + \beta_{X} X_{i} + \varepsilon_{i} $$

where the sample is restricted to graduates of the art major group during the 2004 to 2015 period. During is a binary variable indicating having graduated during the recession period. After is a binary variable indicating having graduated after the recession period. The vector of control variables, X , includes age, age squared, number of children, and binary variables indicating beingness married, white, Blackness, Asian, Hispanic, male, the ACS sample yr, and state of residence.

Where information technology is possible to directly compare fine art majors to non-fine art majors, the difference-in-differences regression specifications considered are either linear regressions for continuous outcome variables or logistic regressions for binary outcome variables of the form:

$$ {\text{Outcome}}_{i} = \gamma_{0} + \gamma_{1} {\text{During}}_{i} + \gamma_{ii} {\text{Arts}}_{i} + \gamma_{iii} {\text{During}}_{i} *{\text{Arts}}_{i} + \gamma_{{\varvec{X}}} {\varvec{X}}_{i} + \gamma_{{\varvec{I}}} {\varvec{X}}_{i} *{\text{Arts}}_{i} + \eta_{i} $$

or

$$ {\text{Outcome}}_{i} = \delta_{0} + \delta_{1} {\text{Later on}}_{i} + \delta_{ii} {\text{Arts}}_{i} + \delta_{iii} {\text{After}}_{{\text{i}}} *{\text{Arts}}_{i} + \delta_{{\varvec{X}}} {\varvec{X}}_{i} + \delta_{{\varvec{I}}} {\varvec{10}}_{i} *{\text{Arts}}_{i} + \rho_{i} $$

where the sample is restricted to graduates of the art major grouping and not-art majors during the pre-recession period and either the during or after recession catamenia. To let for the possibility of a differential impact of demographic characteristics on art majors relative to non-art majors, as would be consistent with the differential labor marketplace experiences of artists documented in the literature, the vector of demographic characteristics is interacted with the fine art major variable. The coefficient of interest hither is the coefficient on the interaction of the period considered and the arts major variable. For logit regressions, marginal effects estimated at means are reported rather than logit coefficients.

Dependent variables analyzed include factors related to educational decisions and employment-related outcomes. As recent work by Modestino et al. (2020) finds that employers increased their skill requirements on job postings during the Not bad Recession, it is possible that students made educational choices to reflect this increase in skill requirements. As such, dependent variables related to educational decisions include binary variables indicating graduating with a major in the arts, graduating with a double major, and pursuing a higher caste beyond a bachelor's degree. Similar Woronkowicz (2015), I too consider employment-related outcomes. Among employment-related outcomes, I await to sympathise how graduating during the recession impacts employment condition, hours and earnings, and type of employment, outcomes commonly considered in the literature. Dependent variables related to employment outcomes include earned income, weekly hours worked, and binary variables indicating being employed, being unemployed, being cocky-employed, and working in an occupation related to the major degree field.

Results

Education-related outcomes

To appraise the impact of the Great Recession on fine art majors, the first set of outcomes considered are pedagogy-related outcomes. Table 2 presents regression results looking to empathize the impact of graduating during and after the recession on majoring in the arts. Three regressions were run, with dependent variables indicating having majored in a core fine art major, an extended art major, or an architecture major. ^{Footnote 5} Having graduated during or afterward the Peachy Recession decreased the likelihood that a graduate graduated with a major in a core fine art field past 0.2 and 0.three% points, respectively. As about 5.8% of graduates during the sample menses graduated with a major in a core art field, those changes represent falls of 3.4 and 5.2%. While students were less likely to major in a core art field, graduating during or after the Dandy Recession led to an increment in the likelihood of majoring in an extended art field or architecture. Though the information cannot tell u.s.a. why graduates selected the fields they selected, the findings of Zafar (2012) would propose that the desire for parental approval may play a role. A educatee's parents may have felt worried about their child's future job security given the economical weather condition, and fine art or music education may take felt like a safer choice than fine art or music performance given the potential to work in the arts or education, which would lead to a negative affect on majoring in the cadre art fields and a positive impact on majoring in the extended art fields. The positive coefficients in the compages regression are surprising, though if parental influence played a role, it is possible that conviction in the recovery of the housing sector may have exceeded confidence in the recovery of the arts and entertainment industry.

Table two Logit regression: dependent variable is binary for whether or not a graduate of major group

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Tabular array 3 presents results looking to understand how graduating during or after the recession impacted whether graduates pursued an avant-garde caste or completed a double major. Specifications (1)–(6) present divergence-in-differences results looking at the impact of graduating during or afterward the Great Recession on arts majors' pursuit of advanced degrees. Among not-fine art college graduates, having graduated during or later on the Bully Recession had a positive and pregnant touch on the likelihood of pursuing an advanced degree. For graduates with majors in the arts, core arts majors were significantly less likely to pursue an avant-garde degree if having graduated after the recession and extended arts majors were significantly less likely to pursue an advanced degree if graduating either during or subsequently the recession, while architecture majors were significantly more than likely to pursue an advanced degree having graduated during either the during or later menstruation. A different story is observed when looking at the bear on on double majors in specifications (seven)–(12). Among non-art graduates, having graduated during or after the Great Recession had a negative and meaning bear on on the likelihood of double majoring. For graduates with majors in the arts, core and extended arts majors were significantly more likely to consummate a double major if graduating either during or afterward the recession, while compages majors were significantly less likely to complete a double major having graduated during either the during or after period.

Table three Logit regression: instruction dependent variables

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While both completing a double major and pursuing an advanced degree are forms of acquiring additional homo capital, the costs and consequences of these two deportment differ considerably. In the The states educational system, students typically need around 120 credits to consummate a 4-yr degree. These credits often come from completing a full general education core, completing the requirements for a major field of study, and completing additional credits (often in the form of modest fields of study or a second major) to achieve 120 total. For many students, it is possible to complete a 2d major within the 4-year degree, so while this may exist seen as additional human capital to an employer, at that place may not be a direct fiscal cost, the only cost existence boosted attempt exerted in completing the requirements for the second major. Completing an advanced degree, near unremarkably a caste at the principal's level, typically requires an boosted 1 to 2 years of coursework beyond the iv-yr caste and also requires a financial cost. It is not surprising then that core and extended arts majors would exist more than likely to pursue a double major, which gives boosted human majuscule without fiscal cost, rather than an advanced degree, in an endeavour to better credentials when inbound a weaker labor market place. For architecture majors, a master's degree, which delays entry into the labor strength, may take been seen equally the preferred option given the particularly compromised state of their labor marketplace.

Employment-related outcomes

Beyond the educational outcomes considered, I look to empathise the impact of the Slap-up Recession on a number of employment-related outcomes for fine art majors. Table 4 presents difference-in-differences logit regression results where the dependent variables are binary variables indicating being employed, beingness unemployed, and being cocky-employed. For specifications (1)–(6), the dependent variable is a binary variable which takes on a one if the private is employed. Among all graduates, having graduated during the Neat Recession had a small, negative touch on on the likelihood of being employed. While graduating during the Great Recession did not have a differential impact the likelihood of beingness employed for cadre arts majors, both extended arts and architecture majors were significantly more likely to exist employed if having graduated during the recession. While this runs reverse to expectation, it is possible that the boosted human being capital letter caused, through increased double majoring for extended arts majors and through pursuing advanced degrees for architecture majors, could be driving this positive impact. With the exception of the interaction of architecture and graduating after, all coefficients in the graduating later on regressions indicate a positive impact on the likelihood of beingness employed. While those graduating before the recession may have encountered unemployment during the recession catamenia, and that negative impact may have persisted, those graduating after the recession would non take experienced such an impact. Expansions of unemployment insurance in the United states may have increased the duration of unemployment for job losers during the recession, and evidence suggests that the long-term unemployed faced significant negative effects from unemployment during this period (Ghayad, 2013).

Tabular array iv Logit regression: employment dependent variables

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The impact of graduating during or after the Slap-up Recession on unemployment is explored in specifications (7)–(12). In these specifications, the dependent variable is a binary variable indicating being unemployed. Similar to the employment regressions, for all college graduates graduating during the recession had a positive and significant impact on the likelihood of being unemployed and graduating afterwards the recession has a negative and significant affect on the likelihood of being unemployed. Graduating during the Great Recession had a positive and meaning touch on the likelihood of unemployment for core arts majors, but a negative impact for extended arts majors and architecture majors. Graduating after the recession did not have a significant differential touch on on the likelihood of unemployment for cadre and extended arts majors but did have a positive bear upon on the likelihood of unemployment for architecture majors.

Last, the impact of graduating during or after the Great Recession on the likelihood of being self-employed is considered in specifications (13)–(eighteen). For all graduates, graduating during or subsequently the Great Recession had a negative and significant impact on the likelihood of existence self-employed. Interestingly, for core and extended arts majors having graduated during or later the recession had a positive impact on the likelihood of being cocky-employed. As gaining traditional employment in an arts-related occupation may take been difficult during this time, self-employment may accept served as a viable alternative to pursue artistic creation.

The findings on unemployment and self-employment are in line with the findings of Woronkowicz (2015). Woronkowicz (2015) finds that the Peachy Recession increased unemployment and self-employment for artists, which aligns with findings of a positive impact on unemployment and self-employment of core art majors in this study.

Amidst those who are employed, Table five looks to assess the impact of graduating during or after the Smashing Recession on earnings and hours worked. Specifications (1)–(6) await at the impact of graduating during or afterward the recession on earnings. For all higher graduates, the impact on graduating during the recession on earnings is insignificant, while the impact of graduating after is positive and pregnant. The bear upon on arts major is starkly different. Graduating during the recession has negative and significant impacts on earnings for core and extended arts majors of about $1000 and $2000, respectively. Graduating later the recession has an insignificant differential affect on earnings for core arts majors, while the negative and pregnant differential impact for extended arts majors more than cancels out the positive coefficient on the graduated later on term. For compages majors, impacts of graduating during and afterward the recession on earnings are large and positive. This is likely attributable though to their increased likelihood of pursuing an advanced degree, which leads to higher earnings.

Tabular array 5 Linear regression: earnings and hours worked dependent variables

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The impact of graduating during or later on the Great Recession on usual hours worked is assessed in specifications (7)–(12). The bear on of graduating during or afterwards the recession is positive and meaning for all graduates. The differential impact on hours worked of graduating during or afterwards the recession for core and extended arts majors is big, positive, and significant. For architecture majors, graduating during the recession had a positive, marginally significant differential impact on hours worked simply graduating afterward had a negative and significant bear on.

Tabular array 6 looks at the bear upon of graduating during or after the recession on getting a job in one's major field of study. Equally not all college majors lead to an easily defined post-graduation job, hither the touch on is looked at for cadre art majors, along with a few other major fields that have conspicuously defined post-graduation occupations. Graduating during and after the recession has positive impacts for core art majors on employment in the arts. This is probable attributable to the increase in self-employment seen previously. The affect of graduating during the recession on employment in one's major field is study is mixed for the other major fields considered. Engineering majors also come across a positive touch on working in their major field, while nursing majors see no impact, and education and accounting majors see negative and meaning impacts.

Table 6 Logit regression: dependent variable is binary for whether or not a graduate is employed in major field

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Conclusions

This paper examines the impact of the Great Recession on college graduates with majors in the arts. Every bit economic downturns hit fields that rely on discretionary spending, similar the arts, especially hard, arts majors have the potential to be particularly negatively impacted. Using American Community Survey data, this paper looks to appraise the bear on of graduating during or shortly after the Great Recession on educational and labor market outcomes for arts majors relative to graduating shortly prior to the recession. This study finds a sizeable negative bear upon of graduating during or after the Bang-up Recession on majoring in a core art field, only a positive impact on majoring in an extended art field or architecture. Relative to non-art majors, graduating during or later the recession increased the likelihood that core and extended fine art majors double majored and increased the likelihood of architecture majors completing an advanced degree. Regarding unemployment, graduating during the Smashing Recession is found to increment the likelihood of unemployment for core fine art majors but decrease the likelihood for extended art and compages majors relative to not-art majors. Graduating during the recession flow increased the likelihood of self-employment for cadre and extended arts majors and led to decreased earnings despite leading to increased hours worked. Overall, the Great Recession had notable impacts on both the educational choices and labor marketplace outcomes of college graduates with majors in the arts.

These findings are important both for arts majors and the arts equally well as for the economic system more broadly. Directly, decreases in the share of higher graduates majoring in the arts will negatively impact the pipeline of potential artists. Additionally, long-term negative impacts on employment and earnings may further negatively impact the pipeline of potential artists, as college pay exterior of the arts is the most of import factor arts majors report for choosing to work outside of the arts (Lena et al., 2014). Equally it relates to the broader economic system, creativity is believed to be an of import driver of economic growth, and recent work past Paulsen et al. (2021) finds that higher graduates with majors in the arts too play an of import function in entrepreneurship and innovation in the US economy. A shrinkage of the pipeline of arts majors could in plough have a negative impact not just on creative creation but too on entrepreneurship and innovation.

In that location are likely many potential policy options that could alleviate the negative impact of future recessions on arts majors. Debt is one reason arts graduates commonly cite for non working in the arts (Lena et al., 2014). Equally such, student loan debt relief could be considered as a policy tool to convalesce the negative impacts of recessions on arts graduates. The pausing of federal pupil loan payments has been a policy tool used during the COVID-19 pandemic. Targeted relief, including direct loan forgiveness or targeted pauses in payments or interest accumulation geared toward lower earning college graduates, could especially alleviate some of the challenges faced by arts graduates. The Slap-up Recession was also a fourth dimension of funding cuts for the arts (Miringoff & Opdycke, 2010). Rather than cutting funding for the arts during times of economical downturn, increasing funding to aid alleviate cuts in private consumer spending on the arts would help to lessen some of the negative impact on arts graduates.

This work is limited in a number of means. While the ACS has the do good of having a big enough sample size to allow for the assay of detailed college majors, there are important educational variables not included in the survey which could've improved the findings of this work. Graduation twelvemonth is not given, which may have acquired cross contagion across groups, potentially biasing the coefficients of interest toward zip. Additionally, the ACS lacks information pertaining to the institution from which students graduated, which may exist related to the major subject field selected. Across higher major, other educational variables that may accept been impacted, similar pocket-size fields of written report and grade point average, are also not given. Improved data quality could permit for stronger causal linguistic communication to exist used in discussing the impact of the recession on the various outcomes considered. Without a richer set of command variables, I exercise circumspection in attributing causal impacts to the identified effects. Across data limitations, this written report is also limited in that graduates are observed at a unmarried point in fourth dimension within a relatively brusque window post-obit the recession.

Futurity working examining the affect of the Great Recession and recessions generally could improve upon this current work in multiple means. Analysis using panel data would permit for the telling of a more complete employment story for fine art majors graduating during recessionary periods. While a time period relatively shortly later on the recession was analyzed, looking at the impact over a longer window could be informative every bit information becomes available. Using a data source with more detailed education variables could also allow for a more complete assay of the educational consequences of graduating during a recessionary menstruation, equally other factors like GPA, pocket-sized fields of study, participation in clubs, and role-time work during higher may have too been afflicted.

Notes

1. In that location is significant heterogeneity in the Us teaching arrangement and notably within arts education. Some college graduates with majors in the arts attend colleges focused exclusively on the arts, while others attend more comprehensive universities and colleges offering a variety of majors. Arts colleges tend to be less selective on academic criteria similar test scores, merely often crave a portfolio (Grant 2017). For non-arts colleges, more than selective institutions may have differing admissions criteria by intended major, only the majority of college graduates in the U.s. are enrolled at less selective institutions.

2. The ACS does not requite year of college graduation for respondents. For the purpose of this assay, individuals are assumed to have graduated at age 22, so graduation twelvemonth is estimated as sample twelvemonth minus age plus 22. Because some non-traditional graduates will take graduated at an age greater than 22, it is possible that at that place is some cross-contamination among the pre, during, and post-recession periods used in this assay. Equally information technology is more than likely that graduates estimated to have graduated earlier the recession really graduation during the recession than the culling, this is probable to bias any subsequently findings toward goose egg.

3. Within the ACS fod1p and fod2p variables, there majors incorporate codes 6000 to 6099.

4. Appendix Table 7 gives a breakdown of graduates by major and yr, while Appendix Table 8 gives values for the dependent variables by estimated graduation year.

5. Appendix Tables 9 and 10 suspension the core art major variable down further into the individual core art majors.

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1. Department of Economics, Bloomsburg University of Pennsylvania, Sutliff Hall Suite 220, Room 228, 400 East. 2nd Street, Bloomsburg, PA, 17815, Usa

   Richard J. Paulsen

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Correspondence to Richard J. Paulsen.

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Appendix

Appendix

See Tables

Table seven Counts of graduates by arts major grouping and graduation year

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7,

Table 8 Dependent variables for full sample past graduation year

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8

Table 9 Logit regression: dependent variable is binary for whether or not a graduate of major group

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ix, and

Table 10 Logit regression: dependent variable is binary for whether or non a graduate of major group

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10.

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Paulsen, R.J. Arts majors and the Dandy Recession: a cross-sectional analysis of educational choices and employment outcomes. J Cult Econ (2021). https://doi.org/x.1007/s10824-021-09430-7

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• Received: 09 Jan 2021

• Accepted: 30 August 2021

• Published: 08 September 2021

• DOI : https://doi.org/10.1007/s10824-021-09430-seven

Keywords

• Arts
• Arts majors
• Recession
• Swell Recession
• Creative class
• American Customs Survey

JEL Classification

• E32
• J24
• Z11

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