Art and innovation : an evolutionary economic view of the creative industry

This paper explores the economic and cultural contribution of the arts and its effect on economic growth and evolution. The crucial connection is supplied by an innovation systems perspective on the creative industries. In this view, the creative industries contribute not just to value-added and jobs, but more importantly, to the evolutionary process by which economic systems grow. This paper thus offers a new view of the economics of the arts and creative industries re-conceptualised as part of the innovation system of an evolving economic order. Analytic and policy implications are then outlined in terms of an evolutionary approach to the economics of the arts