Labor Skills More skilled the worker, more output can be created per worker. Skills can be learned although the learning curve itself follows a sigmoidal pattern with an eventual levelling off. Investment in human resources such as education and job training are important to building labor skills. If production is organized efficiently, then the output per worker will rise. The number of managers in performing art companies has been rising.
Managerial skills can have payoffs in the performing arts.
In some production processes output per unit of input rises when the scale of production rises. As Baumol and Bowen point out the conditions of production themselves in the live performing arts preclude any substantial change in productivity because the work of the performer is an end in itself, not a means for the production of some good. Of the five sources of productivity discussed, economies of scale has some potential in the performing arts. Length of seasons as measured by number of performances or for symphony orchestras, the number of concerts can be an appropriate indicator of scale. Also administrative expenses of running the orchestra need not increase by increasing the number of concerts.