Chapter 6. The Economics of Cultural Awards This chapter considers the economic dimensions of prizes and awards in the arts. It first treats the role of awards in the markets for artistic goods: their effect on sales earnings and consumer demand and their function as judgment devices or quality signals. Also discussed are the costs of mounting an awards program and the economics of awards administration and presentation. The chapter then takes up a broader set of economic considerations beyond those of commerce as such discussing the role of prizes as a form of symbolic capital in the economy of prestige. This symbolic role includes their reputation effects and relation to cultural branding; their function as a form of incentive for artists; their capacity to predict or determine an eventual canon of esteemed works; and their value within an increasingly international system of cultural status hierarchies. Having surveyed the existing literature the chapter concludes by noting economists’ narrow and excessive emphasis on the material consequences of prizes and the many fundamental areas of inquiry that remain wide open for future research. These include the economics of sponsorship particularly philanthropic sponsorship; the role of social capital and the system of exchange and reciprocity involving judges recipients and administrators; and the economics of the awards industry as a whole its global dispersion and its large scale functions and effects within the creative economy.