_The Cultural Trade Index_ Page | **4** of **14**

interpretation, and practical usability.<sup>7</sup> If you dig deeper you can find numbers (on cultural data) here and there — and one huge step forward would be to simply update the Standard Industrial Classification and the Standard Occupational Classification to truly account for services and culture. While the CTI will not solve the major challenges in cultural calculus — especially since it would mostly be concerned with curating and ranking information — it could become a useful research portal, one that compliments other resources concerned with patterns of global cultural trade. Ultimately, the CTI could play an important role as the ‘to go place’ for cultural trade analysis, thereby inducing the need to allocate research funds for cultural data. It could even fuel the impetus for countries to develop their cultural statistical accounts.

- 4) To fuel competition: To return to the cultural tourism example above, country Y might be inclined to improve its rank in cultural tourism as it competes to beat country X for the first spot.  But let us consider another example: arts education.  If country A is the leading destination for enrolling international students in dance, this might make countries B and C ask what they can do to attract more dance students.  This kind of competition is also not new, and it can be a good thing, even as Adam Smith noted.<sup>8</sup>

- 5) To help provide information that could be useful to advocate for fair pay for artists:  Except for some exceptions, ordinary artists rarely make the money; it is the superstars and the companies such as those in today’s digital space.<sup>9</sup> The CTI could help advocates for artists’ fair pay gather trade information and how this relates to artists’ compensation.  Let us say country A is leading in music exports.  The information on why country A is doing well in music exports while creators of the content are “starving,” could be useful.  It could be applied as a bargaining tool for artists.  And in this bargaining, it could simply help artists negotiate better tax arrangements,<sup>10</sup> medical insurance, and other benefits.<sup>11</sup>

# _What to Include_

It is impossible to include everything there is in a cultural trade index. But, at the outset, data on the following items could be considered: Architecture, Arts Education Services, Books — literary works, Carpets, Crafts, Cultural Tourism, CDs, DVDs (and digital versions of film and music), Music books and scores; Live performances, Musical Instruments, Paintings, and Sculpture.<sup>12</sup> (Obviously, commerce of the above items is captured in GDP where data suffice.)

> 7 For related discussion see Shah, Shvetank, Andrew Horne, and Jaime Capellá 2012.

> 8 For more on this see Murray 1961.

> 9 More generally see Timberg 2015.

> 10 On this issue, at least in the United States, see “How the Tax Code Hurts Arts.” Sohn 2015.

> 11 Indeed, it must be remembered that, like GDP, while there might be a correlation, higher GDP does not mean that the country has solved its most basic welfare and equity challenges.

> 12 For a related list see UNDP and UNESCO 2013, p. 162.