Bruno Frey

University of Basel | UNIBAS · Abteilung Wirtschaft und Politik

Identifying cell types based on expression profiles is a pillar of single cell analysis. Existing machine-learning methods identify predictive features from annotated training data, which are often not available in early-stage studies. This can lead to overfitting and inferior performance when applied to new data. To address these challenges we pre...

Individuals choose camouflage as a dominant response when a state’s political conditions worsen, particularly when a democracy turns authoritarian. Individuals hide their private preferences to survive under oppressive regimes. This paper argues that in many circumstances camouflage is the most rational, cost-minimizing reaction to oppression. The...

Modern economics includes two fundamentally different fields, but identically labelled ‘Cultural Economics’. The first type deals with cultural institutions in a specific sector of the economy and society: the performing arts, visual arts, and other forms of cultural industry. The second type analyses how culture influences the economy in the form...

Public Choice does not seem any longer to be a vivid part of the academic literature. The newly introduced version called “Political Economics” partly takes up some of the aspects previously discussed in Public Choice. Whether this new version of political economy has much, or any, impact on economics or political decisions is open. In real life, t...

Folgen Forschende in deutschsprachigen Ländern, die eine akademische Karriere anstreben, dem starken Publikationsdruck, wie er an US-amerikanischen Universitäten besteht? Auf Grundlage der Ergebnisse einer online Umfrage unter forschenden Mitgliedern betriebswirtschaftlicher Fakultäten kann diese Frage eindeutig bejaht werden. Forschende finden es...

The deep‐seated conflict and controversial debate about the restitution of art is in need of other approaches than the established ones. One side argues that these art works have been looted and belongs to the countries where they originated. Therefore, they must be restituted. The other side argues that some of these art works were bought on a mar...

We characterize negative awards. Their pervasiveness in various domains as well as the objectives of their designers and promoters are documented. We discuss the outcomes generated by negative awards and provide some rationales explaining why individuals and organizations may be interested in getting them. Several issues deserve further exploration...

Zusammenfassung Albert O. Hirschmans Unterscheidung von „Abwanderung und Widerspruch“ als Antwort auf den Leistungsabfall von Staaten hat grosse Aufmerksamkeit gefunden. Es gibt jedoch eine dritte Antwort, nämlich Camouflage, Stillhalten als Tarnung, bis sich die Bedingungen verbessern. Diese Strategie wird häufig praktiziert, weil ihr Nutzen oft i...

Health data bear great promises for a healthier and happier life, but they also make us vulnerable. Making use of millions or billions of data points, Machine Learning (ML) and Artificial Intelligence (AI) are now creating new benefits. For sure, harvesting Big Data can have great potentials for the health system, too. It can support accurate diagn...

I propose a novel approach to deal with the conflict between the present owners and the original owners of looted art. The procedure is based on perfect copying (which is possible today due to digital techniques) and random procedures (which are a means to achieve a fair outcome).

Health data bear great promises for a healthier and happier life, but they also make us vulnerable. Making use of millions or billions of data points, Machine Learning (ML) and Artificial Intelligence (AI) are now creating new benefits. For sure, harvesting Big Data can have great potentials for the health system, too. It can support accurate diagn...

Utopische Anforderungen? – Wie wichtig sind Spitzenpublikationen für die wissenschaftliche Karriere? In Ausschreibungen für Assistenz- oder Juniorprofessuren wird ein hohes Publikationsniveauverlangt. Doch was zählt mehr? In einer der weltbesten Zeitschriften zu publizieren oder eine größere Zahl an Veröffentlichungen in nicht so hoch eingestufte...

This paper presents a proposal to deal with cultural overtourism causing substantial negative effects. They burden the local population, tourists, and the natural environment by overcrowding, vandalism, and pollution. While at present tourism is suppressed by governments due to the COVID-19 pandemic, it will likely become a major issue again in the...

The impairment of art sites by cultural overtourism has led to anti-tourist movements and social unrest (e.g., Seraphin et al. 2018b; Clancy 2019). This has happened mostly in Spain, France, and Italy and also in the Netherlands. These protests have been discussed extensively in the traditional and social media (Zeng and Gerritsen 2014) under the k...

The concept of Revived Originals can be applied to diverse cultural sites. Cities, towns, and individual artworks can be copied and linked to culture and history using digital technologies.

According to the United Nations World Tourist Organization, in 1950 (UNWTO 2018), there were 25 million international tourists and in 2018, 1.4 billion: 56 times as many. In the coming years, a further increase in international tourism is expected. However, it should be noted that forecasts were made before the major crisis in tourism imposed by th...

When I was 8 years old, my parents offered me a trip to Paris because I was eager to see the Eiffel Tower. I was greatly impressed by this imposing monument. However, my parents emphasized that I should also see the most famous painting in the world. I found the Mona Lisa beautiful but was surprised at how small the masterpiece is in reality.

There are, of course, some counterarguments against my proposal of creating Revived Originals. They raise important issues. But even if some of the objections are perfectly legitimate, they should be considered in comparison to the alternatives discussed above. These either cannot be implemented due to conflicts of interest or do not seem to show a...

Successfully creating Revived Originals requires considerable financial resources, but above all, it requires initiative, assertiveness, originality, and a good sense of design. Accordingly, interdisciplinary cooperation is necessary. An example is the replica of the tomb of Tutankhamun in Luxor. At least seven different professions were involved i...

Modern economics includes two fundamentally different fields, each labelled ‘Cultural Economics’. The first type ‘Cultural Institutions’ deals with a specific sector of the economy and society, namely institutions in the performing arts, visual arts, and other forms of cultural industry. The second type ‘Cultural Norms’ analyses how culture influen...

Nowadays, academic journals of high standing rarely accept a conceptual idea in a paper not instantly accompanied by econometric estimates. The idea would almost certainly get rejected. Empirical validation based on past statistical data has produced an unfortunate backward orientation in economics. While one can learn from the past, this approach...

The application and integration of molecular profiling technologies create novel opportunities for personalized medicine. Here, we introduce the Tumor Profiler Study, an observational trial combining a prospective diagnostic approach to assess the relevance of in-depth tumor profiling to support clinical decision-making with an exploratory approach...

We contribute to the happiness literature by analyzing the causal relationship between sports and happiness. Using longitudinal data from the German Socio-Economic Panel (GSOEP), we find a positive correlation between sports participation and reported life satisfaction. This relationship is stronger at younger and older ages than in middle age, and...

The citizen assembly of the Swiss canton Glarus decided to radically reduce the historical number of communes from 25 to three. Studies show that the financial and economic consequences are surprisingly small. This paper analyzes the effects on citizens’ vote participation as an indicator of their political involvement. We empirically show that vot...

Cultural Overtourism is a comparatively new term, and refers to historical sites, museums and places that are extremely crowded by tourists; hence, a type of tourism that has negative effects on both the cultural sites and the people who live there. This problem has sparked more and more protests. Accordingly, many cultural institutions and cities...

I propose a radically different approach to address the pressing problem of cultural overtourism. Instead of limiting demand, which would exclude many art lovers, supply should be increased by providing alternative offers. I call these additional new cultural sites Revived Originals. By creating a broader range of sites, many more tourists are able...

For economic research activity at German universities, the USA structure is commonly taken as a role model. There, publications in the leading scientific journals, the "Top Five," are crucial for an academic career. Does this also apply to German universities? The empirical analysis shows several interesting differences between a survey among doct...

Die Institution eines einzelnen CEO (Chief Executive Officer) hat erhebliche Schwächen. Der CEO hat andere Interessen als die Eigentümer und deren Vertreter sowie die anderen Topmanager. Einer einzelnen Person so viel Macht zuzuweisen ist riskant. Der Wechsel eines CEO verursacht hohe Kosten. Jedoch hat auch die traditionelle Alternative - ein koll...

Motivation Recent technological advances have led to an increase in the production and availability of single-cell data. The ability to integrate a set of multi-technology measurements would allow the identification of biologically or clinically meaningful observations through the unification of the perspectives afforded by each technology. In most...

Die Beeinträchtigung der Kunststätten durch den kulturellen Übertourismus hat zu antitouristischen Bewegungen und zu sozialen Unruhen geführt (z. B. Seraphin et al. 2018b; Clancy 2019), besonders ausgeprägt in Spanien, Frankreich und Italien. Sie sind in den klassischen und sozialen Medien (Zeng und Gerritsen 2014) ausführlich unter dem Stichwort „...

Gemäß der World Tourist Organization der Vereinten Nationen gab es im Jahr 1950 25 Millionen internationale Touristen. Diese Zahl ist im Jahre 2018 auf 1,4 Milliarden gestiegen, also auf nicht weniger als das 56-Fache. Es besteht weitgehende Einigkeit, dass der internationale Massentourismus in den kommenden Jahrzehnten weiter zunehmen wird. Einer...

Gegen den Vorschlag Neuer Originale lassen sich verschiedene Argumente anführen. Manche von ihnen werfen berechtigte Fragen auf. Einige der Gegenargumente sind durchaus legitim. Dennoch sollte eine Kritik an meinem Vorschlag immer mit den gegenwärtigen Bedingungen verglichen werden, denen Bewohner und kulturell interessierte Touristen ausgesetzt si...

Neue Originale erfolgreich zu schaffen, bedarf erheblicher finanzieller Mittel, aber vor allem wird dafür auch Initiative, Durchsetzungskraft, Originalität und ein gutes Gespür für Design benötigt. Dementsprechend ist eine Zusammenarbeit von Spezialisten verschiedenster Disziplinen notwendig. Bei der replizierten Grabstätte von Tutanchamun waren mi...

Das Konzept der Neuen Originale lässt sich für die unterschiedlichsten Kulturstätten anwenden. Es können einzelne Städte, verschiedene Städte, aber auch einzelne Kunstwerke kopiert und für die Besucher mittels digitaler Technologie mit der Kultur und Geschichte verbunden werden.

Übertourismus wird in den Medien als Problem erkannt und diskutiert. Die schwerwiegenden negativen Auswirkungen – Überbeanspruchung und damit Zerstörung von Kulturstätten; Emissionen, Verschmutzung, Abfall und Lärm; ungebührliches Verhalten und Kriminalität; explodierender Verkehr – sind vielen Menschen deutlich geworden. Ohne ernsthafte Anstrengun...

Um das drängende Problem des kulturellen Übertourismus sinnvoll anzugehen, schlage ich einen radikal anderen Ansatz vor: Anstelle einer Begrenzung der Nachfrage – die viele Kunstfreunde ausschließt – ist das Angebot zu steigern. Das vergrößerte Angebot wird mithilfe Neuer Originale erreicht. Auf diese Weise können möglichst viele Touristen die kult...

This survey intends to portray the two main approaches of economic research on religion. The first investigates the impact of religion on the economy. Religion and the internalized value system are found to influence economic attitudes output in a favorable way. The second approach is to explain religious behavior with economic models showing how a...

The dramatic interventions to fight the coronavirus pandemic undertaken by many governments all around the globe are unique since the Second World War. They massively restrict economic, civil society, cultural, and personal freedoms. So far the population has been willing to cooperate. In view of the huge current and future costs, it is crucial tha...

The negative external effects from ‘overtourism’ have become a major subject of discussion. However, the shutdown of domestic and international tourism, which resulted in ‘undertourism’, gives us the chance to reconsider how visits to artistic sites should be organized in the future. It is safe to expect that the problem of cultural overtourism wil...

Die Kosten des wirtschaftlichen Stillstands sind immens, und sie nehmen fortwährend zu. Darin sind sich führende Volkswirtschafter einig. Doch während die einen sofortige Öffnungsschritte fordern, warnen andere vor einer zweiten Welle.

While current happiness research has made significant progress, happiness policy, by contrast, is based on two simplistic assumptions: first, that politicians and public administrators are sufficiently informed about what influences subjective life satisfaction; and second, that politicians and public administrators will solely pursue the well-bein...

Happiness research has been a great success and has offered us great insights into the determinants and consequences of subjective well-being. As many contributions have accumulated, there are necessarily diminishing marginal insights. Most likely future happiness research will pursue the trodden paths. However, most fruitful results can be gained...

Can famous economics scholars extend their prominence to the time after their deaths? This question is analyzed for the period 1925–2018 for Nobel Prize laureates. We find that Nobel Prize winners who die prematurely are more likely to experience a marked reduction of attention from their peers, as measured by citations. In contrast, death does not...

Publications in top journals today have a powerful influence on academic careers although there is much criticism of using journal rankings to evaluate individual articles. We ask why this practice of performance evaluation is still so influential. We suggest this is the case because a majority of authors benefit from the present system due to the...

A policy is proposed designed to reduce the costs of fighting the COVID-19 pandemic dangers. Functional Overlapping Competing Jurisdictions (FOCJ) help us to better deal with future pandemics differentially affecting geographical areas. They focus on the area in which the dangers arise rather than to the historically given, often randomly determine...

The negative external effects caused by Cultural Overtourism were evident at various cultural sites, especially in Europe. However, the exogenous shock of a pandemic and the consequences of governmental interventions resulted in a situation of worldwide Undertourism. It is to be expected that the recovery of tourism in general, and also cultural to...

Kultureller Übertourismus ist das neue Schlagwort für von Touristen extrem stark frequentierte und damit überfüllte historische Sehenswürdigkeiten, Museen und Städte. Ein Kulturtourismus also, der negative Auswirkungen sowohl für die kulturellen Orte als auch für die dort lebenden Menschen zeitigt. In Reaktion darauf wird vermehrt protestiert und K...

Der Sinn der ökonomischen Forschung liegt in einem besseren Verständnis der wirtschaftlichen Zusammenhänge. Dieser Erkenntnisgewinn soll insbesondere auch zu gesellschaftlich wirksamen und erwünschten Folgen für die Beeinflussung des Wirtschaftsablaufs führen. Wirtschaftswissenschaftliche Forschung sollte somit nicht ein Selbstzweck sein, sondern d...

Welche Funktion erfüllt Kulturpolitik in historischer sowie in gegenwärtiger, internationaler Perspektive? Der Band spannt einen Bogen über 220 Jahre Ideengeschichte von Kulturpolitik(en) in nationaler und internationaler Perspektive. Rund fünfzig Beiträge zu Kulturpolitik und Kulturpolitikforschung aus und zu verschiedenen Nationen, aber auch zu s...

There is a large literature on public-private-partnership, covering many different areas and aspects. This article deals with a specific but important aspect: the decision-making mechanisms to choose the management of PPP enterprises. In this sector, a suitable choice of managers is of particular importance because the persons chosen must balance t...

Behavioral economics has been a huge success in economics—despite its misnomer (economics has always been behavioral, so the field should aptly be called “economics and psychology” or “psychological economics”). Today, a large number of economists engage in laboratory experiments. Despite useful insights, it is often difficult to see what distingui...

The present book on 21st Century Economics: Economic Ideas You Should Read and Remember contains 61 recommendations by the same number of scholars from many different countries and with a large range of research orientations.

Large-scale migration is one of the most pressing problems of our time. The extreme solutions of letting nobody in or accepting everyone are unacceptable. The article proposes a humane immigration policy by taking cooperatives as a guide. In the same way members of the cooperative have to acquire a participation certificate, immigrants have to pay...

The World Heritage List compiles built and natural sites and more recently also intangible traditions and customs judged to be of “outstanding value to humanity” by a commission of UNESCO. The main goals are to draw attention to sites and traditions in danger of disappearing and to assist in preserving them. There are some negative effects: questio...

Art uses labour and capital. These resources are scarce. As a result, opportunity costs arise. Cultural consumers have to make a choice between various supplies of art. In a well-functioning market, supply and demand balance. Art markets, in particular auctions, are characterized by large risks that rarely exist in other markets. These relate to au...

Most people engaged in culture favour impact studies, which measure the economic benefits produced by artistic projects. On that basis, many art expenditures seem to be economically beneficial. In contrast, art economists focus on measuring the social values produced. They include the external effects of artistic activities not taken into account b...

Major determinants of museum visits are entry fee, visitors’ income and education, the quality of the collection, the attractiveness of the building, and the levels of amenities and marketing activities. Museums produce social non-use values: options, existence, bequest, prestige, and education, for which they are not compensated in monetary terms....

Mass tourism goes to major cultural heritage sites, to superstar museums, to festivals, and to blockbuster exhibitions of art. These visits have a major impact on the local economy, regions, and countries and are captured by impact studies. In contrast, the willingness-to-pay approach focuses on the net benefits created by visiting a cultural site....

The economic approach to art and culture takes a rather positive attitude towards copies, reproductions, and fakes. In contrast, the art-historical view tends to regard them in a negative way. The multiplication of the original creates utility for individuals demanding and paying for replicas. However, forgeries do create some problems. Significant...

The digital revolution has led to a quantification of ever more areas of human life and society. At the same time, there is an explosion of the number of awards, which by their very nature are based on non-quantified performance. Will quantification take over completely, leading to “omnimetrics”? The paper argues that this will not be the case. An...

A tax authority's ability to successfully collect taxes depends on its relationship with the taxpayers as well as their commitment to contribute to the common good. In this paper, we examine the effect of promises on tax compliance aimed at fostering taxpayer commitment. First, in a field experiment, we investigate whether tax compliance changes wh...

The two volume Oxford Handbook of Public Choice provides a comprehensive overview of the Public Choice literature. Volume 1 covers rational choice models of elections, interest groups, rent seeking, and public choice contributions to normative political economy. It begins with introductory chapters on rational choice politics, the founding of publi...

Enlightenment is man’s emergence from his self-imposed immaturity. Immaturity is the inability to use one’s understanding without guidance from another.

The success of a film is impossible to predict. A few of them are financially successful, while most of them are not. Actors are crucial to a film’s success. As in other parts of the performing arts, a few superstars are greatly admired and highly compensated in a winner-take-all market while most of the other actors earn little. Consumers have man...

Superstar museums are a “must-see” for tourists and have achieved cult status. They attract large and increasing numbers of visitors and have a major impact on the local economy. Superstar museums feature paintings by world-famous painters and prominent architectural design. Their income stems to a significant extent from the revenue of the museum...

The supply of art deviates in several respects from the ideal of a well-functioning market. Deficits continually increase. On the demand side, problems are caused by merit goods, external benefits in production and consumption, and public goods. People value the options, existence, bequest, education, and prestige connected to the arts. These failu...

Thousands of festivals take place every year, especially in the tourist season. The boom in music festivals poses a challenge to art economists because of the glaring contrast with the serious financial problems faced by theatres, opera houses, and orchestras with fixed venues. Festivals attract new groups of consumers. For tourists, attendance at...

The economics of art and culture is a fascinating and worthwhile subject. Its analysis is based on the economic way of thinking. It deals with a large number of diverse issues, such as how valuable art is to society, how the art market and auctions work, the specific characteristics of artists’ labour market, and the role of copies and fakes in art...

Industries combining creative cultural work and commerce today constitute a well-organized part of the economy. The creative cultural economy is characterized by high entry cost, great uncertainty, and strongly knowledge-based and labour-intensive production. It uses advanced, often digitized technology. Technological change may lead to lock-in eff...

Cultural heritage is composed of built, moveable, intangible, and natural objects. Only a small proportion of their benefits are reflected in monetary form, but these are positive externalities. Not everything can be preserved, because this would block the further development of cities and regions. Many heritage goods have the property of a public...

Empirical evidence reveals that artists are happier than similar other people, and that participation in cultural activities raises life satisfaction. It may be that the causation runs in the opposite direction, namely that happy people become artists, and that they attend more cultural occasions. However, there are strong indications that this rev...

Only a small proportion of the population ever attends live performances of classical art. Crucial determinants are entry price, education, and preferences. The public sector can support the performing arts by giving a fixed sum, by making donations tax deductible, and by covering the deficit. Profit-oriented firms can exist when fixed costs are sm...

Not all artists are poor, but the inequality of incomes is marked. On average, artists receive lower incomes than people in other occupations. A few superstars earn high incomes. This leads to great inequality among artists. Artists with high incomes are often among the best artists. Various determinants of artists’ earnings have been identified. T...

Economics is a science that can contribute substantial powerful and fresh insights! This book collects essays by leading academics that evaluate the scholarly importance of contemporary economic ideas and concepts, thus providing valuable knowledge about the present state of economics and its progress. This compilation of short essays helps reader...

Decisions based on randomness are often taken to be “irrational” or “arbitrary”. The conventional strategy is to fight randomness; a more recent one is to accept and even celebrate randomness. We focus on a third approach that employs randomness as a managerial and social decision-making mechanism in a purposeful way. We argue that Controlled Rando...

This book studies the relationship between the arts and the economy. By applying economic thinking to arts and culture, it analyses markets for art and cultural goods, highlights specific facets of art auctions and discusses determinants of the economic success of artists. The author also sheds new light on various cultural areas, such as the perfo...

Much of the research on terrorism has been devoted to analyzing and understanding the concept and consequences of terrorism, as well as the behavior of terrorists. In contrast, this article develops five new and concrete proposals for effective strategies against terrorism: (i) strengthening decentralization; (ii) encouraging fighters to leave the...

Large-scale migration is one of the most topical issues of our time. There are two main problems. First, millions of persons will enter Europe in the short and middle run in spite of the firewalls we have built. When the income levels in the development countries raises, the migration pressure will even become stronger for a long time. Second, the...

Many academic economists take it as a matter of course that economics should become a natural science. Such a characterization misses an essential aspect of a social science, namely reactivity, i.e. human beings systematically respond to economic data, and in particular to interventions by economic policy, in a foreseeable way. To illustrate this f...

Happy people have higher intrinsic motivation to work, which raises their productivity. Some firms exploit happiness to attract more customers. Such business policy exploits happiness in an instrumental way; this flies in the face of true happiness. In what kind of happiness can business organizations engage? A firm should offer all its stakeholder...

Fundamental arguments speak against politicians attempting to maximize the aggregate subjective well-being index of their country’s population. This approach to economic policy corresponds to the idea of a “benevolent dictator” who determines from above what is good for the people. Such an assumption is naïve. Once the maximization of the aggregate...

There are many concepts and ideas regarding what happiness may mean, but it certainly is a major goal of human beings. In the past, the concept of Gross National Product (GNP) was an important social innovation for capturing economic activity. A higher material living standard enabled people to lead better and healthier lives. Many people have a ro...