Richard E. Caves
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Richard Earl Caves (November 1, 1931 – November 22, 2019) was an American economist and professor of economics at
Harvard University Harvard University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1636 and named for its first benefactor, the History of the Puritans in North America, Puritan clergyma ...
. He is known for his work on
multinational corporation A multinational corporation (MNC; also called a multinational enterprise (MNE), transnational enterprise (TNE), transnational corporation (TNC), international corporation, or stateless corporation, is a corporate organization that owns and cont ...
s,
industrial organization In economics, industrial organization is a field that builds on the theory of the firm by examining the structure of (and, therefore, the boundaries between) firms and markets. Industrial organization adds real-world complications to the per ...
and the creative industries. He is known within the film economics field as the author of a definitive book on the organization of
creative industries The creative industries refers to a range of economic activities which are concerned with the generation or exploitation of knowledge and information. They may variously also be referred to as the cultural industries (especially in Europe) or the ...
. His framework for competition policy of ''Structure, Conduct, Performance'' was for many years the standard approach in industrial organization.


Education and career

Caves obtained his BA in economics at
Oberlin College Oberlin College is a Private university, private Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college and conservatory of music in Oberlin, Ohio, United States. Founded in 1833, it is the oldest Mixed-sex education, coeducational lib ...
in 1953. He continued his studies at
Harvard University Harvard University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1636 and named for its first benefactor, the History of the Puritans in North America, Puritan clergyma ...
, where he obtained his MA in economics in 1956, and his PhD in 1958.Richard E. Caves, Marc J. Roberts, Brookings Institution (1974). ''Regulating the product: quality and variety.'' p. 269H. W. de Jong, William G. Shepherd (2007) ''Pioneers of Industrial Organization: How the Economics of Competition and Monopoly Took Shape.'' p. 250 In 1957, Caves embarked on his academic career in the Department of Economics, chaired by Joe S. Bain, at the
University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California), is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Berkeley, California, United States. Founded in 1868 and named after t ...
. In 1962, he moved back to Harvard University, where he was appointed Professor of Economics and lectured in industrial organization and
international trade International trade is the exchange of capital, goods, and services across international borders or territories because there is a need or want of goods or services. (See: World economy.) In most countries, such trade represents a significan ...
. He served as department chairman from 1966 to 1969, and as Chairman of the Ph.D. programme in
Business Economics Business economics is a field in applied economics which uses economic theory and quantitative methods to analyze business enterprises and the factors contributing to the diversity of organizational structures and the relationships of firms wit ...
from 1984 to 1997. He was also appointed as the George Gund Professor of Economics and Business Administration from 1986 to 1997, and subsequently as the Nathaniel Ropes Research Professor of Political Economy, from 1997 on. He retired from Harvard in 2003, and became emeritus Professor of Economics. He also sat on the editorial board of the ''
Review of Economics and Statistics ''The Review of Economics and Statistics'' is a peer-reviewed academic journal that covers applied economics, with specific relevance to the scope of econometrics. The editors-in-chief are Will Dobbie (Harvard University) and Raymond Fisman (Bost ...
'' from 1992 to 1996.


Consultancy work

Caves acted as a consultant on various topics to various bodies. He was an adviser on international monetary problems for the US Council of Economic Advisers in 1961, and deputy to the Special Assistant to the President on foreign trade policy in the same year. From 1963 to 1964 he was a member of the Review Committee for Balance of Payments Statistics at the US Bureau of the Budget (also known as the Bernstein Committee). In 1964, he was appointed as a member of the White House Task Force on Foreign Economic Policy. From 1972 to 1973, he acted as a consultant to the
Council of Ontario Universities The Council of Ontario Universities (COU) provides a forum for Ontario's universities to collaborate and advocate in support of their shared mission to the benefit and prosperity of students, communities and the province of Ontario. A membership ...
, and from 1975 to 1976 he was a consultant to the
Royal Commission on Corporate Concentration The Royal Commission on Corporate Concentration was a royal commission created in 1975 to study corporate concentration in Canada. History The commission was created by the Canadian federal government under Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau through ...
.


Contributions to Creative Industries

Caves specialized in industrial and political economics, and authored several books on
industrial efficiency Lean manufacturing is a method of manufacturing goods aimed primarily at reducing times within the production system as well as response times from suppliers and customers. It is closely related to another concept called just-in-time manufact ...
,
productivity Productivity is the efficiency of production of goods or services expressed by some measure. Measurements of productivity are often expressed as a ratio of an aggregate output to a single input or an aggregate input used in a production proce ...
, and
competition Competition is a rivalry where two or more parties strive for a common goal which cannot be shared: where one's gain is the other's loss (an example of which is a zero-sum game). Competition can arise between entities such as organisms, indi ...
. Using this as background, Caves went on to provide new insights into the economics of the artistic and creative endeavour by examining the organization of
creative industries The creative industries refers to a range of economic activities which are concerned with the generation or exploitation of knowledge and information. They may variously also be referred to as the cultural industries (especially in Europe) or the ...
. In a seminal work, ''Creative Industries: Contracts Between Art and Commerce'', Caves examined a wide range of visual and performing arts – including cinema and television, theatre, music, book publishing, and toys and games – in order to investigate how the theory of contracts and the logic of economic organization affect the production of "simple creative goods" (like art), as well as more "complex goods" (such as theatre plays or motion pictures), which require teams of artists with diverse talents. According to Caves' analysis, art collectors and moviegoers are consumers; gallery owners are "gatekeepers"; and critics are "certifiers." In this respect, his work comes close to that of the American sociologist, Howard S. Becker, who, two decades earlier, put forward a theory of
art world The art world comprises everyone involved in producing, commissioning, presenting, preserving, promoting, chronicling, criticizing, buying and selling fine art. It is recognized that there are many art worlds, defined either by location or alt ...
s. However his approach was strictly that of an economist, as he theorised that the organization and practices of all creative industries could be analysed according to seven "economic properties". These were: (1) ''time flies'', the fact that all creative work is subject to tight deadlines and has to be completed by a particular date; (2) ''infinite variety'', meaning that no two creative products are the same and, as a result, cannot be standardised; (3) ''nobody knows'', referring to the vagaries of an uncertain market where success or failure of a creative product cannot be determined in advance; (4) ''A list / B list'', a ranking of both organisations and individual personnel as a means to combat market uncertainties through recognised talent; (5) ''motley crew'', whereby all creative products, to a greater or lesser extent, rely on cooperation among different personnel with different skill sets; (6) ''art for art's sake'', meaning that creative products differ from other mass-produced commodities because they rely on aesthetic or artistic inputs; and (7) ''ars longa'', referring to the cumulation of copyrights by film studios, publishing houses, and other creative industry organisations. Over the years since its publication, the attention paid to Caves's work on creative industries has borne out the early comment by sociologist
Paul DiMaggio Paul Joseph DiMaggio (born January 10, 1951, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania) is an American educator, and professor of sociology at New York University since 2015. Previously, he was a professor of sociology at Princeton University. Biography A gra ...
that his book "promises to be a much-needed touchstone for work in
cultural economics Cultural economics is the branch of economics that studies the relation of culture to economic outcomes. Here, 'culture' is defined by shared beliefs and preferences of respective groups. Programmatic issues include whether and how much culture m ...
, the sociology of art and culture, and the interdisciplinary field of arts and
cultural policy Cultural policy is the government actions, laws and programs that regulate, protect, encourage and financially (or otherwise) support activities related to the arts and creative sectors, such as painting, sculpture, music, dance, literature, and ...
analysis." Scholars in
economic geography Economic geography is the subfield of human geography that studies economic activity and factors affecting it. It can also be considered a subfield or method in economics. Economic geography takes a variety of approaches to many different topi ...
,
political science Political science is the scientific study of politics. It is a social science dealing with systems of governance and Power (social and political), power, and the analysis of political activities, political philosophy, political thought, polit ...
,
anthropology Anthropology is the scientific study of humanity, concerned with human behavior, human biology, cultures, society, societies, and linguistics, in both the present and past, including archaic humans. Social anthropology studies patterns of behav ...
, and
cultural studies Cultural studies is an academic field that explores the dynamics of contemporary culture (including the politics of popular culture) and its social and historical foundations. Cultural studies researchers investigate how cultural practices rel ...
have all taken Caves's work as their starting point in their own analyses of different forms of creative industries – primarily in the United States and Europe, but also in the Asian region (in particular, perhaps, Japan ).


Awards and Prizes

* Wells Prize, Harvard University, 1957–8 * Ford Foundation Faculty Research Fellowship, 1959–60 * Gerard C. Henderson Prize, Harvard Law School, 1966 * Fellow,
American Academy of Arts and Sciences The American Academy of Arts and Sciences (The Academy) is one of the oldest learned societies in the United States. It was founded in 1780 during the American Revolution by John Adams, John Hancock, James Bowdoin, Andrew Oliver, and other ...
, 1968 * Galbraith Prize, 1976, 1981 * Kenan Enterprise Award, 1990 * Doctor of Economic Science,
University of London The University of London (UoL; abbreviated as Lond or more rarely Londin in Post-nominal letters, post-nominals) is a collegiate university, federal Public university, public research university located in London, England, United Kingdom. The ...
, 1999 * Eminent Scholar,
Academy of International Business Academy of International Business (AIB) is the leading association of international business scholars and specialists. Established in 1959, it has over 3400 members in about 90 countries. Membership is open to organizations as well as individual ...
, 1999 * Distinguished Scholar Award, Academy of International Business, 1998 * Doctor of Economic Science, University of London, 1999 * Distinguished Fellow, Industrial Organization Society, 2001.


Selected publications

* Caves, Richard E. ''Multinational enterprise and economic analysis.''
Cambridge University Press Cambridge University Press was the university press of the University of Cambridge. Granted a letters patent by King Henry VIII in 1534, it was the oldest university press in the world. Cambridge University Press merged with Cambridge Assessme ...
, 1996. * Caves, Richard E. ''Creative industries: Contracts between art and commerce.''
Harvard University Press Harvard University Press (HUP) is an academic publishing house established on January 13, 1913, as a division of Harvard University. It is a member of the Association of University Presses. Its director since 2017 is George Andreou. The pres ...
, 2000. * Articles, a selection: * Caves, Richard E. "International corporations: The industrial economics of foreign investment." ''
Economica ''Economica'' is a peer-reviewed academic journal of generalist economics published on behalf of the London School of Economics by Wiley-Blackwell. Established in 1921, it is currently edited by Nava Ashraf, Oriana Bandiera, Tim Besley, Franc ...
'' (1971): 1-27. * Caves, Richard E. "Multinational firms, competition, and productivity in host-country markets." ''Economica'' (1974): 176–193. * Caves, Richard E., and Michael E. Porter. "From entry barriers to mobility barriers: Conjectural decisions and contrived deterrence to new competition." ''
The Quarterly Journal of Economics ''The Quarterly Journal of Economics'' is a Peer review, peer-reviewed academic journal published by the Oxford University Press for the Harvard University Department of Economics. Its current editors-in-chief are Robert J. Barro, Lawrence F. Kat ...
'' (1977): 241–261. * Caves, Richard E.
Industrial organization and new findings on the turnover and mobility of firms
" ''Journal of economic literature'' (1998): 1947–1982.


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Caves, Richard E. 1931 births 2019 deaths Cultural economists American business theorists Oberlin College alumni Harvard Graduate School of Arts and Sciences alumni University of California, Berkeley College of Letters and Science faculty Harvard University faculty Writers from Akron, Ohio 20th-century American economists 21st-century American economists Economists from Ohio