Some Economic Effects of Artist's Follow-Up Rights.

John P. Stein

Expert InsightsPublished 1976

Outlines the economic consequences of "follow-up rights" that have been proposed to guarantee an artist a percentage of any resale receipts received by someone else on one of the artist's works. These rights would not benefit artists and in fact might leave them worse off. Follow-up rights transfer from collectors to artists the ownership of uncertain streams of future revenues and thus would reduce initial sales prices for art. If artists were more risk averse or had stronger time preference than collectors, which assumptions are reasonable since artists are generally poorer than collectors, then the price reductions would more than offset the discounted value of the follow-up rights and leave artists worse off. Possible reasons why artists might nonetheless favor follow-up rights are discussed. The idea of a national registration of art works as a means of centrally policing artists' follow-up rights is rejected as impractical and expensive. 3 pp. (Author)

Document Details

  • Copyright: RAND Corporation
  • Availability: Web Only
  • Year: 1976
  • Pages: 3
  • Document Number: P-5650

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Stein, John P., Some Economic Effects of Artist's Follow-Up Rights. Santa Monica, CA: RAND Corporation, 1976. https://www.rand.org/pubs/papers/P5650.html.
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