On the Optimality of Cultural Education and Cultural Subsidies.

The debate about whether culture should be subsidized or not is far from being recent, and though problems and approaches vary across countries, most governments are in favour of supporting the arts in one way or the other. The literature considers several arguments in favour of such subsidies. Education, however, may seem as an action which could, in the long run, lead to proosible reductions subsidies. We construct an overlapping generations model in which young consumers are exposed to both public education in culture and transmission of culture from their parents and show that the golden rule can be reached only if there is both public cultural education and subsidization of cultural consumption.