Paulsen Richard J, Alper Neil, Wassall Gregory
Department of Economics, Bloomsburg University of Pennsylvania, 228 Sutliff Hall, 400 E 2nd Street, Bloomsburg, PA USA.
Department of Economics, Northeastern University, Boston, MA USA.
Small Bus Econ (Dordr). 2021;57(2):639-652. doi: 10.1007/s11187-020-00416-x. Epub 2020 Oct 27.
This study examines the role of college graduates with degrees in the arts, STEM, and other creative fields as entrepreneurs and innovators in the US economy. As creativity is a trait of art students and is important for those acting as entrepreneurs and innovators in an economy, arts majors have the potential to play an important role in these areas. Using American Community Survey data, we look to identify arts, STEM, and other creative majors who are working in entrepreneurial occupations, those where self-employment is common, and innovative industries, those that are copyright intensive. As it is possible that the nature of arts occupations may be inherently more entrepreneurial and innovative, we compare arts majors to STEM and other creative majors also likely to work in such occupations. Using logistic regression, we find that majoring in a core arts field more than doubles an individual's likelihood of working in an entrepreneurial occupation or an innovative industry relative to non-creative majors. Other creative majors, like communications and STEM majors, are also associated with an increased likelihood of working as entrepreneurs or innovators. Relative to STEM and other creative majors, majoring in a core arts field is associated with the greatest increase in the likelihood of working in an entrepreneurial occupation and third greatest increase in the likelihood of working in an innovative industry. While arts graduates play an important role in artistic creation, this paper highlights a role for these graduates as entrepreneurs and innovators in the US economy.
本研究考察了拥有艺术、STEM及其他创意领域学位的大学毕业生在美国经济中作为企业家和创新者所发挥的作用。由于创造力是艺术专业学生的特质，且对经济领域中担任企业家和创新者的人很重要，所以艺术专业学生有潜力在这些领域发挥重要作用。利用美国社区调查数据，我们试图找出从事创业型职业（即自营职业普遍的职业）以及创新型行业（即版权密集型行业）的艺术、STEM及其他创意专业毕业生。鉴于艺术职业的性质可能本身就更具创业性和创新性，我们将艺术专业学生与也可能从事此类职业的STEM及其他创意专业学生进行比较。通过逻辑回归分析，我们发现，相对于非创意专业的学生，主修核心艺术领域专业会使个人从事创业型职业或在创新型行业工作的可能性增加一倍多。其他创意专业，如传播学专业和STEM专业，也与从事企业家或创新者工作的可能性增加有关。相对于STEM及其他创意专业，主修核心艺术领域专业与从事创业型职业可能性的最大增幅相关，与从事创新型行业可能性的第三大增幅相关。虽然艺术专业毕业生在艺术创作中发挥着重要作用，但本文强调了这些毕业生在美国经济中作为企业家和创新者的作用。
