TY  - JOUR
AU  - Galenson,David W.
AU  - Weinberg,Bruce A.
TI  - Age and the Quality of Work:  The Case of Modern American Painters
JF  - National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper Series
VL  - No. 7122
PY  - 1999
Y2  - May 1999
UR  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w7122
L1  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w7122.pdf
N1  - Author contact info:
David Galenson
Department of Economics
University of Chicago
1126 East 59th Street
Chicago, IL  60637
Tel: 773/702-8258
Fax: 773/702-8490
E-Mail: galenson@uchicago.edu

Bruce A. Weinberg
Department of Economics
Ohio State University
410 Arps Hall
1945 North High Street
Columbus, OH  43210
Tel: 614/292-5642
Fax: 614/292-3906
E-Mail: weinberg.27@osu.edu
AB  - Psychologists have found that the age at which successful practitioners typically do their best work varies across professions, but they have not considered whether these peak ages change over time, as economic models suggest they might.  Using auction records, we estimate the relationship between artists' ages and the value of their paintings for two successive cohorts of modern American painters.  We find that a substantial decline occurred over time in the age at which these artists produced their most valuable - and most important - work, and argue that this was caused by a shift in the nature of the demand for modern art during the 1950s.
ER  -