Understanding the benefits of the arts is central to the discussion and design of policies affecting the arts. This study addresses the widely perceived need to articulate the private and public benefits of involvement in the arts. The findings are intended to engage the arts community and the public in a new dialogue about the value of the arts, to stimulate further research, and to help public and private policymakers reach informed decisions.Recent policy debates about the arts-their role in society, how they should be funded, whether they are thriving or suffering-have been hampered by limitations in available data and the absence of a developed body of rigorous and independent research on the arts. Over the last several years, the RAND Corporation has been building a body of research on the arts to help inform public policy. In a series of reports on the performing arts, the media arts, and the visual arts, RAND researchers have been describing what is known-and not known-about the ecology of the arts, including recent trends in public involvement, numbers and types of arts organizations, sources and levels of financial support, and numbers and employment circumstances of artists working in different fields. RAND researchers have also examined how to build participation in the arts and whether partnerships between arts organizations and schools in California's Los Angeles School District are working effectively. In addition, ongoing research is being conducted to analyze innovative practices that state arts agencies across the country have adopted to encourage greater local participation in the arts.This study is one in a series of publications on research in the arts conducted within RAND Enterprise Analysis, a division of the RAND Corporation. It was made possible by a grant from The Wallace Foundation, which seeks to support and share effective ideas and practices that expand learning and enrichment opportunities for all people. The Foundation's three current objectives are to strengthen education leadership in ways that improve student achievement, to improve out-of-school learning opportunities, and to expand participation in arts and culture. Contents vii CHAPTER SIXConclusions and Implications.

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Objectives. This article tests the hypothesis that social capital—measured in terms of civic group involvement, social and racial trust, and political engagement—leads to charitable behavior by individuals. Methods. I introduce measures of the “social capital elasticity of giving,” which facilitate comparisons between the effects on charity of different social capital types. Using data from the 2000 Social Capital Community Benchmark Survey, I estimate these elasticities with tobit regression models. Results. I find strong links between changes in social capital stocks and changes in giving levels. Furthermore, I find that different social capital types have differing levels of impact on giving. Conclusions. Charitable giving appears to be a beneficial consequence of some types of social capital.

The relationship between government social spending and private donations to the nonprofit sector is an issue that is relevant to both public administrators and nonprofit managers. Does government funding displace philanthropy, or encourage it? This article introduces the debate into the public administration literature. First, I survey and interpret the empirical work performed to date in this area by economists. Second, I retest this question across four nonprofit subsectors using data on both federal and state/local spending. My survey of the literature shows mixed results, although a broad pattern indicates that “crowding out” tends to dominate, particularly in the areas of social service provision and health. My empirical results are consistent with these findings, although they must be interpreted cautiously from a policy perspective: While results are statistically significant, the degree of crowding out is generally small. On the other hand, the claim that government funding stimulates giving seems to lack both statistical and policy significance.

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