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Royalties for Artists Versus Royalties for Authors and Composers
Henry Hansmann, Yale Law School
ABSTRACT:
Legislation creating or reinforcing resale royalties for visual artists
retains substantial political popularity, particularly in the European Union -- despite the
often skeptical attitude toward those rights in the economics literature. In this essay, we
probe more deeply the affirmative arguments that can be made for a resale royalty right, in
either a mandatory or a discretionary form. We also compare the rationale for visual
artists’ resale royalties with the potential rationales for the now-well-established systems of
royalty rights for authors and composers. This comparison has particular interest both
because some of the principal arguments made against visual artists’ resale royalties also
apply to authors’ royalties, and because the economic rationale for compensating authors
with royalties has itself not been well explored. We also discuss briefly the related subject
of display rights for visual artists. We conclude with some general implications for policy.
SUGGESTED CITATION:
Henry Hansmann,
"Royalties for Artists Versus Royalties for Authors and Composers"
(April 11, 2001).
Yale Law School.
Yale Law School John M. Olin Center for Studies in Law, Economics, and Public Policy Working Paper Series.
Paper 250.
http://lsr.nellco.org/yale/lepp/papers/250
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