ABSTRACT
Government officials are encouraged to seriously consider investments in cultural activities as a valid alternative to solving particular economic development problems. Traditionally, cultural coalitions have chosen a limited number of evaluation techniques. The development goals are to be clearly stated in terms of how a particular industry will be affected by the cultural strategy and how it will generate a measurable variable of economic development. The Input-Output Model is commonly used to assess the impact of an economic activity on the rest of the sectors of the economy. A better approach would take into consideration that cultural organizations provide goods that are quite heterogeneous. To estimate the impact arts organizations have in the economy, the studies must go beyond calculating benefits in terms of output and employment and deal with issues of quantifying all tangible and intangible benefits as well as assessing the most accurate value for opportunity costs.
