Alexander Dolgin is professor and head of the Chair of Economics of Culture at the Higher School of Economics, Moscow.

The main focus of his research is the institutional economics of culture, which covers such diverse topics as adverse cultural selection processes, the economics of creative reputations, the theory of the welfare of culture, the economics of culture, and much else.

The book addresses the mechanisms of culture in the digital age. Dolgin tackles such topical issues as the modus operandi of culture in a market environment, the role of money in the process, and methods which might help consumers to choose the cultural goods which best meet their tastes in a situation where commercial cultural output is constantly increasing.

Symbolic exchange economics is a branch of economic science dealing with "personal resources" like free time, attention, and emotions. At present, these assets are virtually unaccounted for or used because of the apparent impossibility of measuring them. More often than not, economic thought proves quite ineffectual when it enters the cultural field.

“The Economics of Symbolic Exchange” provides substantial factual information about a whole range of cultural markets: the record industry, book publishing, fashion, network resources, and more. Special attention is paid to the "grey" segments of the economy, such as the role of pirates and illicit dealers, or the activities of semi-legal file sharing services which enable free downloads of music and video material in cyberspace. These glimpses into "grey" territory reveal gaps in the "white" markets and challenge a number of myths. The book provides a novel insight into numerous phenomena of contemporary culture.

Its main intention is to introduce into practice new management tools essential if any economic changes are to succeed in the cultural field, including recommender services functioning as a social institution providing expert consumer analysis of cultural goods and services.
 

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