Answer:
The average life expectancy for a woman born in 1915, the year that gave us Cuban-American painter Carmen Herrera, was 57 years. At 102, Herrera is now nearly twice that old. According to research economists Robert B. Ekelund and John D. Jackson, she is probably right in the sweet spot to enjoy the “death effect” on prices for her artworks—despite being alive and painting.
Ekelund and Jackson say the death effect—traditionally conceived of as the price bump an artist gets after her death—is actually only observable for living artists, and only in the five years leading up to an artist’s death. In redefining the “death effect,” their research helps explain rising prices for a large cohort of prominent artists reaching advanced ages.
“It has everything to do with the [buyer’s] assessment of whether the artist will overproduce or spoil the market of what they buy,” said Ekelund. “If an artist is 95 years old, you know pretty well that the supply is going to end pretty soon, and the supplier can’t spoil the market.”
In their recent book The Economics of American Art, Ekelund and Jackson, both professors emeritus at Auburn University in Alabama, and the late Robert D. Tollison lay out the case for what could be more accurately called the “betting on a forthcoming funeral effect.” By examining auction records for 17 American post-war artists, they found that, on average, prices rise steadily in the five years preceding an artist’s death, and plummet the year she or he dies.
Step-by-step explanation:
DON'T KNOW