- Phone:
- (812) 855-2947
- Email:
- mirushto@iu.edu
- Room Number:
- A323
- Areas of Interest:
- Cultural economics, policy and administration ,
- Nonprofit organizations ,
- Tax policy ,
- Current research concerns cultural districts and tax policy towards nonprofit organizations and charitable donations
Education
- Ph.D. University of British Columbia, 1990
- M.A., University of Western Ontario, 1981
- B.A., University of British Columbia, 1980
Biography
As a professor, Dr. Michael Rushton’s expertise and teaching is in the economics, management, and public policy of the arts. His publications include articles on such topics as public funding for the arts, the role of nonprofit organizations, taxation, copyright, freedom of expression, and the arts and local development. He is the editor of Creative Communities: Art Works in Economic Development (2013) and the author of Strategic Pricing for the Arts (2014). Before joining Indiana University in 2006, he held faculty positions in Canada, the U.S., and Australia, and served as a senior policy advisor to the government of the Canadian province of Saskatchewan.
Highlights
- Past Director of Strategic Planning and Associate Vice President for University Academic Affairs
- Visiting Lecturer at University of Chicago, and Freiberg University (Germany)
- Senior Policy Analyst for the Government of Saskatchewan
- Co-editor of the Journal of Cultural Economics
- O'Neill Excellence in Teaching Award (2009), Indiana University
In the News
- "Pay-what-you-want tickets gaining traction in Pittsburgh" - Pittsburgh City Paper, May 25, 2016
- "Hoping Art Will Boost Danbury's Downtown Economy" - Greenwich Time, August 2, 2014
- "IU Inks Internship Deal With Smithsonian" - Inside INdiana Business, April 14, 2014
- "Museums Offer a Bang for the Bucks" - WNYC News, April 18, 2014
- "Does Zoo-Museum District Future Hinge On A Stronger Ethics Code?" - St. Louis Public Radio, April 27, 2014
Selected Works
- “Why do we Subsidize Donations to the Opera?”Cultural Trends 27(3): 160-72 (2018)
- “Thinking Outside the Empathy Box,” Cultural Trends 26(3): 260-71 (2017)
- “Performance Measurement as Policy Rhetoric: The Case of Federal Arts Councils,” (with J. Woronkowicz and T. M. Rabovsky), International Journal of Cultural Policy (February 2017)
- “Should Public and Nonprofit Museums Have Free Admission? A Defense of the Membership Model,” Museum Management and Curatorship, 32(3): 200-209 (2017)
- “Touts Out? The Waterson Review on Secondary Ticketing,” Cultural Trends 25(4): 287-90 (2016)
- “Cultural Districts and Economic Development in American Cities,”Poetics 49: 20-29 (2015)
- Strategic Pricing for the Arts, New York: Routledge (2014)
- Creative Communities: Art Works in Economic Development, (Editor) Washington, DC: Brookings Institution Press, (2013)
- “Hybrid Organizations in the Arts: A Cautionary View,” Journal of Arts Management, Law, and Society 44(3): 145-52 (2014)
- “A note on the use and misuse of the racial diversity index,” Policy Studies Journal, 36(3): 445-459 (2008)
- “Why are nonprofits exempt from the corporate income tax?” Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly,36 (4): 662-675 (2007)
- “Understanding state spending on the arts: 1976-1999,” (with G. B. Lewis), State and Local Government Review,39 (2): 107-114 (2007)
- “Support for earmarked public spending on culture: Evidence from a referendum in metropolitan Detroit,” Public Budgeting and Finance,25 (4): 72-85 (2005)