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State of the Art: Economic Development Through the Lens of Paintings

Author

Listed:
  • Clément Gorin
  • Stephan Heblich
  • Yanos Zylberberg

Abstract

This paper analyzes 630,000 paintings from 1400 onward to uncover how visual art reflects its socioeconomic context. We develop a learning algorithm to predict nine basic emotions conveyed in each painting and isolate a context effect—the emotional signal shared across artworks created in the same location and year—controlling for artist, genre, and epoch-specific influences. These emotion distributions encode subtle but meaningful information about the living standards, uncertainty, or inequality characterizing the context in which the artworks were produced. We propose this emotion-based measure, derived from historical artworks, as a novel lens to examine how societies experienced major socioeconomic transformations, including climate variability, trade dynamics, technological change, shifts in knowledge production, and political transitions.

Suggested Citation

  • Clément Gorin & Stephan Heblich & Yanos Zylberberg, 2025. "State of the Art: Economic Development Through the Lens of Paintings," NBER Working Papers 33976, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    • Handle: RePEc:nbr:nberwo:33976
    Note: DAE POL
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    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • C45 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Econometric and Statistical Methods: Special Topics - - - Neural Networks and Related Topics
    • O10 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - General
    • R11 - Urban, Rural, Regional, Real Estate, and Transportation Economics - - General Regional Economics - - - Regional Economic Activity: Growth, Development, Environmental Issues, and Changes
    • Z1 - Other Special Topics - - Cultural Economics

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