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Artists' Suicides as a Public Good
Journal article   Peer reviewed

Artists' Suicides as a Public Good

Samuel Cameron, Bijou Yang, David Lester and Seema Cameron
Archives of suicide research, v 9(4), pp 389-396
01 Oct 2005
PMID: 16179336

Abstract

celebrity suicide economic cost externalities public good
This Commentary suggests that it is possible, from an economic perspective, that any individual artist/celebrity suicide may be of net benefit to society. Sales of the artist's products and associated merchandise may increase after the suicide, and people, including those who were not even born at the time of the suicide, may derive value from its iconic reification, not to mention the higher value they derive from some private goods. A case study of Kurt Cobain is given to illustrate this phenomenon.

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