Paper presented at the Fifth International Conference on Cultural Economics held at the Canada Council, Ottawa, Canada, September 27-30, 1988.

In examining the major influences on the demand for opera ticket prices, the author studies twenty opera companies in the . The author makes the following conclusions: 

I believe this study has demonstrated, first, that companies, even when engaged in the same performing medium, are sufficiently diverse to warrant separate treatment. Second, it is equally important to treat subscribers and single ticket holders as different populations. Third, the significant explanatory variables for subscriber attendance vary from company to company. Fourth, some companies may have succeeded in raising ticket prices to the point where the price elasticity of demand is now elastic. Fifth, income does not appear to have a significant effect on subscriber attendance. Sixth, marketing expenditures do not appear to have had a significant effect on subscriber attendance either, and where they have, the effect has been negative. Finally, it appears to be possible to forecast subscriber attendance accurately enough to be useful to management, at least in the case of several of the companies studied. (p. 126)

Includes tables.

Paper presented at the Fifth International Conference on Cultural Economics held at the Canada Council, Ottawa, Canada, September 27-30, 1988.