Ruth Towse

Ruth Towse has a BA in Political Economy, University of Reading, MSc (Econ), London School of Economics and PhD, Erasmus University Rotterdam. She held posts in economics at Middlesex University, Thammasat University Bangkok (Thailand), the Institute of Education, University of London, City University (Department of Arts Policy and Management), the London School of Economics and at the University of Exeter (UK) before moving to Erasmus University Rotterdam in 1999, where she is Reader in Cultural Industries. Her main area of expertise is in cultural economics with special reference to the economics artists’ labour markets and copyright in the cultural industries. She has published widely in cultural economics and on the economics of copyright, editing several major collections in both fields as well as authoring many articles in international journals and other publications.

Ruth Towse was Joint Editor of the Journal of Cultural Economics from 1993 - 2002 and has been a member of the Executive Board of the Association for Cultural Economics International and of ICARE in Venice. She is Vice President of SERCI (Society for Economic Research in Copyright Issues). She is a Fellow of the Royal Society for the Arts (FRSA). She has had commissions to undertake research projects for the Arts Council of Great Britain, the Arts Council of Wales, South West Arts, the World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO) and the Government of Canada. She has lectured, given seminars and participated in conferences in most European countries, the USA, Australia, Japan and Korea.