Cultural reports lack reliable data, risking a bubble for Creative Industries

Stefano Monti argues that the Cultural and Creative Industries (CCI) cluster and the recognition of culture's cross-sectoral impacts are powerful political and economic ideas, but warns that without honest reflection on measurement metrics, the sector risks becoming a bubble. He criticizes current cultural reports (e.g., Symbola, Federculture) for high ambiguity due to lack of certain data, realistic proxies, and official shared documents. Monti insists that if CCIs are considered an industrial sector, their reports should be comparable to those of mechanics, finance, or biochemistry. He identifies two types of bugs: mental approach/usage and technical-structural. He highlights the absence of a unified data-set allowing comparison across Europe, noting that even Eurostat lacks an explicit culture set. Monti proposes creating a project combining top international cultural economists, active operators, and European/national statistical systems to build a data-set, or recalling the Stiglitz-Sen-Fitoussi commission. He concludes that without reliable information, culture will remain a beautiful conversation topic rather than a productive sector.