Mournful and yet grand is the destiny of the artist

This dissertation provides new insights on creativity and the lives of creative people, by
availing of unique data-sets covering the lives, works and emotional states of famous
music composers. The underlying research documents the long-run persistence of a society’s
preference towards cultural goods and shows that the geography of composer
births displays remarkable continuity over a period of seven centuries. It formalizes
and documents the trade-off between agglomeration economies (beneficial peer effects)
and diseconomies (peer crowding) experienced by music composers. Furthermore,
it is explored how peer crowding impacts composers’ emotional well-being. The
results point to a large reduction in composers’ longevity, if they are located in cities
where the peer competition has been greater. Finally, the determinants of psychological
well-being are studied and quantitative evidence is provided on the existence
of a causal impact of negative emotions on outstanding creativity - an association
hypothesized across several disciplines since Antiquity; however, not yet convincingly
established.