Employing Travel Time to Compare the Value of Competing Cultural Organizations

A number of studies have applied non-market valuation techniques to measure the value of cultural goods. Virtually all of these studies are single case applications and rely mostly on stated preferences, such as contingent valuation techniques. We compare the relative value of multiple, competing goods and show how revealed preferences, in particular travel time, may be used for this. In addition, we account for heterogeneity. Using a unique transaction database with the visiting behavior of 80,821 Museum Cardholders to 108 Dutch museums, we propose a latent class application of a logit model to account for the different distances of museums to the population and for differences in willingness-to-travel.     

Determining the Value of Cultural Goods: How Much (or How Little) Does Contingent Valuation Tell Us?

Contingent valuation methods (CVM) are now well established as a means of measuring the nonmarket demand for cultural goods and services. When combined with valuations provided through market processes (where relevant), an overall assessment of the economic value of cultural commodities can be obtained. Within a neoclassical framework, such assessments are thought to provide a complete picture of the value of cultural goods. But are there aspects of the value of cultural goods which are not fully captured, or not captured at all, within such a model? This paper argues that CVM provides an incomplete view of the nonmarket value of cultural goods, and that alternative measures need to be developed to provide a fuller account.     

On the Possibility of Organ Markets and the Performativity of Economics

Callon's (1998) ‘performativity thesis’ encourages us to consider how the boundaries of the economy are negotiated. This paper explores one such discussion: the contributions of economics to the debates over the introduction of markets for transplant organs. The paper pays particular attention to the normative aspects of economic valuation. It examines the philosophical antecedents of economic contributions to the debate, notes the rhetorical and linguistic power of economic calculation and then focuses on three distinct sets of calculations concerning the value of a transplant kidney: a contingent valuation calculation, a risk-premia based calculation, and a cost-efficiency simulation. In each case, it shows that economic facts, once created, may travel freely through normative debates and claim moral force. The technical process of economic modelling is therefore seen to be a crucial aspect of the economisation of this area, and of economic performativity more generally.     

Assessing the role of collaboration in the process of museum innovation

ABSTRACT

The relationship between collaboration and innovation in cultural organisations is an emerging topic that has drawn particular attention from scholars and practitioners. The main aim of this study is to assess the role of collaboration in the process of innovation in museum organisations. To achieve this aim, first, we develop a four-domain analytical framework by matching innovation types to cultural production processes to reflect the peculiarities of museum innovation. By applying this framework to the multiple case studies from four Spanish museums, we identify three main motivations (supplementing manpower, compensating for the scarcity of knowledge, improving demand-driven innovation) and four forms of collaboration (teamwork, outsourcing, consortium and conversation) and summarise the different modes of collaboration involved in various domains of production and innovation. An assessment is conducted subsequently to evaluate the effectiveness of existing collaborations in achieving technological and cultural innovation in museums. Finally, a list of implications for museums’ innovation management is presented.     

Valuing the Benefits of Cleaning Lincoln Cathedral

This paper summarises a contingent valuation study of willingness to pay forcleaning Lincoln Cathedral. A randomsample of the inhabitants of the city of Lincoln and the surrounding area wasquestioned as to their willingness topay for a change in the frequency of a hypothetical cleaning cycle from 40years to 10 years. This change wasillustrated by photographs which showed the same aspects of the Cathedralhalf-way through the two cleaning cycles.Individuals were also asked questions regarding their attitudes towards airpollution in general and its impact on theCathedral in particular. It was found that household willingness to pay isbest predicted by disposable income anda variable indicating distance from the site. Estimates of mean willingnessto pay range from £ 15 to £ 23 perhousehold per annum for those living Lincolnshire. Aggregating these valuesover the number of households inLincolnshire suggests that the annual damage inflicted by air pollution on theappearance of the building so far assoiling is concerned is valued between £ 0.4 m and £ 0.6 m.Different solutions to the problem of starting point biaswere explored and are shown to yield similar estimates of willingness to pay.     

Valuing the Arts: A Contingent Valuation Approach

Government funding of the arts has received considerable attention in the United States in recent years. Efforts to cut funding to the National Endowment for the Arts and declining budgets for state arts agencies have raised questions about how much individuals value the arts. This paper applies the contingent valuation method to assess this value, using surveys of random households and of arts patrons. Our analysis estimated a mean willingness to pay (WTP) among all Kentucky households from $6 to$27, depending on the estimation technique used and on whether the scenario discussed is to increase arts performances by 25 per cent, or to avoid a 25per cent or 50 per cent decrease in the number of performances. Among arts patron households, the mean WTP ranges from $61 to $132.Consumer demand for arts performances in large part follows a predictable pattern. The likelihood of respondents agreeing to make the donation that is requested rises as the size of the donation decreases. The likelihood is higher to avoid a 50 per cent decline in performances than to avoid a 25 percent decline in performances. The mean WTP rises with income, and arts patron households have a much higher WTP than all households. WTP rises with on-site use factors such as frequency of attendance. The WTP also rises for arts patrons households with off-site use such as watching arts events on television or reading about the arts in newspapers and magazines.     

Contingent Valuation and Cultural Resources: A Meta-Analytic Review of the Literature

Contingent valuation methodology (CVM) has been increasingly applied to cultural resources. CVM employs survey methods to gather stated preference information, which can be used to estimate economic values of various cultural resources and projects. Although popular in other fields, the application of CVM in the cultural arena is relatively recent. This article summarizes this growing body of empirical literature and its range of findings. A meta-analysis gives a statistical view of the ``state of the art' of the literature. This preliminary analysis sheds light on the consistency and validity of the use of this method in cultural applications.     

The Regrettable Necessity of Contingent Valuation

Ordinary markets allow parties, not the state, to value property and projects. But they do not account for subjective value in such traditional contexts as condemnation. An awareness of these nonmarket values helps overcome any categorical opposition to the use of the contingent valuation method (CVM) to value cultural and environmental resources. But accurate CVM should measure all values, positive or negative, tononowners; it should apply generally to any substitute projects; and it should seek to account for diminishing marginal value of additional resource units. CVM should be used only to aggregate nonmarket preferences, not to skew the political debate to cultural or environmental objectives.     

The Willingness-to-Pay for the Royal Theatre in Copenhagen as a Public Good

In this paper some of the results of a Contingent Valuation (CV)-Study of the Royal Theatre in Copenhagen, Denmark, are presented. The estimated aggregated willingness-to-pay (WTP) for the Royal Theatre through taxes shows that the Danish population wants to pay at least as much as the theatre receives in public subsidies. The visitors comprise only about 7 per cent of the total population, but the non-users' WTP is quite substantial which is the interesting point. It means that the non-users are willing to pay an option price and that the Royal Theatre has non-use value. This revised version was published online in August 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Contingent Valuation and Semiparametric Methods: A Case Study of the National Museum of Sculpture in Valladolid, Spain

Research on cultural economics is very interested in the economic valuation of non-market goods, particularly in the field ofcultural heritage where contingent valuation techniques are currently being used with both parametric and non-parametric statistical methods to estimate the willingness to pay for cultural goods. In the literature analysed, the number of studies using semiparametric methods, however, is very limited. Our analysis is intended to help fill this gap by offering a parametric, non-parametric and semiparametric economic valuation of the National Museum of Sculpture (Museo Nacional de Escultura), located in Valladolid,Spain. In addition, we also gain insight on a controversial issue affecting most European museums, particularly those located in Latin countries: the role voluntary donations might play in the funding of public museums.     

Contingent Valuation of a Cultural Public Good and Policy Design: The Case of ``Napoli Musei Aperti'

The aim of the paper is twofold: to report on theapplication of a contingent valuation survey todetermine the value to the Naples population ofmaintaining ``Napoli Musei Aperti', a cultural publicgood provided by the city of Naples, and to exploresome alternative schemes of cultural policy. The paperis divided in two parts. The first presents someresults of the contingent valuation study. The seconddiscusses the use of the contingent valuation as apolicy instrument in the public cultural sector.     

Economic valuation of a contemporary art museum: correction of hypothetical bias using a certainty question

Biases in contingent valuation exercises are often difficult to quantify and to correct due to the hypothetical nature of the method itself. One common problem is hypothetical bias, which in recent years has been addressed in various ways, particularly through the inclusion of a certainty question in the questionnaire. We analyse the impact of applying differing corrections based on the certainty question for double-bounded dichotomous economic valuation exercises. The empirical application is based on data gathered from four surveys conducted with various groups to obtain the value allocated to a modern art museum: the Museo Patio Herreriano de Arte Contemporáneo Español, in the city of Valladolid (Spain). Findings indicate that estimates of Willingness to Pay are significantly reduced when a higher certainty threshold is required, in other words when individuals are more certain of their choices. Furthermore, correction through recoding proved more severe than correction through exclusion.     

Travel Cost Analysis of a Cultural Heritage Site: The Case of Historic St. Mary's City of Maryland

Historic St. Mary's City located in rural southern Maryland, marks the 17th century British Colonial capital of the State of Maryland. As with most cultural heritage sites, Historic St. Mary's City can be classified as possessing public goods-type characteristics, and as such, welfare benefit estimates must utilize non-market valuation techniques. To date, the primary valuation methodology used for cultural heritage sites research involves stated preference methods. This study is one of the first to employ a revealed preference methodology, the zonal travel cost model, to estimate the consumer surplus welfare measures of a cultural heritage site. We analyze three years of visitor sample data to compare three functional forms of visitor demand. The average of the annual individual consumer surplus measures ranged from approximately $8.00 to $19.26, depending on the functional forms used. When aggregated to the total number of individual paid visitors, the average annual benefit estimates range from approximately $75,492 to $176,550.     

Combining the travel cost and contingent behavior methods to value cultural heritage sites: Evidence from Armenia

This paper combines the travel cost method (TCM) with contingent behavior questions to estimate domestic visitors’ use values for cultural heritage sites in Armenia, a transition economy in which conservation of cultural monuments is hampered by limited resources. Respondents intercepted at four cultural monuments provided information on their visitation patterns, experience at the site, perception of the state of conservation of the monuments, and rating of the quality of the services and infrastructure. We combine actual trips with stated trips under hypothetical programs that would enhance the conservation of the monuments and improve one of (i) the cultural experience at the site, (ii) the quality of the infrastructure, or (iii) the quality of the services, and use the combined actual and stated trips to fit a panel data model. Our study is one of the few applications of the TCM to value cultural heritage sites. Our investigation shows that (i) significant use values are associated with the four study monuments, and (ii) conservation programs and initiatives that improve the cultural experience, or simply make it easier for the respondent to reach and spend time at the monument, are valued by domestic visitors and would encourage higher visitation rates. Actual and intended trips reported by the respondents exhibit good construct validity, in the sense that they are well predicted by price, location, hypothetical scenario and other individual characteristics of the respondents.

Art for the Masses? Justification for the Public Support of the Arts in Developing Countries – Two Arts Festivals in South Africa

In the New South Africa, as in other developing countries, the equitable distribution of public resources is a priority. The case for public support of the arts is thus difficult to make because it has been shown and borne out by South African research, that arts audiences tend to represent the better educated, more prosperous minority of society, not the majority of the very poor, mainly African-origin population. Using data from willingness to pay studies conducted at two South African arts festivals, this paper shows that, when the positive externalities provided by the arts are included in their valuation, it can be shown that both high and low income earners benefit. However, as suggested by Seaman (2003), it is also found that some of what the WTP figure is capturing is current and expected future economic benefit from the event.     

Consumer databases as practical accomplishments: the making of digital objects in three movements

This paper aims to reflect on some key issues linked to the production of digital objects in business settings. In doing so, it problematizes current social science scholarship, which emphasizes the analysis of digital data and analytics, and reinforces the magnitude of its consequences and ‘data power’. The paper proposes making three corrective ‘movements’ that might enrich our approaches to how databases and analytics are assembled in business settings. The first movement involves the problem of ethnographic access to data-making practices. We propose taking seriously the issue of fabricating an ethnographic encounter where the process of making digital objects is exposed. The second movement concerns the visibility and the type of politics taking place in data practices. We argue for the need to displace attention from data impacts and results to the myriad of mundane practices and devices through which these objects are assembled. The third movement we suggest requires a focus on examining error and failure as key aspects of the manufacturing of consumer databases. Each of these movements is illustrated by ethnographic vignettes from a 9-month ethnographic experiment that involved participating in the first stages of the manufacturing of an online financial retail company's consumer database.     

文旅融合视角下研学旅行基地系统研究——以徐州市为例

研学课程开发使研学基地(营地)成为教育与文旅融合的桥梁和纽带。首先提出研学基地是开展研学旅行的载体,立德树人是研学基地课程开发的根本任务,文旅融合是研学基地课程开发的核心内容。实际调研发现,研学基地当前有3种课程开发模式,即基地自主开发模式、中小学老师自带课程+学生开发模式和研学培训机构介入开发模式。进一步提出构建国家级—省级—市级—区县级4层次、5种类型的研学基地系统,并具体分析了构建的4个标准：契合地方文脉、类型多样独特、服务功能完善、空间分布均衡。最后分析了徐州研学资源基础、研学主要存在的问题,并分层次与类别构建了徐州市研学基地系统。     

Wall base ventilation system to treat rising damp: The influence of the size of the channels

One of the major causes of pathologies in our historic buildings is the presence of moisture, particularly rising damp. Since these constructions tended to be built near water lines, to facilitate their supply, and because their walls are mainly made of high porosity materials, the presence of rising damp is constant. Although many historic buildings in Portugal have already been the targets of interventions to eliminate pathologies, the fact is that it has not been possible to do it properly. The treatment techniques available nowadays are quite diverse but all of them have low applicability to historic constructions. Research has been carried out, in this past years, at the Department of Civil Engineering of the University of Coimbra in collaboration with Department of Civil Engineering of the Faculty of Engineering of the University of Porto to try and solve this problem. An old but poorly studied technique has been investigated experimentally and numerically in the past few years: ventilation of the base of the walls. It was experimentally validated to limestone walls 20 cm thick. Numerical investigation has been carried out in order to analyze the influence of different parameters on its efficiency. In this paper we present the results of the latest investigations that have been carried out about the influence of the size of the ventilation channel on its efficiency.     

Beyond the Dogma of the Fixed Book Price Agreement

After describing the essential features of the book market, a welfare analysisof the fixed book price agreement is given. Allowance is made for theopportunity cost of reading. Theoretically such an agreement pushes up bookprices and depresses book sales. However, more titles will be published,particularly books with low price elasticity and those that take a long timeto read. Potential advantages of better service, distribution and retailnetworks seem less relevant. The book market is one of imperfect competition,but even so the cross-subsidy argument is unlikely to be valid. A qualitativeanalysis of the Dutch situation is given. Tentative conclusions are that oneshould be more concerned about the number of well-stocked bookshops than thediversity of published titles and that debutantes do not face big barriers toentry. One should be even more concerned about the falling proportion ofpeople reading books. Governments fail to set (quantitative) objectives forthe fixed book price agreement, which makes it difficult to evaluate itssuccess and contributes to it being treated as dogma in the book world and thepolitical arena.     

The economic contribution of volunteerism toward the value of our cultural inventory

Scholars for centuries have been investigating and debating what determines the value of a good or service. However, the market has chosen to ignore what has been categorized as nonmarket transactions such as volunteerism. This paper will examine the economic contribution of volunteerism and its impact on our cultural inventory. Economic literature reveals three possible alternative methods to calculating the dollar figure for non-compensated volunteerism. They are Opportunity Cost Approach, Value-Added Approach, and Market Price Equivalency Model. Has cultural volunteerism contributed to cultural inventory by providing an expansion of our knowledge of the past and understanding the future?