The Heritage Game. Economics, Policy and Practice.

There is a growing demand to preserve and promote public access to cultural heritage and governments are increasingly involved in financing and regulating private attempts to meet this growing demand. The book tries to outline the contribution of economic analysis to the formulation and implementation of cultural heritage policy. The rationale for public intervention is explored but attention is focused on positive analysis and on the economic characteristics of heritage provision. The main tools of government policy (regulation, direct as well as indirect spending) are analyzed and the features of the public decision-making process are investigated, in the light of the principal-agent paradigm. The need for more demand-oriented policies to overcome asymmetrical information is stressed and different means to improve the functioning of the political decision-making process and to enhance the participation of the public are proposed. In this perspective, great attention is also paid to the role of evaluation methods. On one hand, a survey and critique of the techniques to evaluate the non-market demand for heritage is offered; on the other hand, the controversial issues of public spending appraisal methods, with respect both to cultural investment projects and the production of cultural goods and services are examined.