Public intervention on heritage conservation and determinants of heritage authorities’ performance: a semi-parametric analysis

Government plays a significant role in the field of heritage conservation using a mix of different tools such as public spending, tax-expenditures and regulation. Surprisingly, the literature on the economics of heritage has not extensively investigated the performance of the public actors involved in the implementation of conservation policies or its determinants. In this paper we address this issue, from a theoretical and an empirical perspective, using Sicily as a case study. More precisely, we analyse the determinants of the differences in the efficiency levels of conservation activity of the nine Sicilian heritage authorities over the period 1993–2005. Economic, political and managerial variables are used to distinguish nondiscretionary from discretionary causes. The results show that the efficiency scores seem to be affected by economic and political factors, whereas the managerial variables do not affect the performance of heritage authorities.