How free admittance affects charged visits to museums: An analysis of the Italian case

This study evaluates the effects of free visits to museums on charged visits. We take the Italian State museums and monuments as the case study, and we consider monthly data, aggregate at the national level, from January 1996 to December 2015. Within a multivariate analysis, which takes into account the seasonal structure of data, we document a positive influence of the number of free visits to museums and monuments on the subsequent charged visits. We also analyse the effect of a recent policy change (July 2014), consisting of an extension of free admittance. We show that the new rule has entailed an increase in both free and charged visits, as well as a stronger link between the patterns of free and charged visits. Our results can be informative in the ever-green debate on the museum attendance and its relations with individual choices and public policies regarding cultural consumption.