The economics of heritage: some implications of devolution,

In this paper, we focus on the political economic consequences of devolution of policies dealing with heritage conservation and valorization. In particular, the existence of local policymakers’ vested interests concerning the conservation of heritage—due to its positive effects on tourism—raises the issue of what set of functions, and class of heritage to devolve. Our political economic analysis shows that devolution may favor the conservation of heritage with ‘outstanding characteristics’ over more ‘local’ heritage, leading to an inefficient outcome. We then discuss different possible measures to correct for such a political inefficiency.