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

Cellini, Roberto and Cuccia, Tiziana (2017): How free admittance affects charged visits to museums: An analysis of the Italian case.

Abstract

This paper aims to evaluate whether and how the free admittance to museums and monuments affects the 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 approach, which takes into account the seasonal structure of time series, we document a positive influence of the number of free visitors upon the subsequent number of paying visitors. We also analyse the effect of the change in free admission policy, which has recently occurred in Italy: since July 2014 free admission is no longer reserved to specific segments of population, but it has been extended to all visitors on the first Sunday of each month. We show that this new rule has entailed an increase in both free and charged visits. Our present results can be relevant in the current political debate in Italy, in front of new rules concerning free admission to museums. More in general, we provide pieces of evidence that can be informative in the ever-green debate about free attendance to museum and its relations with individual choices and public policies concerning cultural consumption.

• Item Type: MPRA Paper
• Language: English
• Keywords: Museums, Free attendance, Cultural consumption, Seasonal time series.
• Subjects: C - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods > C2 - Single Equation Models ; Single Variables > C22 - Time-Series Models ; Dynamic Quantile Regressions ; Dynamic Treatment Effect Models ; Diffusion Processes; Z - Other Special Topics > Z1 - Cultural Economics ; Economic Sociology ; Economic Anthropology > Z11 - Economics of the Arts and Literature

References

Bailey S. & P. Falconer (1998). Charging for Admission to Museums and Galleries: A Framework for Analysing the Impact of Access. Journal of Cultural Economics, 22(2):167-77.

Beaulieu J.J. & Miron J.A. (1992). Seasonal unit roots in US aggregate data. NBER Technical Paper Series 126.

Becker G S. & Murphy K. M. (1988). A Theory of Rational Addiction. Journal of Political Economy, 96(5):675-700.

Brida J. G., Dalle Nogare C. & Scuderi R. (2016). Frequency of museum attendance: motivation matters. Journal of Cultural Economics, 40(3): 261-83.

Brito P. & C. Barros (2005). Learning-by-Consuming and the Dynamics of the Demand and Prices of Cultural Goods. Journal of Cultural Economics, 29(2): 83-106.

Cellini R. & T. Cuccia (2013). Museum and monument attendance and tourism flow: a time series analysis approach. Applied Economics, 45(24):3473-82.

Chen C.M., Chen Y.C., Tsai Y.C. (2016). Evaluating museum free admission policy. Annals of Tourism Research, 58(1):156-70.

Cowell B. (2007). Measuring the impact of free admission. Cultural Trends, 16(3):203-24.

Dickey, D. A., Hasza D.P., and Fuller W. A. (1984). Testing for Unit Roots in Seasonal Time Series. Journal of the American Statistical Association, 79(386): 355-367.

Fernandez-Blanco V. & J. Prieto-Rodriguez (2011). Museums. In Towse R. (Ed.), A Handbook of Cultural Economics – Second Edition. Northampton (Ma, US): Edward-Elgar, pp. 290-96.

Frateschi C.F., E. Lazzara & L. Palma Martos (2009). A Comparative Econometric Analysis of Museum Attendance by Locals and Foreigners: The Cases of Padua and Seville. Estudios de Economía Aplicada, 27(2):175-96.

Frei B.S. & S. Meier (2006). The economics of museum. In V. A.Ginsburgh & D.Throsby (Eds.), Handbook of the Economics of Art and Culture. Amsterdam: North Holland, 1017-47.

Kirchberg V. (1998). Entrance Fees as a Subjective Barrier to Visiting Museums. Journal of Cultural Economics, 22(1):1-13.

Kotler N. & P. Kotler (1998). Museum strategy and marketing. San Francisco (Ca, USA): Jossey-Bass Publisher.

Lampi E. & M. Orth (2009). Who Visits the Museums? A Comparison between Stated Preferences and Observed Effects of Entrance. Kyklos, 65(1):85-102.

Lattarulo P., M. Mariano & L. Razzolini (2017). Nudging museums attendance: A field experiment with high school teens. Journal of Cultural Economics, in press, Doi: 10.1007/s10824-016-9285-6.

Luksetich W. & Partridge M. (1997). Demand functions for museum services. Applied Economics, 29(12):1553-59.

Maddison D. & T. Foster (2003). Valuing congestion costs in the British museum. Oxford Economic Papers, 55(1):173-90.

Martin A (2003). The impact of free entry to museums. London: MORI. (Available at http://www.ipsos-mori.com/publications/ajm/the-impact-offree-entry-to-museums.pdf).

MIBACT – Italian Ministry for Culture and Tourism (2016). Il boom degli incassi, dei visitatori, degli ingressi gratuiti, MIBACT, Roma. http://www.beniculturali.it/mibac/export/MiBAC/sito/Comunicati/visualizza_asset.html_1627601135.html

MIBACT – Italian Ministry for Culture and Tourism (2017a). Tutti i numeri dei musei italiani. MIBACT, Roma: MiBAC/Contenuti/MibacUnif/Comunicati/visualizza_asset.html_1708275412.html

MIBACT – Italian Ministry for Culture and Tourism (2017b). "Franceschini: Nuovi record per i musei italiani nel 2016: la riforma funziona”. http://www.beniculturali.it/mibac/export/MiBAC/sito-MiBAC/Contenuti/MibacUnif/Comunicati/visualizza_asset.html_892096923.html.

O’Hagan J.W. (1995). National Museums: To charge or not to charge?. Journal of Cultural Economics, 19:33-47.

Peacock A. (1969). Welfare economics and public subsidies to the arts. Manchester School of Economics and Social Sciences, 37(4):323-35.

Peacock A. & C. Godfrey (1976). The economics of museums and galleries. In M. Blaug (Ed.) The Economics of the Arts, London: Martin Robertson Publishing.

Prieto-Rodriguez J. & V. Fernandez-Blanco (2006). Optimal pricing and grant policies for museums. Journal of Cultural Economics, 30(3): 169-81.

Rushton M. (2017). Should public and nonprofit museums have free admission? A defense of the membership model. Museum Management and Curatorship, in press. Doi: 10.1080/09647775.2016.1263969.

Santagata W. (2007). La fabbrica della cultura. Bologna (Italy): il Mulino.

Smith R.J. & A.M.R. Taylor (1998). Additional critical values and asymptotic representations for seasonal unit root test. Journal of Econometrics 85(2):269-88.

Smithsonian Institute (2007). Going free?. Washington DC: Smithsonian Institute. (Available at: https://www.si.edu/Content/opanda/docs/Rpts2007/07.04.Admissions.Final.pdf).

Steiner F. (1997). Optimal pricing of museum admission. Journal of Cultural Economics, 21: 307-33.

Stigler G. J. & G.S. Becker (1977). De gustibus non est disputandum. American Economic Review, 67(1):76-90.

Taylor A.M.R. (1998). Testing for unit roots in monthly time series. Journal of Time Series Analysis, 19:349-68.

Towse R. (2005). Alan Peacock and cultural economics. Economic Journal, 115(504): F262-76.

Thaler R. (1985). Mental accounting and consumer choice. Marketing Science, 4(3):199-214.

Tversky A., & D. Kahneman (1981). The framing of decision and the psychology of choice. Science, 211:453-58.