IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/spr/inrvec/v60y2013i1p1-19.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Explaining the World Heritage List: an empirical study

Author

Listed:
  • Bruno Frey
  • Paolo Pamini
  • Lasse Steiner

Abstract

The UNESCO World Heritage List is designed to protect the global heritage. We show that, with respect to countries and continents, the existing World Heritage List is highly imbalanced. Major econometric determinants of this imbalance are historical GDP, historical population, area in square kilometers of a country, and number of years of high civilization. Surprisingly, economic and political factors, such as membership on the UN Security Council, which should be unrelated to the value of a country’s heritage and therefore should have no impact, are shown to have a systematic impact on the composition of the World Heritage List. Copyright Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2013

Suggested Citation

  • Bruno Frey & Paolo Pamini & Lasse Steiner, 2013. "Explaining the World Heritage List: an empirical study," International Review of Economics, Springer;Happiness Economics and Interpersonal Relations (HEIRS), vol. 60(1), pages 1-19, March.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:inrvec:v:60:y:2013:i:1:p:1-19
    DOI: 10.1007/s12232-013-0174-4
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1007/s12232-013-0174-4
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1007/s12232-013-0174-4?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Bruno S. Frey & Paolo Pamini, 2009. "World Heritage: Where Are We? An Empirical Analysis," CREMA Working Paper Series 2009-31, Center for Research in Economics, Management and the Arts (CREMA).
    2. Dreher, Axel & Sturm, Jan-Egbert & Vreeland, James Raymond, 2009. "Development aid and international politics: Does membership on the UN Security Council influence World Bank decisions?," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 88(1), pages 1-18, January.
    3. John M. Piotrowski & Mr. Rabah Arezki & Reda Cherif, 2009. "Tourism Specialization and Economic Development: Evidence from the UNESCO World Heritage List," IMF Working Papers 2009/176, International Monetary Fund.
    4. Maddison, Angus, 2007. "Contours of the World Economy 1-2030 AD: Essays in Macro-Economic History," OUP Catalogue, Oxford University Press, number 9780199227204.
    5. IIde Rizzo & Ruth Towse (ed.), 2002. "The Economics of Heritage," Books, Edward Elgar Publishing, number 2770.
    6. Peacock, Alan & Rizzo, Ilde, 2008. "The Heritage Game: Economics, Policy, and Practice," OUP Catalogue, Oxford University Press, number 9780199213177.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Axel Dreher & Vera Eichenauer & Kai Gehring & Vera Z. Eichenauer, 2013. "Geopolitics, Aid and Growth," CESifo Working Paper Series 4299, CESifo.
    2. Bertacchini, Enrico & Revelli, Federico & Zotti, Roberto, 2023. "Lord, how I want to be in that number! On the blessing of UNESCO World Heritage listing," Department of Economics and Statistics Cognetti de Martiis. Working Papers 202304, University of Turin.
    3. Roni Armis & Hidehiko Kanegae, 2020. "The attractiveness of a post-mining city as a tourist destination from the perspective of visitors: a study of Sawahlunto old coal mining town in Indonesia," Asia-Pacific Journal of Regional Science, Springer, vol. 4(2), pages 443-461, June.
    4. Husanjon Juraturgunov & Murodjon Raimkulov & Young-joo Ahn & Eunice Minjoo Kang, 2023. "World Heritage Site Tourism and Destination Loyalty along the Silk Road: A Study of U.S. Travelers in Uzbekistan," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(13), pages 1-21, June.
    5. Bertacchini, Enrico & Revelli, Federico & Zotti, Roberto, 2024. "The economic impact of UNESCO World Heritage: Evidence from Italy," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 105(C).
    6. Bayezid Ismail Choudhury, 2021. "Jatio Sangsad Bhaban: Aspiring to be a UNESCO World Heritage Site," Journal of Social and Development Sciences, AMH International, vol. 11(4), pages 1-6.
    7. KW Chau & Lawrence WC Lai & Mark H Chua, 2022. "Post-colonial conservation of colonial built heritage in Hong Kong: A statistical analysis of historic building grading," Environment and Planning B, , vol. 49(2), pages 671-686, February.
    8. Bruno S. Frey & Lasse Steiner, 2014. "God does not play dice, but people should: random selection in politics, science and society," ECON - Working Papers 144, Department of Economics - University of Zurich.
    9. Enrico Bertacchini & Federico Revelli, 2021. "Kalòs kai agathòs? government quality and cultural heritage in the regions of Europe," The Annals of Regional Science, Springer;Western Regional Science Association, vol. 67(2), pages 513-539, October.
    10. Bruno S. Frey & Lasse Steiner, 2014. "Random Selection in Politics, Science and Society: Applications and Institutional Embeddedness," CREMA Working Paper Series 2014-09, Center for Research in Economics, Management and the Arts (CREMA).
    11. Scott Barrett, 2022. "A Biodiversity Hotspots Treaty: The Road not Taken," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 83(4), pages 937-954, December.
    12. Kaixuan Huang & Yi Liu, 2023. "The embeddedness and hidden political economy of the world heritage site inscription boom in China," Growth and Change, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 54(2), pages 572-595, June.
    13. Enrico Bertacchini & Claudia Liuzza & Lynn Meskell & Donatella Saccone, 2016. "The politicization of UNESCO World Heritage decision making," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 167(1), pages 95-129, April.
    14. Leena K. Koivusilta, 2018. "Country-Level Investment in Cultural Opportunity Structures. A Potential Source of Health Differences Between 21 European Countries," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 137(3), pages 1091-1118, June.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Bruno S. Frey & Paolo Pamini & Lasse Steiner, 2011. "What Determines The World Heritage List? An Econometric Analysis," CREMA Working Paper Series 2011-01, Center for Research in Economics, Management and the Arts (CREMA).
    2. Enrico Bertacchini & Donatella Saccone, 2012. "Toward a political economy of World Heritage," Journal of Cultural Economics, Springer;The Association for Cultural Economics International, vol. 36(4), pages 327-352, November.
    3. Bruno S. Frey & Lasse Steiner, 2013. "World Heritage List," Chapters, in: Ilde Rizzo & Anna Mignosa (ed.), Handbook on the Economics of Cultural Heritage, chapter 8, pages i-i, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    4. Steiner, Lasse & Frey, Bruno S., 2012. "Correcting the Imbalances of the World Heritage List," EBLA Working Papers 201206, University of Turin.
    5. Ilde Rizzo, 2011. "Regulation," Chapters, in: Ruth Towse (ed.), A Handbook of Cultural Economics, Second Edition, chapter 54, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    6. Bruno S. Frey & Lasse Steiner, 2010. "World Heritage List: does it make sense?," IEW - Working Papers 484, Institute for Empirical Research in Economics - University of Zurich.
    7. Bertacchini Enrico & Saccone Donatella, 2011. "The political economy of world heritage," EBLA Working Papers 201101, University of Turin.
    8. Tiziana Cuccia, 2012. "Is it worth being inscribed in the world heritage list? A case study of �The Baroque cities in Val di Noto� (Sicily)," RIEDS - Rivista Italiana di Economia, Demografia e Statistica - The Italian Journal of Economic, Demographic and Statistical Studies, SIEDS Societa' Italiana di Economia Demografia e Statistica, vol. 66(2), pages 169-190.
    9. Cuccia, Tiziana & Rizzo, Ilde, 2011. "Tourism seasonality in cultural destinations: Empirical evidence from Sicily," Tourism Management, Elsevier, vol. 32(3), pages 589-595.
    10. Bruno S. Frey & Paolo Pamini, 2009. "World Heritage: Where Are We? An Empirical Analysis," CREMA Working Paper Series 2009-31, Center for Research in Economics, Management and the Arts (CREMA).
    11. Tiziana Cuccia & Calogero Guccio & Ilde Rizzo, 2017. "UNESCO sites and performance trend of Italian regional tourism destinations," Tourism Economics, , vol. 23(2), pages 316-342, March.
    12. Françoise Benhamou, 2013. "Public intervention for cultural heritage: normative issues and tools," Chapters, in: Ilde Rizzo & Anna Mignosa (ed.), Handbook on the Economics of Cultural Heritage, chapter 1, pages i-i, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    13. Roberto Cellini & Gianpiero Torrisi, 2013. "Regional Public Spending for Tourism in Italy: An Empirical Analysis," Tourism Economics, , vol. 19(6), pages 1361-1384, December.
    14. Bruno S. Frey & Paolo Pamini, 2009. "Making World Heritage Truly Global: The Culture Certificate Scheme," CREMA Working Paper Series 2009-13, Center for Research in Economics, Management and the Arts (CREMA).
    15. Calogero Guccio & Marco Ferdinando Martorana & Isidoro Mazza & Giacomo Pignataro & Ilde Rizzo, 2022. "Is innovation in ICT valuable for the efficiency of Italian museums?," European Planning Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 30(9), pages 1695-1716, September.
    16. David Throsby, 2013. "Assessment of value in heritage regulation," Chapters, in: Ilde Rizzo & Anna Mignosa (ed.), Handbook on the Economics of Cultural Heritage, chapter 23, pages i-i, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    17. Tiziana Cuccia & Calogero Guccio & Ilde Rizzo, 2013. "Does Unesco inscription affect the performance of tourism destinations? A regional perspective," ACEI Working Paper Series AWP-04-2013, Association for Cultural Economics International, revised Oct 2013.
    18. Guccio, Calogero & Mazza, Isidoro, 2014. "On the political determinants of the allocation of funds to heritage authorities," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 34(C), pages 18-38.
    19. Finocchiaro Castro, Massimo & Guccio, Calogero & Rizzo, Ilde, 2009. "Determinants of Heritage Authorities’ Performance: An exploratory study with DEA bootstrapping approach," MPRA Paper 15984, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    20. Victoria Ateca Amestoy, 2013. "Demand for cultural heritage," Chapters, in: Ilde Rizzo & Anna Mignosa (ed.), Handbook on the Economics of Cultural Heritage, chapter 4, pages i-i, Edward Elgar Publishing.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    World heritage; Culture; UNESCO; International political economy; International organizations; Z11; F5; D6; H87;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • Z11 - Other Special Topics - - Cultural Economics - - - Economics of the Arts and Literature
    • F5 - International Economics - - International Relations, National Security, and International Political Economy
    • D6 - Microeconomics - - Welfare Economics
    • H87 - Public Economics - - Miscellaneous Issues - - - International Fiscal Issues; International Public Goods

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:spr:inrvec:v:60:y:2013:i:1:p:1-19. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.springer.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.