IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/hal/journl/hal-04834031.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Soft-power and pro-European bias in the UNESCO World Heritage List? A test based on ICOMOS experts’ evaluations of colonial sites

Author

Listed:
  • Martina Dattilo

    (UNITO - Università degli studi di Torino = University of Turin)

  • Fabio Padovano

    (CREM - Centre de recherche en économie et management - UNICAEN - Université de Caen Normandie - NU - Normandie Université - UR - Université de Rennes - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique)

  • Yvon Rocaboy

    (CREM - Centre de recherche en économie et management - UNICAEN - Université de Caen Normandie - NU - Normandie Université - UR - Université de Rennes - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique)

Abstract

European sites are said to be overrepresented on the UNESCO World Heritage List. Some scholars attribute this phenomenon to Western countries' influence over international organizations, which results in the adoption of biased, pro-European aesthetic standards by UNESCO's selection committee. We test this explanation by comparing the International Council on Monuments and Sites' (ICOMOS) evaluations for sites of European (colonial) and native origins. We rely on two measures of site quality—Outstanding Universal Value and a textual analysis of ICOMOS' reports. ICOMOS experts produce these evaluations based on UNESCO's aesthetic standards before lobbying by member countries can take place. Hence, the evaluations reflect the stage of UNESCO's decision-making process in which European 'soft power' is most likely to appear, if it in fact exists. After controlling for numerous potential confounders, our estimates show no statistical difference in ICOMOS' evaluations of colonial vs. native sites, suggesting that ICOMOS experts appear impartial.

Suggested Citation

  • Martina Dattilo & Fabio Padovano & Yvon Rocaboy, 2024. "Soft-power and pro-European bias in the UNESCO World Heritage List? A test based on ICOMOS experts’ evaluations of colonial sites," Post-Print hal-04834031, HAL.
    • Handle: RePEc:hal:journl:hal-04834031
    DOI: 10.1007/s11127-024-01248-z
    Note: View the original document on HAL open archive server: https://hal.science/hal-04834031v1
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    To our knowledge, this item is not available for download. To find whether it is available, there are three options:
    1. Check below whether another version of this item is available online.
    2. Check on the provider's web page whether it is in fact available.
    3. Perform a
    for a similarly titled item that would be available.

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Surajeet Chakravarty & Miguel A. Fonseca, 2017. "Discrimination via Exclusion: An Experiment on Group Identity and Club Goods," Journal of Public Economic Theory, Association for Public Economic Theory, vol. 19(1), pages 244-263, February.
    2. Martina Dattilo & Fabio Padovano, 2025. "Evaluating the quality of UNESCO World Heritage List: a comparison with the Baedeker’s guidebooks," Journal of Cultural Economics, Springer;The Association for Cultural Economics International, vol. 49(1), pages 23-47, March.
    3. Martina Dattilo & Fabio Padovano & Yvon Rocaboy, 2023. "More is worse: the evolution of quality of the UNESCO World Heritage List and its determinants," Journal of Cultural Economics, Springer;The Association for Cultural Economics International, vol. 47(1), pages 71-96, March.
    4. 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).
    5. 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.
    6. Pappalardo, Gioacchino & West, Grant Howard & Nayga, Rodolfo M. & Toscano, Sabrina & Pecorino, Biagio, 2022. "The effect of a UNESCO world heritage site designation on willingness to pay to preserve an agri-environmental good: The case of the dry stone walls in Mt. Etna," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 114(C).
    7. Cameron, A. Colin & Trivedi, Pravin K., 1990. "Regression-based tests for overdispersion in the Poisson model," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 46(3), pages 347-364, December.
    8. Sao-Wen Cheng, 2006. "Cultural goods creation, cultural capital formation, provision of cultural services and cultural atmosphere accumulation," Journal of Cultural Economics, Springer;The Association for Cultural Economics International, vol. 30(4), pages 263-286, December.
    9. 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.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    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. Martina Dattilo & FABIO PADOVANO & YVON ROCABOY, 2025. "Rent Seeking at the Margin? Theory and Evidence from Unesco’s World Heritage List," Working papers 119, Società Italiana di Economia Pubblica.
    2. 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.
    3. 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).
    4. 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.
    5. Luiz Paulo Fávero & Joseph F. Hair & Rafael de Freitas Souza & Matheus Albergaria & Talles V. Brugni, 2021. "Zero-Inflated Generalized Linear Mixed Models: A Better Way to Understand Data Relationships," Mathematics, MDPI, vol. 9(10), pages 1-28, May.
    6. Boncinelli, Fabio & Bartolini, Fabio & Casini, Leonardo, 2018. "Structural factors of labour allocation for farm diversification activities," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 71(C), pages 204-212.
    7. Keigo YAMADA, 2024. "Literature Review of Cultural Heritage Economics - Focus on theoretical research of built heritage - (Japanese)," Discussion Papers (Japanese) 24014, Research Institute of Economy, Trade and Industry (RIETI).
    8. Agostino Capponi & Zhaonan Qu, 2025. "Handling Sparse Non-negative Data in Finance," Papers 2509.01478, arXiv.org.
    9. Greene, William, 2007. "Functional Form and Heterogeneity in Models for Count Data," Foundations and Trends(R) in Econometrics, now publishers, vol. 1(2), pages 113-218, August.
    10. Christopher J. W. Zorn, 1998. "An Analytic and Empirical Examination of Zero-Inflated and Hurdle Poisson Specifications," Sociological Methods & Research, , vol. 26(3), pages 368-400, February.
    11. Jim Millington, 2000. "Migration and Age: The Effect of Age on Sensitivity to Migration Stimuli," Regional Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 34(6), pages 521-533.
    12. Christian Kleiber & Achim Zeileis, 2016. "Visualizing Count Data Regressions Using Rootograms," The American Statistician, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 70(3), pages 296-303, July.
    13. Bertoli, Simone & Marchetta, Francesca, 2015. "Bringing It All Back Home – Return Migration and Fertility Choices," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 65(C), pages 27-40.
    14. Paul Kwame Nkegbe & Naasegnibe Kuunibe & Samuel Sekyi, 2017. "Poverty and malaria morbidity in the Jirapa District of Ghana: A count regression approach," Cogent Economics & Finance, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 5(1), pages 1293472-129, January.
    15. Ulf‐ G. Gerdtham, 1997. "Equity in Health Care Utilization: Further Tests Based on Hurdle Models and Swedish Micro Data," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 6(3), pages 303-319, May.
    16. Eiji Yamamura, 2014. "The effect of young children on their parents’ anime-viewing habits: evidence from Japanese microdata," Journal of Cultural Economics, Springer;The Association for Cultural Economics International, vol. 38(4), pages 331-349, November.
    17. Micheels, Eric T. & Nolan, James F., 2016. "Examining the effects of absorptive capacity and social capital on the adoption of agricultural innovations: A Canadian Prairie case study," Agricultural Systems, Elsevier, vol. 145(C), pages 127-138.
    18. Mario Jovanovic, 2011. "Financial Uncertainty in Germany and its Impact on Western European Terrorism," Ruhr Economic Papers 0296, Rheinisch-Westfälisches Institut für Wirtschaftsforschung, Ruhr-Universität Bochum, Universität Dortmund, Universität Duisburg-Essen.
    19. Boubaker, Sabri & Labégorre, Florence, 2008. "Ownership structure, corporate governance and analyst following: A study of French listed firms," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 32(6), pages 961-976, June.
    20. Arnousse Beaulière, 2004. "Pauvreté et fécondité en Haïti," Documents de travail 97, Groupe d'Economie du Développement de l'Université Montesquieu Bordeaux IV.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    JEL classification:

    • H87 - Public Economics - - Miscellaneous Issues - - - International Fiscal Issues; International Public Goods
    • D72 - Microeconomics - - Analysis of Collective Decision-Making - - - Political Processes: Rent-seeking, Lobbying, Elections, Legislatures, and Voting Behavior
    • F53 - International Economics - - International Relations, National Security, and International Political Economy - - - International Agreements and Observance; International Organizations
    • O19 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - International Linkages to Development; Role of International Organizations
    • Z11 - Other Special Topics - - Cultural Economics - - - Economics of the Arts and Literature
    • L15 - Industrial Organization - - Market Structure, Firm Strategy, and Market Performance - - - Information and Product Quality

    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:hal:journl:hal-04834031. 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: CCSD (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/ .

    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.