The three economic values of cultural heritage: a case study in the Netherlands

Аннотация

The idea of putting a price tag on cultural heritage to prove that conservation does not only have costs but also benefits, is not new. World-wide several economic valuation studies have been conducted. When we take a closer look at these studies, we find that they pertain to unique public property, often world famous objects that attract many tourists, that nobody in their right mind would consider destroying. For this indisputably important heritage both recreational perception values and bequest values have been determined, since these two values represent the two most important forms of welfare that heritage generates. In this paper three values of cultural heritage are determined: the recreational perception value, the bequest value and the housing comfort value. The additional value of housing comfort came into the picture because our case study is not concerned with indisputably important and famous heritage, but with less known, mostly privately owned and therefore more threatened heritage in the Dutch country side.