{"id":7978,"date":"2024-07-01T10:19:12","date_gmt":"2024-07-01T08:19:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.siepweb.it\/siep\/wp\/?p=7978"},"modified":"2024-07-01T10:28:24","modified_gmt":"2024-07-01T08:28:24","slug":"","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.siepweb.it\/siep\/wp\/en\/en\/the-economic-impact-of-unesco-world-heritage-evidence-from-italy\/","title":{"rendered":"The economic impact of UNESCO World Heritage: Evidence from Italy","raw":"The economic impact of UNESCO World Heritage: Evidence from Italy"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>Bertacchini E., Revelli F., Zotti R., 2024 \u2013<\/em> <em><strong>Regional Science and Urban Economics<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<!--more-->\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Heritage designation is a policy intervention commonly recognized to bear considerable consequences on the economies of cities and regions where heritage sites are located, as well as on the welfare of local communities. It influences the real estate market through legal constraints on the development and use of buildings and the demand for amenity value households place on the historic built environment and its conservation. Of the different types of heritage listing, the UNESCO World Heritage designation is pivotal in discussions about the economic impact of cultural heritage. Originally, the UNESCO World Heritage List (WHL) focused on preserving and protecting sites of exceptional value. However, in recent years, the designation process has increasingly been viewed as a tool for territorial marketing and a catalyst for place-making. Entering the WHL attracts significant attention from the media, the general public, potential donors, and businesses. This recognition often prompts countries and regions to leverage their economic and political resources to influence the WHL designation process. As a result, the expectation of a positive economic impact from the World Heritage designation justifies the considerable efforts required to apply for and achieve UNESCO recognition eventually.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">What are the effects of UNESCO World Heritage Designations on local economic outcomes? In a recent study, \u201cThe economic impact of UNESCO World Heritage: Evidence from Italy\u201d, published in <strong>Regional Science and Urban Economics<\/strong>, Enrico Bertacchini, Federico Revelli, and Roberto Zotti investigate the impact of the UNESCO WHL inscription on income and property values in Italian municipalities during the past two decades. Italy constitutes an ideal environment for analysing the impact of UNESCO designations because of the considerable number of World Heritage Sites and its decentralised government structure, with regional and local governments playing an active role in the application process for heritage site recognition.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">To address the fundamental endogeneity issue arising from the fact that the trajectories of outcomes in treated municipalities might differ significantly from those in the other municipalities even before the official UNESCO designation, the authors focus on the sample of localities having their sites included in the national Tentative List (TL) during the period of observation. Since the national TL is a procedural requirement for a government to propose heritage sites for eventual designation into the UNESCO WHL, the timing of WHL designation conditional on entering the TL can be taken as plausibly random.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Using a staggered difference-in-differences (DiD) design proposed by Callaway and Sant\u2019Anna (2021), the event study analysis shows that World Heritage designation in Italy positively impacts taxable income per capita, with an increase of about 2% five years after the designation (Figure 1, panel a). At the same time, the consequences in the real estate market are more nuanced. While any impact of the World Heritage designation on ordinary apartments is hardly found, the prices of luxury dwellings in highly urbanised areas rise by almost 10% in the first five years, but not in rural areas where housing supply is arguably more elastic (Figure 1, panel b). Finally, the prices of commercial properties rise significantly in both urban and rural areas, though the effect is more persistent in the latter.<\/p>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter size-full\"><img decoding=\"async\" width=\"979\" height=\"407\" src=\"http:\/\/www.siepweb.it\/siep\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/Zotti-et-al-Fig-1-eng.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-7988\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.siepweb.it\/siep\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/Zotti-et-al-Fig-1-eng.png 979w, https:\/\/www.siepweb.it\/siep\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/Zotti-et-al-Fig-1-eng-300x125.png 300w, https:\/\/www.siepweb.it\/siep\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/Zotti-et-al-Fig-1-eng-768x319.png 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 979px) 100vw, 979px\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Figure 1<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Based on this evidence, the analysis further investigates possible transmission mechanisms of WHL designation on local economic outcomes. First, to test the tourism-led growth channel, a hypothesis frequently made in the literature, the trajectories of official tourist flows in treated and control municipalities around designation years are studied and emerge to be compatible with the hypothesis of increased touristic visibility of a locality after WHL designation (Figure 2, panel a). Next, the focus turns to test the sorting hypothesis based on the idea that the increased amenity value of sites after the WHL inscription attracts wealthy individuals with a high valuation of those amenities. Although data on mobility by income level are not available, it is observed that the resident population and the share of high-income taxpayers grow faster in treated localities after designation, compatibly with a hypothesis of \u201cgentrification\u201d leading to a change in the composition of residents and a higher demand for luxury dwellings (Figure 2, panel b).<\/p>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"937\" height=\"386\" src=\"http:\/\/www.siepweb.it\/siep\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/Zotti-et-al-Fig-2-eng.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-7989\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.siepweb.it\/siep\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/Zotti-et-al-Fig-2-eng.png 937w, https:\/\/www.siepweb.it\/siep\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/Zotti-et-al-Fig-2-eng-300x124.png 300w, https:\/\/www.siepweb.it\/siep\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/Zotti-et-al-Fig-2-eng-768x316.png 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 937px) 100vw, 937px\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Figure 2<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Overall, the study contributes to the debate on the economic effects of UNESCO designations by providing original evidence on how the heritage value signaled by the process of UNESCO listing affects property values at the municipal level. Moreover, the analysis of the impact of WHL designation on the level and distribution of income relates to the \u2018\u2018tourism gentrification\u2019\u2019 literature studying how urban revitalisation policies generating massive flows of capital in the real estate markets of ordinary middle-class neighbourhoods can produce radical social reconfigurations and transform them into affluent enclaves. Based on the Italian context, the evidence obtained is also likely to be valid for other European countries with similar cultural heritage characteristics and economic dynamics. However, the documented positive effects on local economies may arise from dynamics that are not necessarily favourable to residents. In particular, the phenomenon of limited land for housing development, particularly in highly urbanised areas, coupled with the increase in demand for second home ownership and bids for renovated and refurbished structures, is bound to lead to competition between \u2018\u2018external\u2019\u2019 groups and residents, with \u2018\u2018exclusionary\u2019\u2019 consequences due to shortages of affordable housing and displacement or relocation of the most vulnerable segments of the population, including workers in tourism-related sectors. This is an important dimension of the issue, not investigated in this study, but worth being addressed in future analyses of the socioeconomic impact of UNESCO WHL designations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.sciencedirect.com\/science\/article\/pii\/S0166046224000206\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Go to the published article<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false,"raw":"<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p><em>Bertacchini E., Revelli F., Zotti R., 2024 \u2013<\/em> <em><strong>Regional Science and Urban Economics<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<!-- \/wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:more -->\n<!--more-->\n<!-- \/wp:more -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>Heritage designation is a policy intervention commonly recognized to bear considerable consequences on the economies of cities and regions where heritage sites are located, as well as on the welfare of local communities. It influences the real estate market through legal constraints on the development and use of buildings and the demand for amenity value households place on the historic built environment and its conservation. Of the different types of heritage listing, the UNESCO World Heritage designation is pivotal in discussions about the economic impact of cultural heritage. Originally, the UNESCO World Heritage List (WHL) focused on preserving and protecting sites of exceptional value. However, in recent years, the designation process has increasingly been viewed as a tool for territorial marketing and a catalyst for place-making. Entering the WHL attracts significant attention from the media, the general public, potential donors, and businesses. This recognition often prompts countries and regions to leverage their economic and political resources to influence the WHL designation process. As a result, the expectation of a positive economic impact from the World Heritage designation justifies the considerable efforts required to apply for and achieve UNESCO recognition eventually.<\/p>\n<!-- \/wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>What are the effects of UNESCO World Heritage Designations on local economic outcomes? In a recent study, \u201cThe economic impact of UNESCO World Heritage: Evidence from Italy\u201d, published in <strong>Regional Science and Urban Economics<\/strong>, Enrico Bertacchini, Federico Revelli, and Roberto Zotti investigate the impact of the UNESCO WHL inscription on income and property values in Italian municipalities during the past two decades. Italy constitutes an ideal environment for analysing the impact of UNESCO designations because of the considerable number of World Heritage Sites and its decentralised government structure, with regional and local governments playing an active role in the application process for heritage site recognition.<\/p>\n<!-- \/wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>To address the fundamental endogeneity issue arising from the fact that the trajectories of outcomes in treated municipalities might differ significantly from those in the other municipalities even before the official UNESCO designation, the authors focus on the sample of localities having their sites included in the national Tentative List (TL) during the period of observation. Since the national TL is a procedural requirement for a government to propose heritage sites for eventual designation into the UNESCO WHL, the timing of WHL designation conditional on entering the TL can be taken as plausibly random.<\/p>\n<!-- \/wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>Using a staggered difference-in-differences (DiD) design proposed by Callaway and Sant\u2019Anna (2021), the event study analysis shows that World Heritage designation in Italy positively impacts taxable income per capita, with an increase of about 2% five years after the designation (Figure 1, panel a). At the same time, the consequences in the real estate market are more nuanced. While any impact of the World Heritage designation on ordinary apartments is hardly found, the prices of luxury dwellings in highly urbanised areas rise by almost 10% in the first five years, but not in rural areas where housing supply is arguably more elastic (Figure 1, panel b). Finally, the prices of commercial properties rise significantly in both urban and rural areas, though the effect is more persistent in the latter.<\/p>\n<!-- \/wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:image {\"id\":7988,\"sizeSlug\":\"full\",\"linkDestination\":\"none\",\"align\":\"center\"} -->\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image aligncenter size-full\"><img src=\"http:\/\/www.siepweb.it\/siep\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/Zotti-et-al-Fig-1-eng.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-7988\"\/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Figure 1<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<!-- \/wp:image -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>Based on this evidence, the analysis further investigates possible transmission mechanisms of WHL designation on local economic outcomes. First, to test the tourism-led growth channel, a hypothesis frequently made in the literature, the trajectories of official tourist flows in treated and control municipalities around designation years are studied and emerge to be compatible with the hypothesis of increased touristic visibility of a locality after WHL designation (Figure 2, panel a). Next, the focus turns to test the sorting hypothesis based on the idea that the increased amenity value of sites after the WHL inscription attracts wealthy individuals with a high valuation of those amenities. Although data on mobility by income level are not available, it is observed that the resident population and the share of high-income taxpayers grow faster in treated localities after designation, compatibly with a hypothesis of \u201cgentrification\u201d leading to a change in the composition of residents and a higher demand for luxury dwellings (Figure 2, panel b).<\/p>\n<!-- \/wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:image {\"id\":7989,\"sizeSlug\":\"full\",\"linkDestination\":\"none\",\"align\":\"center\"} -->\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image aligncenter size-full\"><img src=\"http:\/\/www.siepweb.it\/siep\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/Zotti-et-al-Fig-2-eng.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-7989\"\/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Figure 2<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<!-- \/wp:image -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>Overall, the study contributes to the debate on the economic effects of UNESCO designations by providing original evidence on how the heritage value signaled by the process of UNESCO listing affects property values at the municipal level. Moreover, the analysis of the impact of WHL designation on the level and distribution of income relates to the \u2018\u2018tourism gentrification\u2019\u2019 literature studying how urban revitalisation policies generating massive flows of capital in the real estate markets of ordinary middle-class neighbourhoods can produce radical social reconfigurations and transform them into affluent enclaves. Based on the Italian context, the evidence obtained is also likely to be valid for other European countries with similar cultural heritage characteristics and economic dynamics. However, the documented positive effects on local economies may arise from dynamics that are not necessarily favourable to residents. In particular, the phenomenon of limited land for housing development, particularly in highly urbanised areas, coupled with the increase in demand for second home ownership and bids for renovated and refurbished structures, is bound to lead to competition between \u2018\u2018external\u2019\u2019 groups and residents, with \u2018\u2018exclusionary\u2019\u2019 consequences due to shortages of affordable housing and displacement or relocation of the most vulnerable segments of the population, including workers in tourism-related sectors. This is an important dimension of the issue, not investigated in this study, but worth being addressed in future analyses of the socioeconomic impact of UNESCO WHL designations.<\/p>\n<!-- \/wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.sciencedirect.com\/science\/article\/pii\/S0166046224000206\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Go to the published article<\/a><\/p>\n<!-- \/wp:paragraph -->"},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false,"raw":""},"author":2,"featured_media":7991,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_it_post_content":"<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p><em>Bertacchini E., Revelli F., Zotti R., 2024 \u2013 <strong>Regional Science and Urban Economics<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<!-- \/wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:more -->\n<!--more-->\n<!-- \/wp:more -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>La designazione di siti del patrimonio culturale \u00e8 un intervento di <em>policy<\/em> comunemente riconosciuto per gli effetti sulle economie delle citt\u00e0 e delle regioni interessate e sul benessere delle comunit\u00e0 locali. Influenza il mercato immobiliare attraverso vincoli legali per lo sviluppo e uso degli edifici e il valore che le persone attribuiscono ai beni storici e alla loro conservazione. Tra i diversi tipi di intervento, la designazione del Patrimonio Mondiale UNESCO assume un ruolo fondamentale nelle discussioni in merito al possibile impatto economico del patrimonio culturale. Originariamente, la \u201cLista del Patrimonio Mondiale UNESCO\u201d ambiva alla conservazione e salvaguardia di siti di valore eccezionale. Tuttavia, negli ultimi anni, il processo di designazione \u00e8 sempre pi\u00f9 visto come uno strumento per il marketing territoriale. Entrare nella \u201cLista del Patrimonio Mondiale UNESCO\u201d attira notevole attenzione da parte dei media, del pubblico in generale, dei potenziali donatori e delle imprese. Questo riconoscimento spesso induce paesi e regioni a utilizzare le loro risorse economiche e politiche per influenzare tale processo di designazione. L'aspettativa di un impatto economico positivo giustifica gli sforzi considerevoli richiesti per fare domanda e, infine, ottenere il riconoscimento UNESCO.<\/p>\n<!-- \/wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>Ma quali sono gli effetti delle designazioni del Patrimonio Mondiale dell'UNESCO sui risultati economici locali? In uno studio recente intitolato \u201cThe economic impact of UNESCO World Heritage: Evidence from Italy\u201d e pubblicato su <strong>Regional Science and Urban Economics<\/strong>, Enrico Bertacchini, Federico Revelli e Roberto Zotti analizzano l'impatto dell'iscrizione nella \u201cLista del Patrimonio Mondiale UNESCO\u201d sui redditi e sui valori immobiliari nei comuni italiani negli ultimi due decenni. L'Italia costituisce un contesto ideale visto il considerevole numero di siti del Patrimonio Mondiale e la struttura amministrativa decentrata, con i governi regionali e locali che svolgono un ruolo attivo nel processo di candidatura per il riconoscimento dei siti del patrimonio.<\/p>\n<!-- \/wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>Per affrontare il problema dell'endogeneit\u00e0 derivante dal fatto che le caratteristiche dei comuni trattati (che ospitano siti del Patrimonio Mondiale UNESCO) potrebbero differire significativamente da quelle degli altri comuni, lo studio si concentra sul campione delle localit\u00e0 i cui siti sono stati inclusi nella \u201cLista Propositiva nazionale\u201d durante il periodo di osservazione. Poich\u00e9 tale lista nazionale \u00e8 un requisito procedurale affinch\u00e9 un governo possa proporre siti del patrimonio per una eventuale designazione nella \u201cLista del Patrimonio Mondiale UNESCO\u201d, il momento della designazione come sito UNESCO, condizionato all'ingresso nella \u201cLista Propositiva\u201d, pu\u00f2 essere considerato plausibilmente casuale.<\/p>\n<!-- \/wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>Utilizzando il modello <em>Difference-in-Differences<\/em> (DiD) per periodi multipli proposto da Callaway e Sant\u2019Anna (2021), l\u2019analisi mostra che la designazione come Patrimonio Mondiale in Italia ha un impatto positivo sul reddito imponibile pro capite, con un aumento di circa il 2% cinque anni dopo la designazione (Figura 1a). Allo stesso tempo, le conseguenze sul mercato immobiliare sono pi\u00f9 sfumate. Mentre non si osserva quasi alcun impatto della designazione come Patrimonio Mondiale sulle abitazioni civili residenziali (ordinarie), i prezzi delle abitazioni di lusso nelle aree altamente urbanizzate aumentano di quasi il 10% nei primi cinque anni, ma non nelle aree rurali, dove l'offerta di alloggi \u00e8 presumibilmente pi\u00f9 elastica (Figura 1b). Infine, i prezzi degli immobili commerciali aumentano significativamente sia nelle aree urbane che rurali, sebbene l'effetto sia pi\u00f9 persistente in queste ultime.<\/p>\n<!-- \/wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:image {\"id\":7984,\"sizeSlug\":\"full\",\"linkDestination\":\"none\",\"align\":\"center\"} -->\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image aligncenter size-full\"><img src=\"http:\/\/www.siepweb.it\/siep\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/Zotti-et-al-Fig-1-ita.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-7984\"\/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Figura 1 <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<!-- \/wp:image -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>Sulla base di queste informazioni, gli autori esplorano ulteriormente i possibili meccanismi di trasmissione della designazione della \u201cLista del Patrimonio Mondiale UNESCO\u201d sui risultati economici locali. In primo luogo, per testare il canale della crescita guidata dal turismo, un'ipotesi frequentemente formulata in letteratura, si studiano le traiettorie dei flussi turistici ufficiali nei comuni trattati e di controllo negli anni attorno alla designazione: i risultati sembrano compatibili con l'ipotesi della maggiore visibilit\u00e0 turistica di una localit\u00e0 dopo la designazione nella \u201cLista del Patrimonio Mondiale UNESCO\u201d (Figura 2a). Successivamente, viene testata l'ipotesi di selezione basata sull'idea che il valore aggiunto delle amenit\u00e0 dei siti dopo l'iscrizione nella \u201cLista del Patrimonio Mondiale UNESCO\u201d attiri individui benestanti con una valutazione elevata di tali servizi. Sebbene non siano disponibili dati sulla mobilit\u00e0 per livello di reddito, si nota che la popolazione residente e la quota di contribuenti ad alto reddito crescono pi\u00f9 rapidamente nelle localit\u00e0 trattate dopo la designazione, compatibilmente con l'ipotesi di \u201cgentrificazione\u201d che porta a un cambiamento nella composizione dei residenti e a una maggiore domanda di abitazioni di lusso (Figura 2b).<\/p>\n<!-- \/wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:image {\"id\":7985,\"width\":\"840px\",\"height\":\"auto\",\"sizeSlug\":\"full\",\"linkDestination\":\"none\",\"align\":\"center\"} -->\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image aligncenter size-full is-resized\"><img src=\"http:\/\/www.siepweb.it\/siep\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/Zotti-et-al-Fig-2-ita.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-7985\" style=\"width:840px;height:auto\"\/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Figura 2<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<!-- \/wp:image -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>Per concludere, lo studio contribuisce al dibattito sugli effetti economici delle designazioni UNESCO fornendo evidenze empiriche su come il valore del patrimonio segnalato dal processo di iscrizione UNESCO influenzi i valori immobiliari a livello comunale. Inoltre, l\u2019analisi sulla distribuzione del reddito si collega alla letteratura sulla \"gentrificazione turistica\", che studia come le politiche di rivitalizzazione urbana che generano massicci flussi di capitale nei mercati immobiliari di quartieri di classe media possano produrre radicali riconfigurazioni sociali e trasformarli in <em>enclave<\/em> benestanti. Basandosi sul contesto italiano, le evidenze ottenute sono probabilmente valide anche per altri paesi europei con caratteristiche del patrimonio culturale ed economie simili. Si noti, tuttavia, che gli effetti positivi documentati sulle economie locali possono derivare da dinamiche che non sono necessariamente favorevoli ai residenti. In particolare, il fenomeno della limitata disponibilit\u00e0 di terreni per lo sviluppo abitativo, specialmente nelle aree altamente urbanizzate, unito all'aumento della domanda di seconde case e di abitazioni ristrutturate, \u00e8 destinato a portare a una competizione tra gruppi \"esterni\" e residenti, con conseguenze \"escludenti\" a causa della carenza di alloggi a prezzi accessibili e lo spostamento o la rilocalizzazione delle fasce pi\u00f9 vulnerabili della popolazione, inclusi i lavoratori nei settori legati al turismo. Questa \u00e8 una dimensione importante della questione che non viene analizzata nel presente lavoro ma che merita di essere affrontata in future analisi.<\/p>\n<!-- \/wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.sciencedirect.com\/science\/article\/pii\/S0166046224000206\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Vai all'articolo pubblicato<\/a><\/p>\n<!-- \/wp:paragraph -->","_it_post_name":"the-economic-impact-of-unesco-world-heritage-evidence-from-italy","_it_post_excerpt":"","_it_post_title":"The economic impact of UNESCO World Heritage: Evidence from Italy","_en_post_content":"<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p><em>Bertacchini E., Revelli F., Zotti R., 2024 \u2013<\/em> <em><strong>Regional Science and Urban Economics<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<!-- \/wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:more -->\n<!--more-->\n<!-- \/wp:more -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>Heritage designation is a policy intervention commonly recognized to bear considerable consequences on the economies of cities and regions where heritage sites are located, as well as on the welfare of local communities. It influences the real estate market through legal constraints on the development and use of buildings and the demand for amenity value households place on the historic built environment and its conservation. Of the different types of heritage listing, the UNESCO World Heritage designation is pivotal in discussions about the economic impact of cultural heritage. Originally, the UNESCO World Heritage List (WHL) focused on preserving and protecting sites of exceptional value. However, in recent years, the designation process has increasingly been viewed as a tool for territorial marketing and a catalyst for place-making. Entering the WHL attracts significant attention from the media, the general public, potential donors, and businesses. This recognition often prompts countries and regions to leverage their economic and political resources to influence the WHL designation process. As a result, the expectation of a positive economic impact from the World Heritage designation justifies the considerable efforts required to apply for and achieve UNESCO recognition eventually.<\/p>\n<!-- \/wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>What are the effects of UNESCO World Heritage Designations on local economic outcomes? In a recent study, \u201cThe economic impact of UNESCO World Heritage: Evidence from Italy\u201d, published in <strong>Regional Science and Urban Economics<\/strong>, Enrico Bertacchini, Federico Revelli, and Roberto Zotti investigate the impact of the UNESCO WHL inscription on income and property values in Italian municipalities during the past two decades. Italy constitutes an ideal environment for analysing the impact of UNESCO designations because of the considerable number of World Heritage Sites and its decentralised government structure, with regional and local governments playing an active role in the application process for heritage site recognition.<\/p>\n<!-- \/wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>To address the fundamental endogeneity issue arising from the fact that the trajectories of outcomes in treated municipalities might differ significantly from those in the other municipalities even before the official UNESCO designation, the authors focus on the sample of localities having their sites included in the national Tentative List (TL) during the period of observation. Since the national TL is a procedural requirement for a government to propose heritage sites for eventual designation into the UNESCO WHL, the timing of WHL designation conditional on entering the TL can be taken as plausibly random.<\/p>\n<!-- \/wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>Using a staggered difference-in-differences (DiD) design proposed by Callaway and Sant\u2019Anna (2021), the event study analysis shows that World Heritage designation in Italy positively impacts taxable income per capita, with an increase of about 2% five years after the designation (Figure 1, panel a). At the same time, the consequences in the real estate market are more nuanced. While any impact of the World Heritage designation on ordinary apartments is hardly found, the prices of luxury dwellings in highly urbanised areas rise by almost 10% in the first five years, but not in rural areas where housing supply is arguably more elastic (Figure 1, panel b). Finally, the prices of commercial properties rise significantly in both urban and rural areas, though the effect is more persistent in the latter.<\/p>\n<!-- \/wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:image {\"id\":7988,\"sizeSlug\":\"full\",\"linkDestination\":\"none\",\"align\":\"center\"} -->\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image aligncenter size-full\"><img src=\"http:\/\/www.siepweb.it\/siep\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/Zotti-et-al-Fig-1-eng.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-7988\"\/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Figure 1<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<!-- \/wp:image -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>Based on this evidence, the analysis further investigates possible transmission mechanisms of WHL designation on local economic outcomes. First, to test the tourism-led growth channel, a hypothesis frequently made in the literature, the trajectories of official tourist flows in treated and control municipalities around designation years are studied and emerge to be compatible with the hypothesis of increased touristic visibility of a locality after WHL designation (Figure 2, panel a). Next, the focus turns to test the sorting hypothesis based on the idea that the increased amenity value of sites after the WHL inscription attracts wealthy individuals with a high valuation of those amenities. Although data on mobility by income level are not available, it is observed that the resident population and the share of high-income taxpayers grow faster in treated localities after designation, compatibly with a hypothesis of \u201cgentrification\u201d leading to a change in the composition of residents and a higher demand for luxury dwellings (Figure 2, panel b).<\/p>\n<!-- \/wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:image {\"id\":7989,\"sizeSlug\":\"full\",\"linkDestination\":\"none\",\"align\":\"center\"} -->\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image aligncenter size-full\"><img src=\"http:\/\/www.siepweb.it\/siep\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/Zotti-et-al-Fig-2-eng.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-7989\"\/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Figure 2<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<!-- \/wp:image -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>Overall, the study contributes to the debate on the economic effects of UNESCO designations by providing original evidence on how the heritage value signaled by the process of UNESCO listing affects property values at the municipal level. Moreover, the analysis of the impact of WHL designation on the level and distribution of income relates to the \u2018\u2018tourism gentrification\u2019\u2019 literature studying how urban revitalisation policies generating massive flows of capital in the real estate markets of ordinary middle-class neighbourhoods can produce radical social reconfigurations and transform them into affluent enclaves. Based on the Italian context, the evidence obtained is also likely to be valid for other European countries with similar cultural heritage characteristics and economic dynamics. However, the documented positive effects on local economies may arise from dynamics that are not necessarily favourable to residents. In particular, the phenomenon of limited land for housing development, particularly in highly urbanised areas, coupled with the increase in demand for second home ownership and bids for renovated and refurbished structures, is bound to lead to competition between \u2018\u2018external\u2019\u2019 groups and residents, with \u2018\u2018exclusionary\u2019\u2019 consequences due to shortages of affordable housing and displacement or relocation of the most vulnerable segments of the population, including workers in tourism-related sectors. This is an important dimension of the issue, not investigated in this study, but worth being addressed in future analyses of the socioeconomic impact of UNESCO WHL designations.<\/p>\n<!-- \/wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.sciencedirect.com\/science\/article\/pii\/S0166046224000206\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Go to the published article<\/a><\/p>\n<!-- \/wp:paragraph -->","_en_post_name":"","_en_post_excerpt":"","_en_post_title":"The economic impact of UNESCO World Heritage: Evidence from Italy","edit_language":"en","footnotes":""},"categories":[6,255],"tags":[259,257,258,256],"class_list":["post-7978","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-temi-di-economia-pubblica","category-tourism-and-cultural-economics","tag-lista-patrimonio-mondiale-unesco","tag-tourism","tag-turismo","tag-unesco-heritage-sites"],"translation":{"provider":"WPGlobus","version":"3.0.6","language":"en","enabled_languages":["it","en"],"languages":{"it":{"title":true,"content":true,"excerpt":false},"en":{"title":false,"content":false,"excerpt":false}}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.siepweb.it\/siep\/wp\/en\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7978","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.siepweb.it\/siep\/wp\/en\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.siepweb.it\/siep\/wp\/en\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.siepweb.it\/siep\/wp\/en\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.siepweb.it\/siep\/wp\/en\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7978"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/www.siepweb.it\/siep\/wp\/en\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7978\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7996,"href":"https:\/\/www.siepweb.it\/siep\/wp\/en\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7978\/revisions\/7996"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.siepweb.it\/siep\/wp\/en\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7991"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.siepweb.it\/siep\/wp\/en\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7978"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.siepweb.it\/siep\/wp\/en\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7978"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.siepweb.it\/siep\/wp\/en\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7978"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}