Improvement of Urban Environment and Preservation of Cultural Heritage through Experimental Economics by a Modified Contingent Valuation Method (CVM)

Abstract

The preservation of cultural heritage is entailing excessive cost (paid by people through taxation) while is a source of additional income for both, the State and the people, due to tourism. Since the evaluation of this good cannot be in market terms, we apply a modified version of the Contingent Valuation Method (CVM), which is frequently used in Experimental Economics, in order to investigate the significance that people put on this good and how much they might be willing to pay for supporting activities concerning the preservation of such antiquities, that also improve the urban environment. For this purpose, we have developed a methodological framework under the form of an algorithmic procedure with 21 activity stages and 4 decision nodes, and proved its functionality by implementing it in the case of the Cononian Walls surrounding the peninsula of Piraeus, the main port of Athens, Greece. The results indicate that people are in favor of overturning the devaluation of the monument, by participating in relevant activities, including financial support. Nevertheless, a part of the interviewees disagrees with any financial contribution, judging that this expenditure should be covered exclusively by the State. All statistical processing of answers, obtained through a properly designed/circulated questionnaire, was carried out by Logit and Probit model regression analysis. Both models gave significant (at 0.05 level) dependence of willingness to pay (WTP) on preferred course of action (i.e., leaving the ruins situation as is, performing only the necessary remediation, proceeding with radical restoration).