Which Public Attraction Gets (and Gets More) Government Funding? The Effects of Internal and External Factors

Abstract

Public attractions’ financial viability heavily depends upon sufficient government funding. However, research on government allocations has historically been rare. Drawn on the public administration and finance literature, this study addresses this gap by using a panel dataset of 262 public attractions in China from 2015 to 2018. Double-hurdle models, Heckman two-stage approach, multiple-hurdle approach, and quantile regressions are employed to examine the relationship between government funding, attraction characteristics, and local economic conditions. The findings suggest that attraction characteristics are associated with the amount of government appropriations, but they are less impactful on the attractions’ likelihood of receiving funding. The effects of attraction characteristics on government funding are asymmetric—as attractions’ government funding level increases, attraction type and quality exert stronger impacts while other characteristics influence less. The local economic condition is a significant factor in the amount of government funding. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.