12
R. Capello et al.
From the seminal work of Throsby (1999), a long stream of research analyzed
the mechanisms through which culture may influence economic development. These
studies define culture in very distinct ways. The majority of them focused on tangible
cultural heritage and the effect of these resources on the attractiveness of tourism
flows (Fainstein et al. 2003). Other works, however, defined culture in different
ways, concerning, for instance, the so-called cultural industry, the growth of which
has outperformed, over the last decades, the more traditional sectors of the economy.
Finally, other authors (Guiso et al. 2006) defined culture as the values shared in a
community, such as religion, finding a positive effect on the reinforcement of trust
and cooperation.
The research group in regional and urban economics developed a research program on the role of cultural heritage on economic development mainly due to two
motivations, both concerning the nature of culture as an economic asset.
The first one, as suggested by the studies mentioned above, is that culture is a multidimensional asset. In other words, very different elements coexist under the label
of “culture.” Heritage represents a tangible form of culture, while other aspects are
intangible, such as the values shared within a community. Moreover, other tangible
forms of culture, like cultural industry, are conceptually different from cultural heritage, being private resources rather than public ones. It is therefore necessary, in order
to fully understand the potential economic impact of cultural heritage, to develop a
comprehensive and exhaustive definition of culture, embracing all its possible elements. The recognition and systematization of these multidimensional elements of
culture will allow for the study of the joint effects through which cultural heritage
generates economic prosperity. While several works, including the key CHCfE report
(2015), recognize that cultural heritage affects economic development through various channels, it does not consider the role of intangible elements stemming from
culture, like creativity, identity, sense of belonging in cultural heritage and its effects
on the local area. We developed the impression that this position was underestimating
the role of cultural heritage on local development, convinced that cultural heritage is
able to generate a positive effect on local socioeconomic conditions in the presence
of other cultural characteristics, like the shared values of the community.
The second reason of interest for this topic refers to the high differentiation of
culture across space. The nonreplicability of cultural heritage, for instance, makes
it unique and exclusive resources of each place. Therefore, the analysis of culture
and economic development needs to adopt a regional perspective, able to compare
territories characterized by different combinations of cultural elements of different
varieties. Due to the difficulty in measuring culture and its different dimensions,
such an approach is relatively rare in the literature, which is mostly focused on case
studies analyzing single regions or cities.
Stemming from these considerations, the research program of the research group
concentrated on:
1. a definition and measurement of culture and the role of cultural heritage on
local development. The scope of this part is to provide a conceptually grounded
definition of culture and its multidimensional elements, jointly with an empirical
R. Capello et al.
From the seminal work of Throsby (1999), a long stream of research analyzed
the mechanisms through which culture may influence economic development. These
studies define culture in very distinct ways. The majority of them focused on tangible
cultural heritage and the effect of these resources on the attractiveness of tourism
flows (Fainstein et al. 2003). Other works, however, defined culture in different
ways, concerning, for instance, the so-called cultural industry, the growth of which
has outperformed, over the last decades, the more traditional sectors of the economy.
Finally, other authors (Guiso et al. 2006) defined culture as the values shared in a
community, such as religion, finding a positive effect on the reinforcement of trust
and cooperation.
The research group in regional and urban economics developed a research program on the role of cultural heritage on economic development mainly due to two
motivations, both concerning the nature of culture as an economic asset.
The first one, as suggested by the studies mentioned above, is that culture is a multidimensional asset. In other words, very different elements coexist under the label
of “culture.” Heritage represents a tangible form of culture, while other aspects are
intangible, such as the values shared within a community. Moreover, other tangible
forms of culture, like cultural industry, are conceptually different from cultural heritage, being private resources rather than public ones. It is therefore necessary, in order
to fully understand the potential economic impact of cultural heritage, to develop a
comprehensive and exhaustive definition of culture, embracing all its possible elements. The recognition and systematization of these multidimensional elements of
culture will allow for the study of the joint effects through which cultural heritage
generates economic prosperity. While several works, including the key CHCfE report
(2015), recognize that cultural heritage affects economic development through various channels, it does not consider the role of intangible elements stemming from
culture, like creativity, identity, sense of belonging in cultural heritage and its effects
on the local area. We developed the impression that this position was underestimating
the role of cultural heritage on local development, convinced that cultural heritage is
able to generate a positive effect on local socioeconomic conditions in the presence
of other cultural characteristics, like the shared values of the community.
The second reason of interest for this topic refers to the high differentiation of
culture across space. The nonreplicability of cultural heritage, for instance, makes
it unique and exclusive resources of each place. Therefore, the analysis of culture
and economic development needs to adopt a regional perspective, able to compare
territories characterized by different combinations of cultural elements of different
varieties. Due to the difficulty in measuring culture and its different dimensions,
such an approach is relatively rare in the literature, which is mostly focused on case
studies analyzing single regions or cities.
Stemming from these considerations, the research program of the research group
concentrated on:
1. a definition and measurement of culture and the role of cultural heritage on
local development. The scope of this part is to provide a conceptually grounded
definition of culture and its multidimensional elements, jointly with an empirical