Rent Seeking at the Margin? Theory and Evidence from Unesco’s World Heritage List

Martina Dattilo (), Fabio Padovano () and Yvon Rocaboy ()
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Martina Dattilo: University of Turin, Department of Economics and Statistics “Cognetti de Martiis”, Italy
Fabio Padovano: Université Rennes 1, CNRS, CREM - UMR 6211, Condorcet Center for Political Economy, Rennes, France; and DSP, Università Roma Tre, Rome Italy
Yvon Rocaboy: Université Rennes 1, CNRS, CREM - UMR 6211, Condorcet Center for Political Economy, Rennes, France

Working papers from Società Italiana di Economia Pubblica

Abstract: We analyze, both theoretically and empirically, how rent seekers allocate resources between alternative rents in the context of UNESCO’s World Heritage List (WHL). The stylized model features representatives of member countries who lobby UNESCO to include national sites in the WHL. Sites can be of either high or low quality, depending on whether their renown alone guarantees enlisting or lobbying is necessary. The increase in tourism generated by enlisting measures the value of the rent, which is greater for sites of lower quality. The cost of rent seeking corresponds to the financial resources spent and the loss of reputation that the representative suffers when he/she supports low quality sites. Given UNESCO’s institutional structure, this loss is higher when the representative acts in the World Heritage Committee, which gives him/her greater visibility. The model predicts that the representative promotes high quality sites when he/she sits in the committee, to increase his/her reputation, and lobbies for low quality sites when he/she is not a member, using the country’s financial resources. The estimates uncover a rich pattern of rent seeking strategies: member countries usually regularize their budgetary position before they propose lower quality sites and support high quality ones when they sit in the committee. This confirms that rent seeking is conducted at the margin.

Keywords: Rent-seeking at the margin; UNESCO World Heritage List; international organizations; measurement of quality (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D72 F53 H87 L15 O19 Z11 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025-04
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