Determinants of Historic and Cultural Landmark Designation: Why We Preserve What We Preserve

Douglas Noonan and Douglas Krupka

No 3777, IZA Discussion Papers from Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)

Abstract: There is much interest among cultural economists in assessing the effects of heritage preservation policies. There has been less interest in modeling the policy choices made in historic and cultural landmark preservation. This paper builds an economic model of a landmark designation that highlights the tensions between the interests of owners of cultural amenities and the interests of the neighboring community. We perform empirical tests by estimating a discrete choice model for landmark preservation using data from Chicago, combining the Chicago Historical Resources Survey of over 17,000 historic structures with property sales, Census, and other geographic data. The data allow us to explain why some properties were designated landmarks (or landmark districts) and others were not. The results identify the influence of property characteristics, local socio-economic factors, and measures of historic and cultural quality. The results emphasize the political economy of implementing preservation policies.

Keywords: landmark designation; heritage preservation policy (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D78 R52 Z1 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 41 pages
Date: 2008-10
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-cul and nep-ure
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

Published - revised version published in: Journal of Cultural Economics, 2010, 34 (1), 1-26

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Related works:
Journal Article: Determinants of historic and cultural landmark designation: why we preserve what we preserve (2010)
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