Museum and monument attendance and tourism flow: A time series analysis approach.

This paper takes a time series analysis approach to evaluate the directions of causality between tourism flows, on the one side, and museum and monument attendance, on the other. We consider Italy as a case study, and analyze monthly data over the period January 1996 to December 2007. All considered series are seasonally integrated, and co-integration links emerge. We focus on the error correction mechanism among co-integrated time series to detect the directional link(s) of causality. Clear-cut results emerge: generally, the causality runs from tourist flows to museum and monument attendance. The non-stationary nature of time series, their co-integration relationships, and the direction of causal links suggest specific implication for tourism and cultural policies.Tourism; Museum; Seasonal unit root; Co-integration; Causality.

Workers' enterprises in the case of arts production

This paper shows that the standard result according to which labour-managed firms produce a lower amount of output, as compared to profit-maximising firms, is reversed if production per se gives utility and the workers’ membership of labour-managed firms is set prior to market decisions. Under the same hypotheses, the labour-managed firms set a higher product quality than the profit-oriented ones, ceteris paribus. The considered hypotheses are particularly relevant for the case of the performing arts sector, so that the presence of labour-managed firms should be particularly welcomed in this sector.workers'enterprises; labour managed firms; arts

The regional public spending for tourism in Italy: An empirical analysis

We analyse the effects of public spending for tourism, in Italian regions. The evaluation is permitted by the availability of the databank under the project “Conti Pubblici Territoriali” (“Regional Public Account”) of the Ministry of Economic Development: the spending of all public subjects is aggregated according to the regions of destinations, and classified according to different criteria, including the sectoral criterion. We take a cross-section regression analysis approach. The effects of public spending for tourism on tourism attraction are investigated. Generally speaking, the effectiveness of public spending appears to be really weak.Tourism; Regions; Public Spending; Regional Public Account.

Intellectual Property, Competition and Growth: An Introduction

This paper introduces the monographic issue of Rivista di Politica Economica on “Intellectual Property, Competition, and Growth”. It presents the twelve contributions selected after a Callfor-Papers. The contributions deal with different facets of the protection of intellectual property rights and analyse micro- and macro-economic consequences of different degree of intellectual property protection, especially as concerns firm competition and macroeconomic growth performance.

Price of recreational products and the exchange rate: an empirical investigation on US data

The paper analyses the cointegration relationships and the causal links between the exchange rate of the US Dollar, on the one side, and different price indices of US products on the other side. Data are of monthly frequency and cover a period of two or three decades. We show that the exchange rate cointegrate with the Consumer Price Index and with the prices indices of several agricultural, manufactured and service goods; moreover a one-direction causal link is present, running from price to exchange rate. On the opposite, cointegrating relationships between exchange rate and price indices do not exist in the case of recreational products with “cultural” content. Tentative theoretical explanations are proposed.Price Index; Exchange Rate; Cointegration; Causality

Are exchange rates really free from seasonality? An exploratory analysis on monthly time series

This article questions the assumption that exchange rates are non-seasonal and provides selected evidence of monthly time series of exchange rates in which significant seasonal components are present. However, the seasonal component appears to be absent in more recent data. Tentative explanations are suggested.Seasonality; Exchange rates

Investment in Tourism Market: A Dynamic Model of Differentiated Oligopoly

We present a theoretical model in tourism economics, assuming that the market for tourism is an oligopoly with differentiated products. Destinations (i.e., countries, regions, sites or even firms) can invest in order to improve their carrying capacity that can be interpreted as the stock of physical, natural or cultural resources. Tourism flows yield current revenues, but they are usually detrimental for the cultural or natural resource stock over time. We find the solution of the dynamic model, and in particular we find the open-loop Nash equilibrium of the game among the destinations, under alternative settings, depending on whether the arrivals are exogenous or endogenous, and depending on whether the degree of differentiation among destinations is exogenous or endogenous. The model is rather general, and it can provide answers to different specific questions, like the choice between mass- vs. elite-tourism development strategies; the effect of the number of competing products upon profits; the optimal degree of product differentiation.Tourism, Differentiated games, Reservation price

US PRICE INDICES AND THE EXCHANGE RATE: ARE RECREATIONAL PRODUCTS DIFFERENT?

The paper analyses the cointegration relationships and the causal links between the exchange rate of the US Dollar, on the one side, and different price indices of US products on the other side. Data are of monthly frequency and cover a period of two or three decades. We show that the exchange rate cointegrate with the Consumer Price Index and with the prices indices of several agricultural, manufactured and service goods; moreover a one-direction causal link is present, running from price to exchange rate. On the opposite, cointegrating relationships between exchange rate and price indices do not exist in the case of recreational products with �cultural� content. Tentative theoretical explanations are proposed.Price Index; Exchange Rate, Cointegration, Causality