image for illustration: Natural History Museum by Diliff, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons
The Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS), commissioned Alma Economics to conduct exploratory research into the application of ‘non-use value’ in the context of UK culture and heritage.
GOV.UK writes:
… This research is part of a wider programme of work called Culture and Heritage Capital (CHC), which DCMS is leading in partnership with its Arm’s Length Bodies and the Arts and Humanities Research Council…
The aim of the CHC programme is to ensure that economic, social and cultural value is included in appraisals and evaluation, following best practice guidance set out by HM Treasury’s Green Book. Without an agreed method for valuing the flow of services that CHC assets provide, the impact of proposals on specific groups, households, communities and businesses is underestimated, particularly during social cost benefit analysis (SCBA). For further background on the CHC programme, please see the CHC portal and Embedding a Culture and Heritage Capital Approach.
Individuals attribute value to culture and heritage even if they do not directly consume it themselves, known as ‘non-use value’. This typically includes the value people get from the existence of a cultural good (existence value) and from others being able to benefit from a good or service, in the present (altruistic value) or for future generations (bequest value). These types of value are particularly important for culture and heritage assets and can make up a substantial part of their value but are often overlooked in decision making. Understanding why individuals hold non-use value is therefore important, as well as determining whether non-use values in the context of culture and heritage should be considered differently to non-use values in other contexts (e.g., the environmental and transport domains).
In our experiments, we found that individuals who had not visited the Natural History Museum in the past three years were willing to pay an average of £11.95 as an (indefinite) annual donation to preserve the museum. This provides a clear illustration that non-use value is not only conceptually important, but also economically significant, with meaningful implications for public policy and investment decisions. This research provides new insights into the theoretical underpinnings and drivers of non-use value for UK culture, creative and heritage sectors, as well as providing practical guidance on how best to quantify and monetise it for social cost-benefit analysis (SCBA). The study explores how non-use value varies across the population, motivations and drivers of value, appropriate catchment areas, bias mitigating strategies, and marginal non-use values.
HM Treasury’s Green Book explicitly allows for non-use benefits to be included in SCBA, yet, to date, practitioners have lacked clear evidence on how to do so for culture and heritage. The findings in this report therefore provide a first step towards consistent, Green-Book-compliant appraisal of cultural non-use values for cultural, creative and heritage sectors. In the future, DCMS intends to issue more formal guidance on applying both use and non-use values in SCBA.
Approach
The figure below summarises the main stages involved in the delivery of this research into non-use value in the context of UK culture and heritage. The research commenced with a Rapid Evidence Assessment (REA) where we reviewed the current evidence base to ensure our study built on existing evidence and was targeted toward addressing evidence gaps. We then developed and deployed four survey-based experiments which were focussed on three UK-based museums – the Natural History Museum (NHM), the World Museum (Liverpool), and the Museum of Liverpool – and tested with a large sample of the UK general public (capturing responses from over 13,000 UK adults). Statistical analysis was conducted to ensure robust conclusions were drawn from the survey data. The experiments were followed by two focus groups, used to understand the motivations and drivers of non-use value. As an extension to the four experiments, we also applied wellbeing valuation to non-use value, using the data collected through the four survey-based experiments.
Summary of overarching study approach
- Rapid Evidence Assessment to understand existing evidence base
- Thematic experiments designed to address evidence gaps
- Surveys completed by a sample of the general UK population
- Analysis of survey data to deliver robust insights
- Focus groups held to understand drivers of non-use value
- Conclusions and implications for policy appraisal and future research
Key findings and takeaways
All four of the experiments elicited substantial positive non-use value (as measured by average respondent WTP), indicating that large amounts of economic welfare would be omitted from SCBA of museums if non-use value is not captured.
Drivers of non-use value
The literature reviewed as part of this study indicated that culture and heritage assets generate all of the three commonly cited forms of non-use value: existence, bequest, and altruism. Our experiment exploring the non-use value associated with marginal changes to the Natural History Museum elicited positive estimates of non-use value for changes focussed on each of the three forms of non-use value. When exploring drivers of non-use value qualitatively with individuals through the surveys and focus groups, motivations for holding non-use value were found to include the role of museums in preserving and facilitating access to heritage for current and future generations, their educational value, their contributions to research, and their value as heritage sites in and of themselves (including buildings and exhibits). Whilst the drivers cited in the qualitative research did not always cleanly align with the established definitions, arguably they are all captured within the three forms of non-use value.
To read the experiments and recommendations go to the following link:
