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Pay as you go: a new proposal for museum pricing

Author

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  • Bruno S. Frey
  • Lasse Steiner

Abstract

Museums have many different goals beyond efficiency such as social equity, financial revenue, attracting donors and gaining international, regional or local prestige. Various pricing schemes are being discussed with the aim of reaching these goals. The classical ones are entry prices and free entry. The museum club solution or exit donations allow for various additional goals. Each scheme has clear advantages and disadvantages. We propose an innovative pricing instrument: Exit prices, which are charged according to the time spent in a museum. This scheme has a number of notable advantages, in particular the better choice available to the visitors, which increases their satisfaction.

Suggested Citation

  • Bruno S. Frey & Lasse Steiner, 2010. "Pay as you go: a new proposal for museum pricing," IEW - Working Papers 485, Institute for Empirical Research in Economics - University of Zurich.
    • Handle: RePEc:zur:iewwpx:485
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    File URL: https://www.zora.uzh.ch/id/eprint/51744/1/iewwp485.pdf
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    2. Juan Prieto-Rodríguez & Víctor Fernández-Blanco, 2006. "Optimal pricing and grant policies for museums," Journal of Cultural Economics, Springer;The Association for Cultural Economics International, vol. 30(3), pages 169-181, December.
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    6. Frey, Bruno S. & Meier, Stephan, 2006. "The Economics of Museums," Handbook of the Economics of Art and Culture, in: V.A. Ginsburgh & D. Throsby (ed.), Handbook of the Economics of Art and Culture, edition 1, volume 1, chapter 29, pages 1017-1047, Elsevier.
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    Blog mentions

    As found by EconAcademics.org, the blog aggregator for Economics research:
    1. How to price museum visits
      by Economic Logician in Economic Logic on 2010-06-15 19:25:00
    2. Inträde till museer
      by Niclas Berggren in Nonicoclolasos on 2010-06-23 08:33:06

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    Cited by:

    1. Bruno S. Frey & Lasse Steiner, 2010. "World Heritage List: does it make sense?," IEW - Working Papers 484, Institute for Empirical Research in Economics - University of Zurich.
    2. Carlos Casacuberta, 2017. "Non-profit Firm Models and Museum Demand Estimation," Hacienda Pública Española / Review of Public Economics, IEF, vol. 221(2), pages 33-45, June.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Prices; museums; culture; donations; homo oeconomicus;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • Z11 - Other Special Topics - - Cultural Economics - - - Economics of the Arts and Literature
    • L30 - Industrial Organization - - Nonprofit Organizations and Public Enterprise - - - General
    • H40 - Public Economics - - Publicly Provided Goods - - - General
    • R32 - Urban, Rural, Regional, Real Estate, and Transportation Economics - - Real Estate Markets, Spatial Production Analysis, and Firm Location - - - Other Spatial Production and Pricing Analysis
    • L21 - Industrial Organization - - Firm Objectives, Organization, and Behavior - - - Business Objectives of the Firm

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