Valoración contingente y análisis coste-beneficioaplicación a un proyecto de recuperación de patrimonio cultural urbano

Abstract

The cultural heritage economy is shaped as an analytical discipline with its own status because the peculiarity of its elements, mostly unique assets, impossible of being reproduced and subdued to maintenance conditions. In addition, a great amount of these elements qualified as public property and they provide a group of intangible values related to their aesthetic or symbolic contents so the market and the market prices are not the proper channel for their value statement. This doesn�t mean that the citizens don�t have a potential disposition to appreciate them, expressed through the desire of recovering and preserving these elements; or, that it comes from the cultural heritage, understood as an endowment of public capital, a series of expenses and employment flows mainly related to the tourist demand, that could contribute to the economic development of the cities with cultural heritage. Thus it is important to propose methodologies and to carry out empirical essays about valuation of the historical and cultural heritage because they could serve, at least, as an estimation of the preferences from individuals and society about these elements, although they also could mean a necessary input to carry out cost-benefit analysis (CBA) of the policies and projects relating to the cultural heritage. This is the goal of the current research: a proposal of a cost-benefit analysis (CBA) for a project of recovery of the historical heritage of the Valdivia city, in Chile, through a non-profit foundation that would be in charge of these activities and the estimation of the expected benefits would be carried out by applying contingent valuation methodology