The effect of consumption incentives on museum attendance: a case study on Milan through human mobility data

Author

Lerouge, Romain and Biferale, Lorenzo and Bruno, Matteo

Abstract

In recent years, cultural policy has increasingly been shaped by goals of promoting social cohesion, with a central focus on broadening access to the arts and cultural heritage. This perspective emphasizes the role of public institutions in ensuring equitable cultural participation, particularly in urban settings where spatial inequalities, such as the core-periphery divide, can limit access to cultural amenities. Within this framework, public funding for culture has sparked debate, particularly regarding the economics of museums. While some advocate for free admission to increase public engagement, others argue that such measures may not significantly broaden participation due to the relatively inelastic demand for museum visits. A newer approach, offering free access on select days, has emerged but remains underexplored in academic literature. Exploiting High-Frequency Location-Based data from 330,929 unique users in Milan in 2019, this paper investigates the “Domenica al Museo” initiative, a policy by Italy’s Ministry of Cultural Heritage that provides free entry to state museums on the first Sunday of each month. The results highlight the impact of this policy in terms of volumes of visitors, as well as spatial provenance and cultural voraciousness when price barriers are removed.