Valuing Australian cultural institutions: developing a cultural worldview scale

Abstract

This paper explores the relationship between cultural attitudes and estimates of the economic value of cultural institutions. The relationship is tested with preliminary findings from an empirical study of the economic value of two national cultural institutions in Australia—the National Museum of Australia and Old Parliament House (the historic former national parliament building). The two institutions are the subject of separate choice modelling surveys aimed at estimating their economic value. An innovative element of the study is the development of a cultural worldview (CW) scale, similar in concept to the new ecological paradigm scale, to measure the latent characteristics of respondents. The study enables the testing of relationships between the CW scale, socio-demographic variables, and the stated economic values.