Studies aiming at valuing cultural and natural heritage projects are often focussed on one or only a few sites, whereas planning decisions concerning the allocation of public funds to heritage conservation deal with classes of heritage rather than single sites. In addition, such planning decisions are almost always concerned with non-monetary values that need to be incorporated into assessment procedures if the total value of alternative strategies is to be estimated. In this paper, we put forward and estimate models to address both of these issues within a choice-modelling framework. The method is developed in the context of conservation of a particular class of cultural heritage, namely major historic buildings in a city or country. We report results from a discrete choice experiment to assess public preferences in which the choices are alternative conservation programs and the attributes are dimensions of the programs’ cultural and economic value. The model is estimated from survey data using several flexible econometric specifications. We show that the methods developed can be used to obtain robust estimates of the economic value of this category of buildings. We also find a significant contribution of all aspects of cultural value to the formation of conservation preferences and the public’s willingness to pay.

旨在评估文化和自然遗产项目的研究通常只集中在一个或几个地点上，而有关将公共资金分配给遗产保护的规划决策只涉及遗产类别，而不是单一地点。此外，如果要估算替代策略的总价值，则此类计划决策几乎总是与非货币价值相关，非货币价值需要纳入评估程序。在本文中，我们提出并估计了模型，以在选择建模框架内解决这两个问题。该方法是在保护特定类别的文化遗产（即城市或国家/地区的主要历史建筑）的背景下开发的。我们报告了一项离散选择实验的结果，以评估公共偏好，其中选择是替代性的保护计划，而属性是该计划的文化和经济价值的维度。该模型是使用几种灵活的计量经济学规范从调查数据中估算的。我们表明，所开发的方法可用于获得此类建筑物的经济价值的可靠估计。我们还发现文化价值的各个方面对保护偏好的形成和公众的支付意愿做出了重大贡献。我们表明，所开发的方法可用于获得此类建筑物的经济价值的可靠估计。我们还发现文化价值的各个方面对保护偏好的形成和公众的支付意愿做出了重大贡献。我们表明，所开发的方法可用于获得此类建筑物的经济价值的可靠估计。我们还发现文化价值的各个方面对保护偏好的形成和公众的支付意愿做出了重大贡献。