Reaching a 'legitimate' value? A contingent valuation study of the National Galleries of Scotland

Abstract

The pressure for publicly funded museums and galleries in the UK to effectively express their 'value for money' in order to advocate for their continued public subsidy is arguably greater than ever. Taking the National Galleries of Scotland (NGS) as a case study, this research aims to contribute to the execution of such advocacy through considering one model that museums and galleries could utilise in order to conduct their own small-scale valuation study. Arguing that contingent valuation can give primacy to the value perceived by those who contribute to public subsidies through their taxation, the results suggest that the NGS return a consumer surplus of 3,567,703. Although this surplus is primarily predicated on the benefits it provides to users as individual consumers, in arriving at their valuation, participants also factored in the societal and economic benefits they value as citizens.