Spatial dependence in museum services: an analysis of the Italian case

In this paper we investigate whether the services offered by museums are affected by the choices of neighbors, and we discuss whether the evidence can document that competition processes are at work. Specifically, we take into account the Italian case, where governmental and private museums coexist. Resorting to spatial auto-regressive models, we show that the choices of a museum concerning services' supply are significantly influenced by the choices of its neighbors. However, we cast several doubts that this piece of evidence can be solely due to sound competition among museums.