Choices on museum attendance: An agent-based approach

This paper presents an agent-based model to study museum attendance, with the final aim of evaluating how the rules on free admission affect charged visits. Heterogeneous agents of a population are assumed to make their choices over a bundle of goods and activities which include museum attendance along with other consumption and leisure-time alternatives. Simulations show that larger free-admission rules always lead to an increase in the number of total visits. A specific focus is dedicated to show which conditions let the free admittance policies induce an increment also in charged visits. Agents are characterized in terms of income and education. Addiction to cultural consumption is modelled both with and without reference to education. Specific aspects, such as crowd effects and renovation of exhibitions, are also considered, as features of the museum attendance.