Institutional Foundations of Heritage Railways : The High Cost of Low Trust in the Preservation of Merit Goods

This article is an empirical inquiry into the nature and causes of the preservation and reuse of railway heritage from a comparative point of view. It addresses the question of why this heritage is not preserved in Andalusia (Spain). Railway heritage is a mixed good, as a public good requires either the public or the not-for-profit sector to intervene to ensure its preservation. In the case of a merit good, it is legitimate for the government to interfere with consumer preferences. The results suggest that three factors directly impact the preservation of railway heritage: (i) the quality of government, (ii) volunteering, and (iii) collective preferences. The first two factors depend on social capital as measured by generalized trust, while the third one is idiosyncratic