Economic Explanation for the lack of plaques at ancient sites:
One thing that has been really interesting, and slightly frustrating, is the lack of explanatory plaques at the ancient sites. In the States, we often have plaques with descriptions or explanations and such at historic places (even if we don't read them :). Here, there was only one site (Mystras) where we had such plaques. Everywhere else – Athenian acropolis, agora, temples, sparta, nafplio, delphi, mycenaea, corinth, etc. – had no plaques. One possible explanation for this is the tour guides. Tour guides here are everywhere and with almost all groups. So, having tour guides would negate the necessity of having plaques (since they are explaining things). Also, the tour guides would have an incentive to NOT promote plaques, because having informative plaques would make tour guides less necessary. Any other thoughts??
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I think it's probably a free-rider problem which has led to a market solution, personally.
ReplyDeleteIn other words, since the government doesn't provide funding for plaques there I'm assuming, and no one person/firm there could gain enough (any?) revenue by erecting plaques, no one is willing to erect plaques as a "service" to tourists. It's probably true that even the social benefit (depending on if we define the social benefit as being locality based or inclusive of tourists) is even, on the margin, minimal--particularly from a local perspective. Thus, the solution that the market provides consists of free agents who offer "value added" services--the ability to ask and answer questions, varying levels of knowledge (commensurate, probably with pay)--in addition to the basic info which could be provided by a plaque.
I think you're right though. That it's kind of a trade off. Not having plaques means that the available benefit to hiring a tour guide or BEING a tour guide is sufficiently large to motivate a fairly diverse and successful "tour" market. If plaques existed that might reduce the marginal value of having a tour guide JUST enough to devestate the tour guide market. Plus, my guess would be that tour guides there probably pursue rent seeking behavior to ensure that plaques don't get erected.
Very cool observation and thought! It makes me consider what the effect of providing such things here in the States is. Does it reduce employment by reducing the benefit from hiring tour guides? Or do we have so many places which don't get enough visitors that we'd expect to see plaques in such places because there there are 1)few/no tour guides to pursue lobbying/"rent seeking" behavior because the payoffs would be too low to draw such individuals to the "market" and 2)the marginal cost of providing a plaque is close to the marginal benefit derived from the few individuals which read it. And I consider how we have tourist sites...but how it seems like they're spread out a lot (like that cool horse monument on the way to/from washington). Hmmm, very interesting question though.