The introduction and diffusion of digital technologies have had a tremendous impact on the production, preservation and utilisation of cultural heritage. In Italy, the Ministry for Cultural Heritage and Activities and Tourism (MiBACT) has undertaken several programs involving the use of digital technology to promote a larger access to cultural heritage, through the collection of metadata on cultural products preserved in the country and the provision of digital cultural products. Digitisation techniques and web infrastructures affect most activities carried out by such institutions: the production of cultural goods, the use and valorisation of cultural heritage, as well as the costs of preservation. This study analyses the digital projects carried out by the MiBACT for the preservation and utilisation of cultural heritage that is managed by public historic archives so as to evaluate their impact on the access to cultural products.

This paper investigates the influence of information and communication technologies (ICT) on the efficiency in attracting visitors of Italian museums. Notwithstanding the extensive literature on museum performance measurement, the analysis of the role of technological innovation is relatively neglected. As a first attempt to fill this lacuna, this study presents a two-stage analysis of a novel sample of Italian state-owned museums built by merging information drawn from different sources. In the first stage, we use bootstrapped Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) to measure the efficiency of museums. In the second stage, we use a bootstrap truncated regression approach to test the extent to which different forms of ICT affect museum efficiency. We distinguish the ICT investments into ‘in situ’ and online services, since the former improve the visitors’ experience on site, while the latter can prepare for the visit or, even, be a substitute of the visit. The results reveal that the use of ICT is generally associated with better performances but ‘in situ’ services show to play a major role.

This paper analyses the net social benefits deriving from the medium-scale production of geopolymers based on volcanic ash compared to traditional cementitious materials used in construction and restoration sectors. In contrast to the existing literature grounded on the physical and mechanical characterization of geopolymers, our analysis considers two aspects: public finance savings from avoiding the disposal of volcanic ash in landfills and environmental benefits deriving from reduction in CO₂ releases due to the production process at room temperature. Our case study focuses on the reuse of natural waste, namely the volcanic ash of the Mt. Etna volcano (Italy), whose disposal involves significant costs for society. Its use in the alkaline activation process avoids the exploitation of natural resources. Considering the huge amount of volcanic ash from Mt. Etna that falls on the urban areas of Eastern Sicily, the results show relevant economic benefits, in terms of both avoided costs and tax reductions for the citizens. Alongside these, significant environmental benefits are evidenced thanks to the release of up to 78% lower CO₂ emissions by synthesised materials with volcanic ash than by traditional cementitious ones. Overall, the social cost savings compared to traditional materials is 0.339 EUR/kg for geopolymer.