We identify the causal impact of 18app, a universal cultural voucher for 18-year-olds introduced in Italy with the aim of fostering cultural participation. The policy boosts participation, especially among disadvantaged youths, with evidence of spillover effects within households and persistence in cinema attendance.
Over the past decade, cultural vouchers have emerged in Europe as an alternative policy tool to support the cultural sector. Rather than subsidising producers directly, these schemes allocate public funds to consumers, with the aim of fostering cultural participation, reducing financial barriers, and encouraging the formation of cultural habits early in life.
Italy was the forerunner of this approach. In 2016, it introduced the cultural voucher “18app”, a €500 universal (i.e. not income based) voucher for cultural expenditure addressed to all citizens turning 18, which can be used for books, cinema tickets, concerts, museums, theatre, and a range of digital cultural goods. The Italian experience has since inspired similar initiatives across Europe, including France (Pass Culture, 2021), Spain (Bono Cultural Joven, 2022), and Germany (KulturPass, 2023).
Despite their growing popularity, a key question remained largely unanswered:
do cultural vouchers actually work?
In a recent article published in the Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, we provide causal evidence on the effects of the Italian cultural voucher “18app” on cultural consumption.
Our analysis exploits nationally representative survey data from the Italian Institute of Statistics (ISTAT) covering the period 2013–2019 (around 15.000 individuals) and adopts a Difference-in-Differences strategy. We examine how the cultural behaviour of eligible 18-year-olds changed before and after the introduction of the voucher, relative to slightly older cohorts who were not eligible for and display similar life-cycle characteristics.
This comparison allows us to isolate the effect of the voucher from broader trends in cultural participation over time and from age-related differences in consumption patterns. In doing so, we are able to move beyond descriptive evidence and identify the causal impact of the policy on a wide range of cultural activities.
What we found
First, the cultural voucher had a clear impact on cultural participation, primarily by encouraging first-time or occasional users to take part. Participation increased for cinema (+5.6%), non-classical music concerts (+4.1%), book reading (+4.2%), and online purchases of books and e-books (+7.1%).
For most cultural activities, the effect is limited to entry into participation. Cinema stands out as the only case where the voucher also increases the frequency of attendance, not just the probability of going at least once, with an average increase of about 0.56 additional visits per year.
Second, the most policy-relevant result concerns the distributional effects of the voucher. When splitting the sample by socio-economic status (SES), proxied by household educational attainment, we observe much stronger responses among low-SES youths. For this group, the voucher not only increases participation but also the number of cultural events attended, spanning both popular forms of culture and more traditionally highbrow activities. By contrast, among young people from more educated families, the effects are weaker or altogether absent. In this group, there are stronger signs of substitution, with the voucher partly replacing private spending that would have occurred even in the absence of public support.
Third, we find evidence of indirect effects within the household. The voucher can stimulate additional cultural behaviours among family members who are not direct beneficiaries, particularly with regard to parents’ consumption of digital books and e-books. This suggests that cultural consumption facilitated by the voucher may spill over beyond the individual recipient, through shared use and intra-household interactions.
Finally, there is evidence of persistence over time. Young people exposed to the voucher continue to attend the cinema more frequently even after the voucher has expired. This finding is consistent with theories of learning by consuming and habit formation, which are especially relevant for experience goods such as cultural activities.
Considerations
The Italian experience shows that cultural vouchers can be effective, especially for young people from less favourable socio-economic backgrounds. Although the effects are weak among youths from higher socio-economic backgrounds, we argue in favour of an universalistic voucher design, given the inherently social and networked nature of cultural consumption. Our estimates capture the direct effect of the voucher on recipients, but also point to an indirect impact operating through social multiplier mechanisms, whereby participation by some individuals encourages others within the same social and peer networks to engage. Through the sharing of cultural experiences, these indirect effects may help sustain participation and amplify the overall impact of the policy beyond its immediate beneficiaries.
About the article
Baldin, A., Marenzi, A., & Zantomio, F. (2025). The impact of a public voucher for the arts The impact of a public voucher for the arts. Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, 235, 107070.
About the authors
Andrea Baldin is Associate Professor at the Department of Economics, Ca’ Foscari University of Venice
Anna Marenzi is Full Professor at the Department of Economics, Ca’ Foscari University of Venice
Francesca Zantomio is Full Professor at the Department of Economics, Ca’ Foscari University of Venice
About the image
Photo by Krists Luhaers on Unsplash
