The Impact of Cultural Heritage on Economic Growth in the Example of Museum Development in Uzbekistan

The article examines the complex relationship between economic growth and the preservation and development of cultural heritage using the museum sector in Uzbekistan as a case study. It delves into how the country's recent economic advancements have influenced the preservation, presentation, and promotion of its rich cultural heritage. In this study, we used the VAR (vector autoregression) model to analyze the relationship between the growth of GDP and the number of excursions in museums. The article's core examines the direct and indirect impacts of economic growth on the number of excursions in museums and vice versa. As a result, we found out that the first and second lags of GDP growth time series and respective first and second lags of the number of excursions in museums strongly correlate with each other, and therefore a two-equation model was built. The novelty of the research consists of using a holistic approach combined with time-series analysis to understand better how economic dynamics can shape the guardianship of cultural heritage and vice versa, providing important conclusions for policymakers, cultural managers, and scholars in heritage studies. As the scope of the research is limited to one country, further cross-country studies should be carried out to analyze the impact of economic growth on cultural heritage proxy indicators.