IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/regeco/v36y2006i1p118-131.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Hedonism vs. nihilism: No arbitrage and tests of urban economic models

Author

Listed:
  • Berliant, Marcus
  • McMillen, Daniel P.

Abstract

We present two notions of "no arbitrage" in urban economic models and show that there is no model satisfying both. The standard hedonic housing model of urban economics and its generalizations are consistent with the first of these, but inconsistent with the second. We present a model consistent with the second notion of "no arbitrage" and a continuum of models consistent with neither notion that are observationally equivalent to the standard model, even if the utility function of consumers is known. They generate the same equilibrium allocations and values of bundles purchased in equilibrium, but the equilibrium price functions differ on bundles not purchased in equilibrium. Only one of these is the standard model. Thus, the available tests of the standard model cannot provide much evidence of its validity.
(This abstract was borrowed from another version of this item.)

Suggested Citation

  • Berliant, Marcus & McMillen, Daniel P., 2006. "Hedonism vs. nihilism: No arbitrage and tests of urban economic models," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 36(1), pages 118-131, January.
  • Handle: RePEc:eee:regeco:v:36:y:2006:i:1:p:118-131
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0166-0462(05)00052-9
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to look for a different version below or search for a different version of it.

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Fujita,Masahisa, 1991. "Urban Economic Theory," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9780521396455.
    2. Berliant, Marcus & Papageorgiou, Yorgos Y. & Wang, Ping, 1990. "On welfare theory and urban economics," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 20(2), pages 245-261, September.
    3. Bryan Ellickson & Birgit Grodal & Suzanne Scotchmer & William R. Zame, 1999. "Clubs and the Market," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 67(5), pages 1185-1218, September.
    4. Mas-Colell, Andreu, 1975. "A model of equilibrium with differentiated commodities," Journal of Mathematical Economics, Elsevier, vol. 2(2), pages 263-295.
    5. Scotchmer, Suzanne, 1986. "The short-run and long-run benefits of environmental improvement," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 30(1), pages 61-81, June.
    6. Kau, James B. & Sirmans, C. F., 1979. "Urban land value functions and the price elasticity of demand for housing," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 6(1), pages 112-121, January.
    7. McMillen, Daniel P., 2003. "The return of centralization to Chicago: using repeat sales to identify changes in house price distance gradients," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 33(3), pages 287-304, May.
    8. Deacon, Robert T & Sonstelie, Jon, 1985. "Rationing by Waiting and the Value of Time: Results from a Natural Experiment," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 93(4), pages 627-647, August.
    9. McMillen, Daniel P., 1990. "Consistent estimation of the urban land value function," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 27(3), pages 285-293, May.
    10. Coulson, N. Edward, 1989. "The empirical content of the linearity-as-repackaging hypothesis," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 25(3), pages 295-309, May.
    11. Rosen, Sherwin, 1974. "Hedonic Prices and Implicit Markets: Product Differentiation in Pure Competition," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 82(1), pages 34-55, Jan.-Feb..
    12. N. Edward Coulson, 1991. "Really Useful Tests of the Monocentric Model," Land Economics, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 67(3), pages 299-307.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Coulson, N. Edward & Li, Herman, 2010. "The effect of risk on the effect of a land tax: A simulation," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 40(6), pages 530-537, November.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Hernán Enríquez Sierra & Jacobo Campo Robledo & Antonio Avendaño Arosemena, 2015. "Relaciones regionales en los precios de vivienda nueva en Colombia," Revista Ecos de Economía, Universidad EAFIT, vol. 19(40), pages 25-47, June.
    2. Konishi, Hideo, 2008. "Tiebout's tale in spatial economies: Entrepreneurship, self-selection, and efficiency," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 38(5), pages 461-477, September.
    3. Zhi Dong & Tien Sing, 2014. "Developer Heterogeneity and Competitive Land Bidding," The Journal of Real Estate Finance and Economics, Springer, vol. 48(3), pages 441-466, April.
    4. Isabelle Reginster & Florence Goffette-Nagot, 2005. "Urban Environmental Quality in Two Belgian Cities, Evaluated on the Basis of Residential Choices and GIS Data," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 37(6), pages 1067-1090, June.
    5. Courtney LaFountain, 2008. "Core equivalence for residential land use models," International Journal of Economic Theory, The International Society for Economic Theory, vol. 4(4), pages 459-481, December.
    6. Morris, Adele C. & Neill, Helen R. & Coulson, N. Edward, 2020. "Housing supply elasticity, gasoline prices, and residential property values," Journal of Housing Economics, Elsevier, vol. 48(C).
    7. Diewert, Erwin & Shimizu, Chihiro, 2015. "Residential Property Price Indices For Tokyo," Macroeconomic Dynamics, Cambridge University Press, vol. 19(8), pages 1659-1714, December.
    8. Raphael W. Bostic & Stanley D. Longhofer & Christian L. Redfearn, 2007. "Land Leverage: Decomposing Home Price Dynamics," Real Estate Economics, American Real Estate and Urban Economics Association, vol. 35(2), pages 183-208, June.
    9. Marcus Berliant & Thijs ten Raa, 2007. "Equilibrium And The Core In Alonso'S Discrete Population Model Of Land Use," International Economic Review, Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania and Osaka University Institute of Social and Economic Research Association, vol. 48(1), pages 235-246, February.
    10. Mai, Nhat Chi, 2018. "도이모이 이후 베트남의 주거 이동, 선택, 가격 결정요인 연구: 호치민시 사례 중심으로," OSF Preprints 6kdfy, Center for Open Science.
    11. Uttiya Paul & Tarun Sabarwal, 2023. "Directional monotone comparative statics in function spaces," Economic Theory Bulletin, Springer;Society for the Advancement of Economic Theory (SAET), vol. 11(1), pages 153-169, April.
    12. Ioulia Ossokina, 2010. "Geographical range of amenity benefits: Hedonic price analysis for railway stations," CPB Discussion Paper 146, CPB Netherlands Bureau for Economic Policy Analysis.
    13. Julian Diaz III & J. Andrew Hansz & Matthew L. Cypher & Darren K. Hayunga, 2008. "Conservation Status and Residential Transaction Prices: Initial Evidence from Dallas, Texas," Journal of Real Estate Research, American Real Estate Society, vol. 30(2), pages 225-248.
    14. Philippe Jehiel & Laurent Lamy, 2018. "A Mechanism Design Approach to the Tiebout Hypothesis," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 126(2), pages 735-760.
    15. Marius Th?riault & Fran?ois Des Rosiers and Jean Dub?, 2007. "Testing the Temporal Stability of Accessibility Value in Residential Hedonic Prices," SCIENZE REGIONALI, FrancoAngeli Editore, vol. 2007(3), pages 5-46.
    16. Lars Nesheim, 2006. "Hedonic price functions," CeMMAP working papers CWP18/06, Centre for Microdata Methods and Practice, Institute for Fiscal Studies.
    17. Rémy Le Boennec & Florent Sari, 2015. "Subcenters, mode choice and transport policies: evidence form Nantes [Nouvelles centralités, choix modal et politiques de déplacements : le cas nantais]," Post-Print hal-01657242, HAL.
    18. Ahlfeldt, Gabriel M. & Nitsch, Volker & Wendland, Nicolai, 2019. "Ease vs. noise: Long-run changes in the value of transport (dis)amenities," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 98(C).
    19. Dorothée Brécard & Rémy Le Boennec & Frédéric Salladarré, 2018. "Accessibility, local pollution and housing prices. Evidence from Nantes Métropole, France," Economie et Statistique / Economics and Statistics, Institut National de la Statistique et des Etudes Economiques (INSEE), issue 500-501-5, pages 97-115.
    20. Berliant, M. & Ten Raa, T., 2003. "Increasing returns to scale and perfect competition : The role of land," Other publications TiSEM c4f1929e-6651-4959-b757-4, Tilburg University, School of Economics and Management.

    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • R21 - Urban, Rural, Regional, Real Estate, and Transportation Economics - - Household Analysis - - - Housing Demand
    • R13 - Urban, Rural, Regional, Real Estate, and Transportation Economics - - General Regional Economics - - - General Equilibrium and Welfare Economic Analysis of Regional Economies
    • D41 - Microeconomics - - Market Structure, Pricing, and Design - - - Perfect Competition
    • C21 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Single Equation Models; Single Variables - - - Cross-Sectional Models; Spatial Models; Treatment Effect Models

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:regeco:v:36:y:2006:i:1:p:118-131. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/regec .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.