IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/bla/jregsc/v59y2019i3p508-537.html

A revealed preference index of urban amenities: Using travel demand as a proxy

Author

Listed:
  • Daniel A. Broxterman
  • Chun Kuang

Abstract

We introduce an index of urban amenities based on hotel night stays that can rank most US metros for the years 1990 through 2015. This naive index can be used on its own to study changes in amenity level or with other measures to reduce omitted variable bias. Researchers can also use the index to create panel datasets from more sophisticated cross‐sectional indexes. Empirical testing shows the bundle of amenities associated with hotel stays has substantial effects on variation in housing prices across cities and time, validating our proxy variable approach. Testing for an association with wages is inconclusive.

Suggested Citation

  • Daniel A. Broxterman & Chun Kuang, 2019. "A revealed preference index of urban amenities: Using travel demand as a proxy," Journal of Regional Science, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 59(3), pages 508-537, June.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:jregsc:v:59:y:2019:i:3:p:508-537
    DOI: 10.1111/jors.12439
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1111/jors.12439
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1111/jors.12439?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Gordon B. Dahl, 2002. "Mobility and the Return to Education: Testing a Roy Model with Multiple Markets," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 70(6), pages 2367-2420, November.
    2. Gerald A. Carlino & Albert Saiz, 2019. "Beautiful city: Leisure amenities and urban growth," Journal of Regional Science, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 59(3), pages 369-408, June.
    3. Kahn Matthew E., 1995. "A Revealed Preference Approach to Ranking City Quality of Life," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 38(2), pages 221-235, September.
    4. Carlino, Gerald & Coulson, N. Edward, 2004. "Compensating differentials and the social benefits of the NFL," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 56(1), pages 25-50, July.
    5. Edward L. Glaeser & Joshua D. Gottlieb, 2006. "Urban Resurgence and the Consumer City," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 43(8), pages 1275-1299, July.
    6. Rappaport, Jordan, 2007. "Moving to nice weather," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 37(3), pages 375-398, May.
    7. Kelly C. Bishop & Alvin D. Murphy, 2011. "Estimating the Willingness to Pay to Avoid Violent Crime: A Dynamic Approach," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 101(3), pages 625-629, May.
    8. Gyourko, Joseph & Tracy, Joseph, 1991. "The Structure of Local Public Finance and the Quality of Life," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 99(4), pages 774-806, August.
    9. Gabriel, Stuart A. & Mattey, Joe P. & Wascher, William L., 2003. "Compensating differentials and evolution in the quality-of-life among U.S. states," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 33(5), pages 619-649, September.
    10. Beeson, Patricia E & Eberts, Randall W, 1989. "Identifying Productivity and Amenity Effects in Interurban Wage Differentials," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 71(3), pages 443-452, August.
    11. Jesse M. Shapiro, 2006. "Smart Cities: Quality of Life, Productivity, and the Growth Effects of Human Capital," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 88(2), pages 324-335, May.
    12. David Albouy, 2016. "What Are Cities Worth? Land Rents, Local Productivity, and the Total Value of Amenities," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 98(3), pages 477-487, July.
    13. Gyourko, Joseph & Kahn, Matthew & Tracy, Joseph, 1999. "Quality of life and environmental comparisons," Handbook of Regional and Urban Economics, in: P. C. Cheshire & E. S. Mills (ed.), Handbook of Regional and Urban Economics, edition 1, volume 3, chapter 37, pages 1413-1454, Elsevier.
    14. John Winters, 2013. "Differences in quality of life estimates using rents and home values," The Annals of Regional Science, Springer;Western Regional Science Association, vol. 51(2), pages 377-409, October.
    15. Blomquist, Glenn C & Berger, Mark C & Hoehn, John P, 1988. "New Estimates of Quality of Life in Urban Areas," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 78(1), pages 89-107, March.
    16. Rappaport, Jordan, 2008. "Consumption amenities and city population density," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 38(6), pages 533-552, November.
    17. Chen, Yong & Rosenthal, Stuart S., 2008. "Local amenities and life-cycle migration: Do people move for jobs or fun?," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 64(3), pages 519-537, November.
    18. Albouy, David & Lue, Bert, 2015. "Driving to opportunity: Local rents, wages, commuting, and sub-metropolitan quality of life," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 89(C), pages 74-92.
    19. Stuart A. Gabriel & Stuart S. Rosenthal, 2004. "Quality of the Business Environment Versus Quality of Life: Do Firms and Households Like the Same Cities?," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 86(1), pages 438-444, February.
    20. Richard B. Peiser & Lawrence B. Smith, 1985. "Homeownership Returns, Tenure Choice and Inflation," Real Estate Economics, American Real Estate and Urban Economics Association, vol. 13(4), pages 343-360, December.
    21. Edward L. Glaeser & Kristina Tobio, 2008. "The Rise of the Sunbelt," Southern Economic Journal, Southern Economic Association, vol. 74(3), pages 610-643, January.
    22. Donald R. Davis & Jonathan I. Dingel & Joan Monras & Eduardo Morales, 2019. "How Segregated Is Urban Consumption?," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 127(4), pages 1684-1738.
    23. Kuang, Chun, 2017. "Does quality matter in local consumption amenities? An empirical investigation with Yelp," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 100(C), pages 1-18.
    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. Muscillo, Alessio & Re, Simona & Gambacorta, Sergio & Ferrara, Giuseppe & Tagliafierro, Nicola & Borello, Emiliano & Rubino, Alessandro & Facchini, Angelo, 2023. "An open data index to assess the green transition - A study on all Italian municipalities," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 212(C).
    2. Tianzheng Zhang & Yingxiang Zeng & Yingjie Zhang & Yan Song & Hongxun Li, 2020. "Dynamic and Heterogeneous Demand for Urban Green Space by Urban Residents: Evidence from the Cities in China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(22), pages 1-15, November.
    3. Liu, Menglan & Shi, Jian-gang & Shen, Jianfu & Man Hui, Eddie Chi, 2025. "Are migrants willing to pay more for better housing? The amenity effect in China's urban housing markets," Socio-Economic Planning Sciences, Elsevier, vol. 100(C).
    4. Md Amiruzzaman & Ye Zhao & Stefanie Amiruzzaman & Aryn C. Karpinski & Tsung Heng Wu, 2023. "An AI-based framework for studying visual diversity of urban neighborhoods and its relationship with socio-demographic variables," Journal of Computational Social Science, Springer, vol. 6(1), pages 315-337, April.
    5. Oudom Hean & Nattanicha Chairassamee & Mark D. Partridge, 2024. "Migration, education, technological change and growing urban inequality," The Annals of Regional Science, Springer;Western Regional Science Association, vol. 72(2), pages 435-472, February.

    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. Shi, Tie & Zhu, Wenzhang & Fu, Shihe, 2021. "Quality of life in Chinese cities," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 69(C).
    2. Partridge, Mark D. & Rickman, Dan S. & Ali, Kamar & Olfert, M. Rose, 2010. "Recent spatial growth dynamics in wages and housing costs: Proximity to urban production externalities and consumer amenities," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 40(6), pages 440-452, November.
    3. John Winters, 2013. "Differences in quality of life estimates using rents and home values," The Annals of Regional Science, Springer;Western Regional Science Association, vol. 51(2), pages 377-409, October.
    4. Bieri, David S. & Kuminoff, Nicolai V. & Pope, Jaren C., 2023. "National expenditures on local amenities," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 117(C).
    5. Emilio Colombo & Alessandra Michelangeli & Luca Stanca, 2014. "La Dolce Vita : Hedonic Estimates of Quality of Life in Italian Cities," Regional Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 48(8), pages 1404-1418, August.
    6. Albouy, David & Lue, Bert, 2015. "Driving to opportunity: Local rents, wages, commuting, and sub-metropolitan quality of life," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 89(C), pages 74-92.
    7. Dan S. Rickman & Shane D. Rickman, 2011. "Population Growth In High‐Amenity Nonmetropolitan Areas: What'S The Prognosis?," Journal of Regional Science, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 51(5), pages 863-879, December.
    8. Curtis Lockwood Reynolds & Amanda L. Weinstein, 2021. "Gender differences in quality of life and preferences for location‐specific amenities across cities," Journal of Regional Science, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 61(5), pages 916-943, November.
    9. Davidsson, Michael & Cortes, Bienvenido, 2017. "The Role of the Housing Supply and the Regulatory Environment in Economic Growth of Micropolitan Statistical Areas," Journal of Regional Analysis and Policy, Mid-Continent Regional Science Association, vol. 47(01).
    10. Yan Song & Jiang Zhou & Yingjie Zhang & Dingxin Wu & Honghai Xu, 2022. "How Much Are Amenities Worth? An Empirical Study on Urban Land and Housing Price Differentials across Chinese Cities," Land, MDPI, vol. 11(6), pages 1-16, June.
    11. Jaison R. Abel & Richard Deitz, 2008. "Have amenities become relatively more important than firm productivity advantages in metropolitan areas?," Staff Reports 344, Federal Reserve Bank of New York.
    12. David Albouy & Fernando Leibovici & Casey Warman, 2013. "Quality of life, firm productivity, and the value of amenities across Canadian cities," Canadian Journal of Economics, Canadian Economics Association, vol. 46(2), pages 379-411, May.
    13. Dan S. Rickman & Hongbo Wang, 2017. "US regional population growth 2000–2010: Natural amenities or urban agglomeration?," Papers in Regional Science, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 96, pages 69-90, March.
    14. McDuff, DeForest, 2011. "Demand substitution across US cities: Observable similarity and home price correlation," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 70(1), pages 1-14, July.
    15. Dan S. Rickman, 2014. "Assessing Regional Quality of Life: A Call for Action in Regional Science," The Review of Regional Studies, Southern Regional Science Association, vol. 44(1), pages 1-12, Spring.
    16. Hongbo Wang, 2016. "The Texas economic model, miracle or mirage? A spatial hedonic analysis," The Annals of Regional Science, Springer;Western Regional Science Association, vol. 56(2), pages 393-417, March.
    17. Zhang, Min & Partridge, Mark & Song, Huasheng, 2018. "Amenities and Geography of Innovation: Evidence from Chinese Cities," MPRA Paper 83673, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    18. Cuberes, David & Roberts, Jennifer & Sechel, Cristina, 2019. "Household location in English cities," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 75(C), pages 120-135.
    19. Heather M. Stephens & Mark D. Partridge, 2015. "Lake Amenities, Environmental Degradation, and Great Lakes Regional Growth," International Regional Science Review, , vol. 38(1), pages 61-91, January.
    20. Siqi Zheng & Yuming Fu & Hongyu Liu, 2009. "Demand for Urban Quality of Living in China: Evolution in Compensating Land-Rent and Wage-Rate Differentials," The Journal of Real Estate Finance and Economics, Springer, vol. 38(3), pages 194-213, April.

    More about this item

    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:bla:jregsc:v:59:y:2019:i:3:p:508-537. 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: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.blackwellpublishing.com/journal.asp?ref=0022-4146 .

    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.