Hedonic regression

Last updated December 12, 2024

In economics, hedonic regression, also sometimes called hedonic demand theory, is a revealed preference method for estimating demand or value. It decomposes the item being researched into its constituent characteristics and obtains estimates of the contributory value for each. This requires that the composite good (the item being researched and valued) can be reduced to its constituent parts and that those resulting parts are in some way valued by the market. Hedonic models are most commonly estimated using regression analysis, although some more generalized models such as sales adjustment grids are special cases which do not.

Hedonic models are commonly used in real estate appraisal, real estate economics and Consumer Price Index (CPI) calculations. In CPI calculations, hedonic regression is used to control the effect of changes in product quality. Price changes that are due to substitution effects are subject to hedonic quality adjustments.

Hedonic models and real estate valuation

In real estate economics, Hedonic regression is used to adjust for the issues associated with researching a good that is as heterogeneous, such as buildings. Because individual buildings are so different, it is difficult to estimate the demand for buildings generically. Instead, it is assumed that a house can be decomposed into characteristics such as its amount of bedrooms, the size of its lot, or its distance from the city center. A hedonic regression equation treats these attributes (or bundles of attributes) separately, and estimates prices (in the case of an additive model) or elasticity (in the case of a log model) for each of them. This information can be used to construct a price index that can be used to compare the price of housing in different cities or to do time series analysis. As with CPI calculations, Hedonic pricing can be used to:

Correct for quality changes in constructing a housing price index.
Assess the value of a property, in the absence of specific market transaction data.
To analyze the demand for various housing characteristics, as well as housing demand in general.

Due to the macro-oriented nature of hedonic models, with regard to their more general approach to assessment when compared to the more exacting and specific (albeit less contextualized) approach of individual assessment, when used for mass appraisal, the Uniform Standards of Professional Appraisal Practice, or USPAP, has established mass appraisal standards to govern the use of hedonic regressions and other automated valuation models when used for real estate appraisal.^[1]

Hedonic models outside of real estate valuation

Aside from its use in housing market estimations, Hedonic regression has also seen use as a means for testing assumptions in spatial economics, and is commonly applied to operations in tax assessment, litigation, academic studies, and other mass appraisal projects.

Appraisal methodology more or less treats hedonic regression as a more statistically robust form of the sales comparison approach,^[2] making it a popular means for assessment in any market or economic sector in which valuation between two categorically similar (or same) goods (such as two different kitchenware sets) can differ greatly based on additional factors (such as whether the pots and pans made of copper, cast iron, stone, etc, or what non-stick coating, if any, was applied) or constituent goods (including a steamer basket for one of the pots or having the largest pot be a Dutch oven) that strongly influence or semi-exclusively determine the unified good's value.

History

Hedonic modeling was first published in the 1920s as a method for valuing the demand and the price of farm land. However, the history of hedonic regression traces its roots to Church (1939),^[3] which was an analysis of automobile prices and automobile features.^[4] Hedonic regression is presently used for creating the Consumer Price Index (CPI).^[5]

Criticisms of hedonic models

Some commentators, including Austrian economists, have criticized the US government's use of hedonic regression in computing its CPI, fearing it can be used to mask the "true" inflation rate and thus lower the interest it must pay on Treasury Inflation-Protected Securities (TIPS) and Social Security cost of living adjustments.^[6]

The same use of hedonic models when analyzing consumer prices in other countries, however, has shown that non-hedonic methods may themselves misstate inflation over time by failing to take quality changes into account.^[7]

Related Research Articles

The discounted cash flow (DCF) analysis, in financial analysis, is a method used to value a security, project, company, or asset, that incorporates the time value of money. Discounted cash flow analysis is widely used in investment finance, real estate development, corporate financial management, and patent valuation. Used in industry as early as the 1700s or 1800s, it was widely discussed in financial economics in the 1960s, and U.S. courts began employing the concept in the 1980s and 1990s.

In economics, inflation is a general increase in the prices of goods and services in an economy. This is usually measured using a consumer price index (CPI). When the general price level rises, each unit of currency buys fewer goods and services; consequently, inflation corresponds to a reduction in the purchasing power of money. The opposite of CPI inflation is deflation, a decrease in the general price level of goods and services. The common measure of inflation is the inflation rate, the annualized percentage change in a general price index. As prices faced by households do not all increase at the same rate, the consumer price index (CPI) is often used for this purpose.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Index of economics articles</span>

This aims to be a complete article list of economics topics:

A consumer price index (CPI) is a price index, the price of a weighted average market basket of consumer goods and services purchased by households. Changes in measured CPI track changes in prices over time. The CPI is calculated by using a representative basket of goods and services. The basket is updated periodically to reflect changes in consumer spending habits. The prices of the goods and services in the basket are collected monthly from a sample of retail and service establishments. The prices are then adjusted for changes in quality or features. Changes in the CPI can be used to track inflation over time and to compare inflation rates between different countries. While the CPI is not a perfect measure of inflation or the cost of living, it is a useful tool for tracking these economic indicators.

In finance, valuation is the process of determining the value of a (potential) investment, asset, or security. Generally, there are three approaches taken, namely discounted cashflow valuation, relative valuation, and contingent claim valuation.

Real estate appraisal, property valuation or land valuation is the process of assessing the value of real property. Real estate transactions often require appraisals because every property has unique characteristics. The location also plays a key role in valuation. Appraisal reports form the basis for mortgage loans, settling estates and divorces, taxation, and so on. Sometimes an appraisal report is used to establish a sale price for a property.

Contingent valuation is a survey-based economic technique for the valuation of non-market resources, such as environmental preservation or the impact of externalities like pollution. While these resources do give people utility, certain aspects of them do not have a market price as they are not directly sold – for example, people receive benefit from a beautiful view of a mountain, but it would be tough to value using price-based models. Contingent valuation surveys are one technique which is used to measure these aspects. Contingent valuation is often referred to as a stated preference model, in contrast to a price-based revealed preference model. Both models are utility-based. Typically the survey asks how much money people would be willing to pay to maintain the existence of an environmental feature, such as biodiversity.

Substitution bias describes a possible bias in economic index numbers if they do not incorporate data on consumer expenditures switching from relatively more expensive products to cheaper ones as prices changed.

Comparables is a real estate appraisal term referring to properties with characteristics that are similar to a subject property whose value is being sought. This can be accomplished either by a real estate agent who attempts to establish the value of a potential client's home or property through market analysis or, by a licensed or certified appraiser or surveyor using more defined methods, when performing a real estate appraisal.

Business valuation is a process and a set of procedures used to estimate the economic value of an owner's interest in a business. Here various valuation techniques are used by financial market participants to determine the price they are willing to pay or receive to effect a sale of the business. In addition to estimating the selling price of a business, the same valuation tools are often used by business appraisers to resolve disputes related to estate and gift taxation, divorce litigation, allocate business purchase price among business assets, establish a formula for estimating the value of partners' ownership interest for buy-sell agreements, and many other business and legal purposes such as in shareholders deadlock, divorce litigation and estate contest.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Shadow price</span> Term in economics

A shadow price is the monetary value assigned to an abstract or intangible commodity which is not traded in the marketplace. This often takes the form of an externality. Shadow prices are also known as the recalculation of known market prices in order to account for the presence of distortionary market instruments. Shadow prices are the real economic prices given to goods and services after they have been appropriately adjusted by removing distortionary market instruments and incorporating the societal impact of the respective good or service. A shadow price is often calculated based on a group of assumptions and estimates because it lacks reliable data, so it is subjective and somewhat inaccurate.

A real-estate bubble or property bubble is a type of economic bubble that occurs periodically in local or global real estate markets, and it typically follows a land boom. A land boom is a rapid increase in the market price of real property such as housing until they reach unsustainable levels and then declines. This period, during the run-up to the crash, is also known as froth. The questions of whether real estate bubbles can be identified and prevented, and whether they have broader macroeconomic significance, are answered differently by schools of economic thought, as detailed below.

The sales comparison approach (SCA) is a real estate appraisal valuation method that relies on the assumption that a matrix of attributes or significant features of a property drive its value. For examples, in the case of a single family residence, such attributes might be floor area, views, location, number of bathrooms, lot size, age of the property and condition of property. This method is in contrast to the two other main pricing methods for real estate which are cost approach and income approach.

The travel cost method of economic valuation, travel cost analysis, or Clawson method is a revealed preference method of economic valuation used in cost–benefit analysis to calculate the value of something that cannot be obtained through market prices. The aim of the method is to calculate willingness to pay for a constant price facility. The technique was first suggested by the statistician Harold Hotelling in a 1947 letter to the director of the National Park Service of the United States for a method to measure the benefit of National Parks to the public. The method was further refined by Trice and Wood (1958) and Clawson (1959). The technique is one approach to the estimation of a shadow price.

The following outline is provided as an overview of and topical guide to finance:

<span class="mw-page-title-main">United States Consumer Price Index</span> Statistics of the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics

The United States Consumer Price Index (CPI) is a family of various consumer price indices published monthly by the United States Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). The most commonly used indices are the CPI-U and the CPI-W, though many alternative versions exist for different uses. For example, the CPI-U is the most popularly cited measure of consumer inflation in the United States, while the CPI-W is used to index Social Security benefit payments.

A house price index (HPI) measures the price changes of residential housing as a percentage change from some specific start date. Methodologies commonly used to calculate an HPI are hedonic regression (HR), simple moving average (SMA), and repeat-sales regression (RSR).

The income approach is a real estate appraisal valuation method. It is one of three major groups of methodologies, called valuation approaches, used by appraisers. It is particularly common in commercial real estate appraisal and in business appraisal. The fundamental math is similar to the methods used for financial valuation, securities analysis, or bond pricing. However, there are some significant and important modifications when used in real estate or business valuation.

An Automated Valuation Model (AVM) is a system for the valuation of real estate that provides a value of a specified property at a specified date, using mathematical modelling techniques in an automated manner. AVMs are Statistical Valuation Methods and divide into Comparables Based AVMs and Hedonic Models. Other Statistical Valuation Methods are House Price Indices and Single Parameter Valuations.

A hedonic index is any price index which uses information from hedonic regression, which describes how product price could be explained by the product's characteristics. Hedonic price indexes have proved to be very useful when applied to calculate price indices for information and communication products and housing, because they can successfully mitigate problems such as those that arise from there being new goods to consider and from rapid changes of quality.

References

↑ Hedonic Regression Models Ben J. Sopranzetti Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey Article · August 2015 DOI: 10.1007/978-1-4614-7750-1_78
↑ John A. Kilpatrick, Real Estate Issues in Class Certification Archived 2007-10-10 at the Wayback Machine
↑ A. T. Court, Hedonic price indexes with automotive examples, in ‘‘The Dynamics of Automobile Demand,’’ General Motors, New York, pp. 98]119 1939 .
↑ "Andrew Court and the Invention of Hedonic Price Analysis" (PDF).
↑ Hedonic Regression Models Article · August 2015 Ben J. Sopranzetti Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey DOI: 10.1007/978-1-4614-7750-1_78
↑ See, for example, Lippe, Peter von der (2001). "Some Conservative Comments on Hedonic Methods" (PDF).
↑ See, for example, Reis, Hugo J.; Silva, J. M. C. Santos (2006). "Hedonic Price Indexes for New Passenger Cars in Portugal (1997–2003)" (PDF). Economic Modelling. 23 (6): 890–906. doi:10.1016/j.econmod.2006.04.003.