Errors in variables and spatial effects in hedonic house price models of ambient air quality

Luc Anselin, Nancy Lozano-Gracia

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

214 Scopus citations

Abstract

In the valuation of the effect of improved air quality through the estimation of hedonic models of house prices, the potential "errors in variables" aspect of the interpolated air pollution measures is often ignored. In this paper, we assess the extent to which this may affect the resulting empirical estimates for marginal willingness to pay (MWTP), using an extensive sample of over 100,000 individual house sales for 1999 in the South Coast Air Quality Management District of Southern California. We take an explicit spatial econometric perspective and account for spatial dependence and endogeneity using recently developed Spatial 2SLS estimation methods. We also account for both spatial autocorrelation and heteroskedasticity in the error terms, using the Kelejian-Prucha HAC estimator. Our results are consistent across different spatial weights matrices and different kernel functions and suggest that the bias from ignoring the endogeneity in interpolated values may be substantial.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)5-34
Number of pages30
JournalEmpirical Economics
Volume34
Issue number1
DOIs
StatePublished - Feb 2008

Keywords

  • Air quality valuation
  • Endogeneity
  • HAC estimation
  • Hedonic models
  • Real estate markets
  • Spatial econometrics

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Statistics and Probability
  • Mathematics (miscellaneous)
  • Social Sciences (miscellaneous)
  • Economics and Econometrics

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