Chris Timmins Hedonic Valuation MasterClass Stirling

Dear colleagues and students,

You are kindly invited to attend a SIRE masterclass by Professor Christopher Timmins, Duke University, entitled “Hedonics and Non-Market Valuation”.

Date:

25 July 2012

Venue and times:

Cottrell Building, University of Stirling

9.00am - 18.00pm

The purpose of this mini-course is to provide a graduate-level overview of hedonic analysis. Hedonics are the primary revealed-preference tool for non-market valuation and cost-benefit analysis, and also play an important role in quality adjustment of price indices, and in modelling demand for differentiated products and their attributes. The course will begin with a brief discussion of Rosen’s (1974) seminal paper and basic identification issues. It will proceed with a discussion of the econometric problems associated with the recovery of the “willingness to pay” function, which is required for the valuation of non-marginal changes in amenities or product attributes. We will then proceed to a discussion of omitted variables bias, and the quasi-experimental techniques that are used to address them. The fourth part of the course will describe hedonic analysis when individuals sort over multiple (labour and housing) markets. The fifth component will describe three areas of current research in hedonics. The mini-course will then conclude with a short discussion of some of the weaknesses of the hedonic approach, motivating the use of structural sorting models.

Christopher Timmins is Professor of Economics at Duke University. He specializes in the subjects of environment economics, industrial organization, and regional economics. His research incorporates Tieabout models, sorting models, and hedonic valuation.

Please register with Lennie Jing (lennie.jing@stir.ac.uk) by 15 July 2012.

There is no charge to attend this class but registration is required. SIRE will offer travel expenses (limited to a 2nd class rail fare) to academics and Phd students based in Scotland.

For any further information please contact Stephan Heblich (stephan.heblich@stir.ac.uk).