Helen R. Neill

Hypothetical Surveys and Real Economic Commitments

We provide controlled laboratory evidence that open-ended hypothetical surveys do not always accurately elicit real economic commitments from individuals. We argue that they can provide biased measures of true values, where the latter are elicited using incentive-compatible institutions. We also evaluate if it is the hypothetical-payment aspect of these surveys which results in these biases or the lack of explicitly incentive-compatible provision rules. We conclude that it is the former. We are unable to devise a hypothetical survey that uses an incentive-compatible provision rule to elicit valuations that are demonstrably truthful.

Year-Round School Schedules and Residential Property Values

Debate concerning the advantages and disadvantages of year-round schedules surrounds quality of education and cost. The purpose of this article is to estimate the impact of different schedules on residential property values after controlling for school expenditures, quality of education, and neighborhood socioeconomic conditions. Furthermore, we explore the possibility that different size houses, based on the number of bedrooms, may experience a differential price impact to a year-round schedule. We find evidence that year-round schools may be more of a nuisance for nonparents than for families with children for the Clark County School District which includes Las Vegas, Nevada.

Hypothetical versus real willingness to pay: comment

The purpose of this comment is to examine the experimental design and empirical results presented by Johannesson, M., Liljas, B. and Peterson, G. (Applied Economics Letters, 4, 1997). Their paper attempts to confirm the Neill, H. R., Cummings, R. G., Ganderton, P., Harrison, G. W. and McGuckin, T. (Land Economics, 70, 1994) results. Their results are noteworthy since they find no statistical difference between real and hypothetical willingness-to-pay responses between groups. Their results also differ from earlier studies where hypothetical willingness to pay exceeds actual willingness to pay. This comment will examine important differences between the two studies. These differences make any substantive comparison of results difficult, if not impossible.

Are New Homes Special?: Are New Homes Special

This article describes alternative ways of identifying new homes and, using a large dataset of property sales in Las Vegas, Nevada, tests for the extent to which new homes sell at a price premium relative to otherwise similar existing homes. We also investigate whether the results differ across time and location, including before and after the housing bust. Our results suggest that price premia for new homes arise primarily in circumstances in which the supply of new houses is relatively low. In some cases rising to over 20% relative to otherwise similar existing homes. When new homes are plentiful, they are not special and the premium disappears.

Rethinking Diffusion Theory in an Applied Context: Role of Environmental Values in Adoption of Home Energy Conservation

Diffusion theory, developed and popularized within communication research by Everett Rogers, is a venerable approach with much to recommend it as a theoretical foundation for applied communication research. In developing an applied project for a home energy conservation (energy efficiency retrofit) program in the state of Nevada, we utilized key concepts from diffusion theory but also confronted its limitations. Ultimately, in this project, the diffusion of home energy conservation to individual households depended primarily not on general adoption propensity, a personality characteristic postulated by diffusion theory, or even on financial (cost-benefit) considerations, but on an environmental orientation. This result suggests revision to the diffusion of innovations idea may be needed.