Lars Nesheim

Nonparametric Identification and Estimation of Nonadditive Hedonic Models

This paper studies the identification and estimation of preferences and technologies in equilibrium hedonic models. In it, we identify nonparametric structural relationships with nonadditive heterogeneity. We determine what features of hedonic models can be identified from equilibrium observations in a single market under weak assumptions about the available information. We then consider use of additional information about structural functions and heterogeneity distributions. Separability conditions facilitate identification of consumer marginal utility and firm marginal product functions. We also consider how identification is facilitated using multimarket data.

Simulation and Estimation of Hedonic Models

Making use of restrictions imposed by equilibrium, theoretical progress has been made on the nonparametric and semiparametric estimation and identification of scalar additive hedonic models (Ekeland, Heckman, and Nesheim, 2002) and scalar nonadditive hedonic models (Heckman, Matzkin, and Nesheim, 2002). However, little is known about the practical aspects of estimating such models or of the characteristics of equilibrium in such models. This paper presents computational and analytical results that fill some of these gaps. We simulate and estimate examples of equilibrium in the additive hedonic models and provide evidence on the performance of several estimation techniques. We also simulate examples of equilibria in nonadditive models and provide evidence on the performance of the nonadditive estimation techniques developed in Heckman, Matzkin, and Nesheim (2002).

The housing stock, housing prices, and user costs: the roles of location, structure and unobserved quality

Which housing characteristics are important for understanding homeownership rates? How are housing characteristics priced in the rental and owner-occupied markets? And what can the answers to the previous questions tell us about economic theories of homeownership? Using the English Housing Survey, we estimate a selection model of the allocation of properties to the owner-occupied and rental sectors. Structural characteristics and unobserved quality are important for selection. Location is not. Accounting for selection is important for estimates of rent-to-price ratios and can explain some puzzling correlations between rent-toprice ratios and homeownership rates. These patterns are consistent with, among others, hypotheses of contracting frictions in the rental market likely related to housing maintenance.1

Income effects and the welfare consequences of tax in differentiated product oligopoly

Random utility models are widely used to study consumer choice. The vast majority of applications make strong assumptions about the marginal utility of income, which restricts income effects, demand curvature and pass-through. We show that flexibly modeling income effects can be important, particularly if one is interested in the distributional effects of a policy change, even in a market in which, a priori, the expectation is that income effects will play a limited role. We allow for much more flexible forms of income effects than is common and we illustrate the implications by simulating the introduction of an excise tax.