An Empirical Examination of Traditional Neighborhood Development

This study analyzes the impact of the new urbanism on single-family home prices. Specifically, we explore the price differential that homebuyers pay for houses in new urbanist developments relative to houses in conventional suburban developments. Using data on over 5,000 single-family home sales from 1994 to 1997 in three different neighborhoods, hedonic regression results reveal that consumers pay more for homes in new urbanist communities than those in conventional suburban developments. Further analyses indicate that the price premium is not attributable to differences in improvement age and other housing characteristics.     

Impact Fees and the Price of New Housing: An Empirical Study

Development exactions in the form of impact fees are being used increasingly by local governments to fund the cost of providing public services necessitated by growth and development. This paper presents the results of an empirical study designed to ascertain the extent to which impact fees are capitalized into the price of new, single-family dwellings. On June 3, 1974, the city of Dunedin, located in Pinellas County, Florida, began assessing impact fees of $1,150 against all new, single-family construction. Using data on 5,839 new home sales in Dunedin and three other cities in Pinellas County from 1971–1982, it was found that builders were able to pass forward the total cost of impact fees to new home buyers. However, the price differential due to impact fees for new dwellings in Dunedin compared to the price of new dwellings in the other three cities disappeared after approximately six years. This is explained by the nature of the fee structure in Dunedin, adjustments in factor costs, increases in the price of housing in competing cities, and unrealized expectations regarding the benefits to be provided by impact fee collections.     

Estimating consumer preferences and willingness to pay for the underutilised indigenous chicken products

Indigenous chicken serves many functions, which include the provision of meat and eggs for home consumption and income from sales. The purpose of this study was to estimate the consumers’ responsiveness to an increase in prices of the indigenous chicken products and how much they are willing to pay for them in the market. The survey was conducted in the selected three regions of Kenya. A total of 930 respondents were interviewed both in the urban and rural areas. Contingent valuation experiment was used in empirical data collection. The two-step Heckman selection model was utilised to analyse consumers decisions and the amount they were willing to pay. The study results revealed that consumers are willing to pay 23.26% per kg more for indigenous chicken meat and 41.53% for eggs. Socioeconomic factors like age, income, education and family size significantly determines consumers’ willingness to pay. Other important factors include the indigenous chicken meat substitutes’ prices, attributes like taste/flavour and the product’s form on purchase. The yolk colour and size of eggs determined the consumers’ willingness to pay. Preferences for indigenous chicken products were found to be high. This information will assist in understanding both the urban and rural consumer’s behaviour. Therefore, useful for the indigenous chicken producers, breeders, marketers and policy makers in developing efficient production and marketing strategies. This would also provide a means of improving food security and livelihoods of the rural poor indigenous chicken farmers.     

Search and Liquidity in Single-Family Housing

A two-stage least squares model of housing prices is estimated with data collected from 3358 single-family home transactions. The results provide evidence for an optimal marketing period and indicate that a liquidity premium is priced in single-family home sales. Consistent with the hypothesis derived from economic search models, the model shows higher selling prices for houses having longer expected marketing periods. The model also shows a price premium for houses that sell faster than expectations. This effect supports the concept that liquidity is a value-enhancing characteristic.     

Consumers and advertisers in the electronic marketplace: Implications for newspapers and other media

In the context of economic challenges faced by US daily newspapers, the author considers the potential of electronic information media. Despite the demand anticipations of system designers and operators, little is really known about consumer response to the media. Following an analysis of the strengths and weaknesses of the marketing ideology underlying the supposed demand for new home information services, it is stressed that the rate and degree of penetration, determined by what consumers and advertisers will be willing to pay, will be evolutionary rather than revolutionary. The author concludes that such media will gain slow and restrained acceptance in the light of social, economic and psychological constraints.     

Forecasting Prices and Excess Returns in the Housing Market

The paper uses quarterly indexes of existing single-family home prices estimated with microdata on properties that sold more than once to estimate excess returns to investment in owner-occupied housing. Housing prices and excess returns are estimated over the period 1970:1 to 1986:3 for Atlanta, Chicago, Dallas, San Francisco. Using time-series cross-section regressions we test for the forecastability of prices and excess returns using a number of independent variables. Price changes in one year tend to continue for more than one year in the same direction. The ratio of construction costs to price, changes in adult population and increases in real per capita income all are positively related to excess returns or price changes over the subsequent year. The results add weight to the argument that the market for single-family homes is inefficient.     

Consumers’ valuation for food traceability in China: Does trust matter?

Food safety is a very important topic in China. We investigate Chinese consumers’ preferences and willingness to pay (WTP) for food traceability using a choice experiment. Given that consumers’ trust in the food system may affect their preferences and WTP, we also assess the interaction between consumers’ trust in government’s supervision of food safety and food labels and consumers’ preferences for traceable food products. Using data collected from a choice experiment on Fuji apples in a face-to-face survey in six Chinese cities, the results show that (i) consumers are willing to pay for traceable food but their valuations can differ upon the degree of their trust in government’s supervision of food safety and food labels; (ii) consumers are willing to pay for traceability with strong evidence of preference heterogeneity; (iii) government is not the most trusted safety inspection and certificate authority as found in prior studies using animal food products in China.     

Retaining telecommunication services when universal service is defined by functionality: Japanese consumers' willingness-to-pay

This study uses contingent valuation to measure Japanese customers' willingness-to-pay to maintain combinations of five telecommunication services that are considered substitutes if universal service is defined on the basis of functionality. The analysis revealed the following results. First, consumers are more willing to pay to retain voice communication services than data transmission services. Second, customers accept Internet Protocol telephony as a substitute for plain old telephone service (POTS) as a universal service, and they are willing to pay much more than Japan's current Universal Service Fund charge. Third, even when mobile phone service (MOB) is available, consumers will pay to retain fixed-line voice services. Finally, consumers have an equal desire to keep fiber-to-the-home (FTTH) and fixed-line voice services, but it is less than the demand for MOB. Thus, under the present definition of POTS as a universal service, FTTH could be considered as a basic telecommunication service.     

The Inventory–Sales Relationship in the Market for New Single-Family Homes

Time series methods are applied to study monthly inventory and sales dynamics in the U.S. market for new single-family homes. The inventory measure used is the inventory of unsold, new single-family homes, regardless of the stage of construction. Stylized facts regarding inventory, sales, the inventory–sales ratio and the implied series of speculative housing starts are produced. Implications for structural models of housing supply and the relationship of inventory investment in this market to economy-wide inventory investment are considered. Finally, innovation accounting methods are applied to a structural VAR to study the responses of inventories and sales to permanent and transitory shocks.     

An Investigation of the Major Influences of Residential Liquidity: A Multivariate Approach

The liquidity of the single-family home has been potentially compromised by prevailing conventional mortgage market conditions in the 1980s. The primary objectives of this study are to investigate the degree of liquidity of a given residence, defined to incorporate both the "recovery-of-value" and "timeliness" dimensions, and the major influences upon such liquidity. The multivariate techniques of canonical correlation and multiple discriminant analysis are employed to identify those property characteristics and/or prevailing mortgage market conditions that most appreciably influence the liquidity of a residential listing.     

Urban flight: A short-term phenomenon or long-term trend?

We investigate whether the urban flight from more to less dense locations identified by previous housing studies for the early COVID period is a temporary, pandemic-induced phenomenon, or long-term trend. We focus on the period of 2017–2022, 14,961 single-family home transactions from Southwestern Ontario, and three housing market metrics. Our results for sales price in the early pandemic periods are in line with previous studies. However, our results for sales price in the last pandemic phase (2022), marketing time, and visit activity suggest that the urban flight was a temporary phenomenon characteristic of the early COVID phases.     

The Effect of Regional Growth Characteristics on Regional Housing Prices

As contrasted with strictly national housing reports, this article highlights the regional variations in population growth patterns and recently built owner-occupied housing as a means of determining single-family housing price components (i.e., developed lot values, homebuilding costs, and builder's profit and overhead) by region. The assertion that escalating lot costs and increases in new housing costs will limit the demand for single-family housing is challenged on a national basis and treated individually for the West, Northeast, South, and North Central Regions of the country.     

What drives smallholder farmers’ willingness to pay for a new farm technology? Evidence from an experimental auction in Kenya

We use an incentive compatible experimental auction to measure demand for a new agricultural technology, a triple layered hermetic storage bag. When used properly, the bag creates an airtight seal that reduces storage loss from insect pests and neutralizes aflatoxin contamination in stored grain. We find that demand for this new technology is highly elastic (4.3) and that the wholesaler could increase profit by lowering the price. We also find that farmers’ valuation for the bag is not significantly different based on the medium through which information about it is communicated to them, either text, audio or video messages. This suggests that practitioners should use the cheapest option for disseminating information, which is text messaging in this context. In addition, we find that farmers who have prior awareness of the bag are willing to pay 20% more on average than those previously unaware of it. In total, the highly elastic demand for the improved bags, along with the fact that prior awareness of the bag leads to higher willingness to pay, suggests that a one-time price subsidy for the new technology could spur demand and increase future adoption.     

What is the intrinsic value of fertilizer? Experimental value elicitation and decomposition in the hill and terai regions of Nepal

We use Becker-DeGroot-Marshak value elicitation methods to derive the intrinsic value that farmers in Nepal place on fertilizers. Eliciting values under three distinct procurement scenarios, we are able to decompose the total intrinsic value of fertilizer into a willingness-to-pay (WTP) to travel to procure fertilizer, a WTP for assured fertilizer supplies, and a WTP for the productivity benefits of fertilizer. Disaggregating our sample according to location (hills versus terai), we are able to estimate differences in total intrinsic value as well as value components along these geographical dimensions. While farmers in the hills are generally willing to pay more for urea than their counterparts in the terai, the total amount they are willing to pay is, on average, less than the market price for urea. We explore heterogeneity in valuations and discuss the implications of our findings on fertilizer procurement and distribution policies, as well as direct support policies that the Nepal government may consider. While support policies such as subsidies may encourage increased utilization of fertilizers, policies that lower barriers to private sector entry and increase the density of fertilizer retailers could also increase fertilizer utilization.     

上市公司治理结构对信息性盈余管理的影响研究

为了有效监督公司内部利害关系各方的行为,有效降低基于各种委托代理关系的代理成本,在阐述国内外盈余管理文献的基础上,假设拥有健全公司治理结构的上市公司管理者更愿意进行信息性盈余管理,通过构建合理的并可度量的信息性盈余管理衡量方法,使用沪、深两市全部A股上市公司2014—2016年公司季度财务数据,实证研究了信息性盈余管理视角下公司治理对盈余管理的影响。结果表明,市场监管者和投资者需要关注两种不同的盈余管理行为,投机性盈余管理更倾向于误导投资者,信息性盈余管理则是通过盈余管理的手段向投资者传递有用的内部信息。股权制衡对上市公司的信息性盈余管理行为具有明显促进作用,促使管理层进行信息性盈余管理,就要优化股权结构,形成产权多样化的股东制衡机制,实现股权结构的合理优化。拥有健全公司治理结构的上市公司管理者更愿意进行信息性盈余管理,公司治理结构对管理者进行信息性盈余管理具有积极的影响,健全的公司治理结构能够提高财务报告透明度和盈余信息含量。因此,保障财务报告的真实性和可靠性,以信息性盈余管理为动机探究公司治理对盈余管理的影响具有现实意义。     

Willingness to pay for the “Green Food” in China

With use of payment card survey data of willingness to pay (WTP) for the “Green Food”, a unique food certification in China, this study finds that age and income are important for the WTP for the Green Food in China. There are structural differences in consumer preference for Green Food between the large city and the small county. Consumers in China, on average, are willing to pay 47% more for Green vegetables and 40% more for Green meat than for their conventional counterparts. Compared with the real markets and the previous studies, our results are very consistent and reliable.     

Analysis of consumer preferences for mobile telecom plans using a discrete choice experiment

In this paper, we present a study of consumer preferences for mobile telecommunications plans and operator characteristics. The objective of the study was to identify consumer preferences for the following characteristics of mobile plans: the importance of using the same provider as friends and family (calling club network effects), the market share of the provider (pure network effects), the length of the commitment period, monthly fee/recharge obligations and per minute call charges for calls made within and outside the provider network. A discrete choice experiment was used as a preference elicitation method and implemented in face-to-face interviews. We present results regarding willingness to pay for the described features as well as their relationship to socio-demographic variables. Consumers are willing to pay 1.3 Euro per month more to reduce the commitment period from 1 year to 6 months and willing to pay 2.5 euros per month more to be part of a larger network. Consumers are also twice as much more sensitive to within-network price variations than extra-network price variations. These results remain unchanged in the sub-sample of those that have internet access suggesting that a web-based surveys are capable of producing unbiased results. The implications of these results for regulatory policy are discussed.     

Staat versus Markt: Konsumentenpräferenzen und die Förderung erneuerbarer Energien

This paper presents a set of artefacutal field experiments on individual preferences and willingness to pay, respectively, for the consumption of green electricity. Based on an economic model of individual preferences for the provision of public goods, the design of our experiments involved different scenarios: subjects had to decide about their individual spending on green electricity as well as about the level of public subsidies for green electricity. Unlike hypothetical empirical methods, the experiments involved an incentive mechanism, i.e. subjects had to face the monetary consequences of their decisions. Our empirical results are distinct from those of other studies. It seems that the market potential of green electricity is overestimated at present. Hence, the market will not release the public in financing subsidies in this field. The conclusion can be drawn that individuals prefer binding collective contributions rather than individual market-driven activities. However, we contradict the standard explanation of political economy that such a kind of preference for regulatory instruments may be motivated by cost-illusion. Subjects were willing to bear far higher taxes as compared to the price mark-up they were willing to pay for green electricity offered by the market.     

The Impact of Initial-Year Discounts on ARM Prepayments

This study uses new data on the rate of prepayment on conventional single-family adjustable-rate mortgages (ARMs) that originated between 1983 and 1986 to determine if ARMs with and without initial-year discounts have the same probability of paying off. The new data are from a large national private mortgage insurer in the United States. Each loan is tracked from its origination date through prepayment or the end of 1991. Nonparametric test statistics are used to test for differences in these prepayment rates. The findings suggest that ARMs with initial-year discounts are paid off at a rate that is essentially no different from the rate on otherwise comparable ARMs without initial-year discounts.     

The role of ambiguity tolerance in consumer perception of remanufactured products

This study examines ambiguity tolerance, perceived quality, and willingness to pay for remanufactured products. We found evidence to support a direct relationship between a consumer's tolerance for ambiguity and their willingness to pay for remanufactured products. There was also support for an indirect relationship between ambiguity tolerance and willingness to pay that is mediated through perceived quality. Extant literature often lacks an empirical justification regarding costing and quality assumptions for remanufactured products. This research provides such justification while also offering an explanation as to why consumers view remanufactured products as being of lower quality and are less willing to pay for them. Those employed in the remanufacturing industry are advised to reduce the level of ambiguity associated with their remanufacturing processes in order to command higher prices for their products in the marketplace.