Abstract
We argue that for the case of heterogeneous commodities with infrequent tradings, such as paintings, it is relevant to base a price index on hedonic regressions using all sales and not resales only. To support this conclusion we construct a price index for paintings by Impressionists and their followers and compare the various estimators using bootstrapping techniques.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Anderson, R.C. (1974) “Paintings as an Investment”, Economic Inquiry 12: 13–25.
Bailey, M., Muth, J.F., and Nourse, H.O. (1963) “A Regression Method for Real Estate Price Index Construction”, Journal of the American Statistical Association 58: 933–942.
Baumol, W.J. (1986) “Unnatural Value: or Art Investment as Floating Crap Game”, American Economic Review, Papers and Proceedings 76: 10–14.
Bickel, P.J. and Freedman, D.A. (1981) “Some Asymptotic Theory of the Bootstrap”, Annals of Statistics 9: 1196–1217.
Buelens, N. and Ginsburgh, V. (1993) “Revisiting Baumol’s Unnatural Value or Art as a Floating Crap Game”, European Economic Review 37: 1351–1371.
Case, K.E. (1986) “The Market for Simple Family Homes in the Boston Area”, New England Economic Review, May-June: 38–48.
Case, B. and Quigley, J.M. (1991) “The Dynamics of Real Estate Prices”, Review of Economics and Statistics 73: 50–58.
Case, K.E. and Shiller, R.J. (1979) “The Efficiency of the Market for Single Family Homes”, American Economic Review 79: 125–137.
Case, K.E. and Shiller, R.J. (1987) “Prices of Single Family Homes Since 1970: New Indices for Four Cities”, New England Economic Review, 44–56.
Court, A.T. (1939) “Hedonic Price Indexes with Automotive Examples”, in The Dynamics of Automobile Demand. New York: The General Motors Corporation, pp. 99–117.
de la Barre, M., Docclo, S., and Ginsburgh, V. (1994) “Returns of Impressionist, Modern and Contemporary European Painters, 1962-1991”, Annales d’Economie et de Statistique 35: 143–181.
Fama, E.F. (1991) “Efficient Capital Markets: II”, The Journal of Finance XLVI: 1575–1617.
Freedman, D. (1981) “Bootstrapping Regression Models”, Annals of Statistics 9: 1218–1228.
Frey, B.S. and Pommerehne, W.W. (1989) Muses and Markets. London: Basil Blackwell.
Goetzmann, W.N. (1990a) “Estimating Price Trends for Residental Property: a Comparison of Repeat Sales and Assessed Value Methods”, Working Paper, University of Connecticut.
Goetzmann, W.N. (1990b) “Accounting for Taste: an Analysis of Art Returns over three Centuries”, First Boston Working Paper Series FB-90-11, November.
Goetzmann, W.N. (1993) “Accounting for Taste: Art and Financial Markets over Three Centuries”, American Economic Review 83: 1370–1376.
Grampp, W.D. (1989) Pricing the Priceless, Art Artists and Economics. New York: Basic Books Inc.
Griliches, Z. (1971), ed., Price Indexes and Quality Change: Studies in New Methods of Measurement. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press.
Guerzoni, G. (1994) “Testing Reitlinger’s Sample Reliability”, paper presented at the 8th Conference on Cultural Economics, Witten, August.
Holub, H.W., Hutter, M., and Tappeiner, G. (1993) “Light and Shadow in Art Price Competition”, Journal of Cultural Economics 17: 49–63.
IMF (1972) “Supplement to International Financial Statistics”, Washington, DC.
Mark, J.H. and Goldberg, M.A. (1984) “Alternative Housing Price Indices: an Evaluation”, AREUEA Journal 12: 31–49.
Palmquist, R.B. (1980) “Alternative Techniques for Developing Real Estate Price Indices”, Review of Economic and Statistics 62: 442–448.
Palmquist, R.B. (1982) “Measuring Environmental Effects on Property Values without Hedonic Regressions”, Journal of Urban Economics 11: 333–347.
Pesando, J.E. (1993) “Art as an Investment. The Market for Modern Prints”, American Economic Review 83: 1075–1089.
Phelps-Brown, H. and Hopkins, S.V. (1956) “Seven Centuries of the Prices of Consumables”, Economica 23: 313–314.
Pommerehne, W.W. and Feld, L. (1995) “The Impact of Museum Purchase on the Auction Price of Paintings”, manuscript, University of Saarland.
Reitlinger, G. (1960) The Economics of Taste: The Rise and Fall of the Picture Prices 1760-1960. London: Barrie and Rockliff.
Reitlinger, G. (1970) The Economics of Taste: The Art Market in the 60s. London: Barrie and Jenkins Ltd.
Ridker, R.G. and Henning, T.A. (1967) “The Determinants of Residential Property Values with Special Reference to Air Pollution”, Review of Economics and Statistics 44: 246–257.
Rosen, S. (1974) “Hedonic Prices and Implicit Markets: Product Differentiation in Pure Competition”, Journal of Political Economy 82: 34–55.
Shiller, R.T. (1991) “Arithmetic Repeat Sates Price Estimators”, Journal of Housing Economics 1: 110–126.
Stein, J.P. (1977) “The Monetary Appreciation of Paintings”, Journal of Political Economy 85: 1021–1035.
Tout l’oeuvre peint de..., Paris: Flammarion.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Chanel, O., Gérard-Varet, LA. & Ginsburgh, V. The relevance of hedonic price indices. J Cult Econ 20, 1–24 (1996). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10824-005-1024-3
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10824-005-1024-3