Urbanity

Gabriel M. Ahfeldt

SERC Discussion Papers from Centre for Economic Performance, LSE

Abstract: I define a composite amenity that provides aesthetic and consumption value to local residents: Urbanity. A novel data set of geo-tagged photos shared in internet communities serves as a proxy for urbanity. From the spatial pattern of house prices and photos I identify the value of urbanity in two of the largest cities in Europe: Berlin and London. I find an elasticity of indirect utility with respect to urbanity of about 1%. The aggregated willingness-to-pay equates to about $1bn per year in each city. The results demonstrate the important role cities play as centers of leisure, consumption, and beauty.

Keywords: Amenities; consumer city; hedonic analysis; photography geography; property prices (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: R20 R30 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2013-05
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-tur and nep-ure
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:cep:sercdp:0136

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