Urbanity

Gabriel Ahlfeldt

No 4533, CESifo Working Paper Series from CESifo

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 European cities, 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 $1 bn per year in each city or, on average, 1.5% of household income. The results demonstrate the important role cities paly 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
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ces:ceswps:_4533

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