PhD defence: Essays in revealed preference methods - There’s no place like home

PhD defence

Lasse Læbo Matthiesen

Title of thesis

Essays in revealed preference methods - There’s no place like home

Abstract

This thesis investigates the use of revealed preference methods in the valuation literature. It consists of two papers on the hedonic pricing method, based on house prices, and two papers based on the travel cost method, one using a random utility model for a multi-site model and one using single-site models based on social media data.

Paper 1 and paper 2 are based on the first stage hedonic method following the modern causal approach. Both papers are some of the first to investigate the topic of flooding and cultural heritage in Denmark and especially the second paper on flooding expands on the general literature by using a very strong identification strategy.

The two papers based on the travel cost method expand on already established frameworks. The first paper uses crowdsourced social media data is used conclusions on home location, visitation rates and site choice. We show that the use of new methods can expand on the way we model travel behavior, especially the use of substitute sites to lighten the econometric assumptions, though it will be a tradeoff between stricter assumptions on the sampled population or econometrics.

Finally, I discuss the two valuation methods against each other, with a focus on the sets of benefits found, using results from the four studies, as well as the literature studied throughout the Ph.D. Firstly, I discuss the composition of the environmental good. I conclude that environmental goods can, when mainly looking at localized goods, be described as club goods. This leads to a further conclusion on the hedonic house price method primarily pricing the “membership fee” and the travel cost method the cost of utilization of such “membership” – a ticket price.

Overall, this thesis applies new approaches to the revealed preference valuation method and shows that there is still room for improvements in how we model both travel choice, visit counts and house prices. Furthermore, I suggest using a combination of results from the multisite travel cost literature and the hedonic models to gain further insights into the additionally of the two methods.

Supervisor

Professor Jette Bredahl Jacobsen, Department of Food and Resource Economics (IFRO), University of Copenhagen

Assessment Committee:

Chair:

Professor Mette Termansen, Department of Food and Resource Economics, University of Copenhagen

Senior Lecturer Amy Binner, University of Exeter

Chargé de reserche Jens Abildstrup, INRAE, National Research Institute for Agriculture, Food and the Environment

Master of Ceremony

Professor Søren Bøye Olsen, Department of Food and Resource Economics, University of Copenhagen

Request a copy of the thesis

If you are interested in a full copy of the thesis, please contact the PhD student or the PhD Secretary milton@ifro.ku.dk .

The defence is open to all.