M. Koopman: Economic analysis of neighborhood quality, neighborhood reputation and the housing market, Series: Sustainable Urban Areas

摘要

Economic actors operate under limited information and this is likely to have an impact on their behavior. This issue is investigated at length for housing demand by Marnix Koopman in a Ph.D. thesis that was defended at Delft Technical University in 2012. After a review of relevant theory in chapter 1, five chapters report on empirical investigations. The first of these concerns the exit choices of tenants. Since housing choice is an important decision, most households collect information before deciding to rent a house. However, complete information is difficult to realize and especially the quality of the neighborhood surrounding the house and its inhabitants is difficult to assess for an outsider. Thus tenants learn more about the quality of their house and its neighborhood after they have moved into it. When they are disappointed, it is likely that they move out soon, whereas a positive surprise leads to longer durations of stay. Using detailed data of neighborhood quality provided by inhabitants, the author is able to test and confirm this hypothesis.