An Embarrassment of Riches: Confronting Omitted Variable Bias and Multi-Scale Capitalization in Hedonic Price Models

Many researchers have addressed concerns of omitted variable bias in hedonic price models through the use of spatial fixed effects. We argue that this approach does not consider the biases introduced by effects that overlap the zone of capitalization for nonmarket goods. We show this bias can dominate the usual omitted variable bias using data on developer-provided open space. We control for multiscale capitalization and omitted variables simultaneously by extending the Hausman-Taylor estimator where the panel component of the estimator is defined over repeated transactions within neighborhoods rather than the traditional definition following a unique cross-sectional unit through time. © 2011 The President and Fellows of Harvard College and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.