Andrew Court and the Invention of Hedonic Price Analysis

Abstract

Although popularized by Griliches in the early 1960s, the pioneering hedonic price analysis dates back to a 1939 article by Andrew Court which receives, at best, only perfunctory citations. This article revisits and extends Court's 1939 analysis. By many standards of contemporary hedonic price analysis, Court's work stands up quite well. It addresses problems of nonlinearity and changes in underlying goods, with circumspect analysis and interpretation. The article evaluates Court's work, extends his analyses using data from his unpublished papers, and conjectures as to why the hedonic price method was unused for so many years.