Clemson University TigerPrints All Dissertations Dissertations 12-2008 THEORETICAL AND PRACTICAL IMPLICATIONS OF A HEDONIC PRICING MODEL: EMPIRICAL OBSERVATIONS FROM WHOLESALE AUTOMOBILE AUCTIONS Jeffrey Roach Clemson University, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://tigerprints.clemson.edu/all_dissertations Part of the Economics Commons Recommended Citation Roach, Jeffrey, "THEORETICAL AND PRACTICAL IMPLICATIONS OF A HEDONIC PRICING MODEL: EMPIRICAL OBSERVATIONS FROM WHOLESALE AUTOMOBILE AUCTIONS" (2008). All Dissertations. 327. https://tigerprints.clemson.edu/all_dissertations/327 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the Dissertations at TigerPrints. It has been accepted for inclusion in All Dissertations by an authorized administrator of TigerPrints. For more information, please contact [email protected]. THEORETICAL AND PRACTICAL IMPLICATIONS OF A HEDONIC PRICING MODEL: EMPIRICAL OBSERVATIONS FROM WHOLESALE AUTOMOBILE AUCTIONS ______________ A Dissertation Presented to the Graduate School of Clemson University ______________ In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Doctor of Philosophy Applied Economics ______________ by Jeffrey Joseph Roach December 2008 ______________ Accepted by: Dr. Michael T. Maloney, Committee Chair Dr. William R. Dougan Dr. John T. Warner Dr. Cotton M. Lindsay te te1 ABSTRACT Wholesale auto auctions are convenient structures for economists as they attempt to observe the marginal effects of quality changes on the market-clearing price. However, what may be categorized as a quality change might rather be a market signal of an environment with adverse selection. This dissertation analyzes the effects of seller type and tests their sensitivity to econometric model specification. General hedonic attributes and their various applications are reviewed. This dissertation explores the basic auto auction environment and dispels inaccurate notions about the auction structure. Following Bartik’s (1987) analysis, multi-market data are used to produce hedonic estimates for seller, mileage and other attributes. A section is devoted to the peculiarities of the auction environment; namely, the winner’s curse, adverse selection, and variations in auction structure. A three-part literature review covers adverse selection, the various technicalities of auction structure, and the econometric issues regarding hedonic regressions. A section presents the data and the econometric models with their results. Concluding remarks discuss areas for further research. ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to express my deepest appreciation to my wife, Erica, and also to my entire family. Without their support, I would not have been able to complete this study. I would also like to thank my advisor, Professor Michael Maloney for his insight and patience throughout this long process. Moreover, I would like to thank him for giving me such an interesting topic, which has also been quite an appropriate topic for me, given my previous opportunities as an active participant in the auction process. Also, I would be greatly remiss without expressing my deep gratitude to Professor William Dougan for his keen economic intuition as well as his patience, which was especially evident as he willingly gave of his time to assist in my studies. Both Professor John Warner and Professor Matt Lindsay were very kind to let me sit in on their respective classes, even though I had already previously taken the classes. Mark Lee, a manager at Manheim Auctions in Atlanta, graciously gave me access to a very useful data set that included data from all U.S.-based auctions. Without this data set, I would not have been able to do this analysis or continue on with other potential analyses in the future. iii TABLE OF CONTENTS Page TITLE PAGE...........................................................................................................................i ABSTRACT ...........................................................................................................................ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS....................................................................................................iii LIST OF TABLES................................................................................................................. vi LIST OF FIGURES............................................................................................................... vii CHAPTER I. INTRODUCTION...................................................................................................... 1 Preliminary Comments on Hedonic Pricing ............................................................. 1 Practical Use of Hedonic Pricing by the Bureau of Labor Statistics.......................... 2 Other Applications .................................................................................................. 2 Research Approach.................................................................................................. 3 II. REVIEW OF THE LITERATURE ............................................................................. 5 Adverse Selection and the Lemon Problem.............................................................. 5 Auction Structure.................................................................................................... 9 Hedonic Regressions............................................................................................. 12 III. THE AUTO AUCTION............................................................................................ 18 The Auction Environment ..................................................................................... 18 Role of Auctions in Used Car Sales....................................................................... 22 Industry Segments................................................................................................. 26 Rentals............................................................................................................... 26 Leasing.............................................................................................................. 29 Fleet................................................................................................................... 30 Repossessions .................................................................................................... 32 Dealers............................................................................................................... 33 Recent Trends ....................................................................................................... 37 IV. THE HEDONIC MODEL......................................................................................... 39 The Data Set.......................................................................................................... 39 Model.................................................................................................................... 55 Empirical Results.................................................................................................. 58 iv Table of Contents (Continued) Page V. CONCLUDING OBSERVATIONS.......................................................................... 66 APPENDICES ...................................................................................................................... 67 A: Individual Regression Results for Each Make....................................................... 68 B: Manheim Auctions’ Worldwide Locations ...........................................................73 C: Sample Auction Schedule..................................................................................... 76 D: Sale Day Arbitradable Items ................................................................................ 77 E: Seven Day Arbitradable Items.............................................................................. 78 F: “As-Is” Vehicles................................................................................................... 79 G: Days on Retail Dealer Lot vs Gross Profit ............................................................ 80 BIBLIOGRAPHY................................................................................................................. 81 v LIST OF TABLES Table Page 3.1 Types of Vehicles Remarketed in 2003 ........................................................................ 36 4.1 Number of Vehicles Sold By Seller Type..................................................................... 42 4.2 Summary Statistics By Body Type............................................................................... 44 4.3 Summary Statistics By Seller Type.............................................................................. 45 4.4 Summary Statistics For Broad Sample ......................................................................... 46 4.5 Frequency of Observations By Make and Model.......................................................... 47 4.6 Frequency of Observations By Body Type................................................................... 52 4.7 Variable Definitions .................................................................................................... 57 4.8 Coefficients of Interest for Broad Sample (Dependent Var is Log Price) ...................... 60 4.9 Estimated Depreciation for Five-year, 60k Mile Vehicle .............................................. 62 4.10 Coefficients of Interest for Ford Sample (Dependent Var is Log Price)