Abstract

From an analytic point of view, land and property prices are a combination of externality effects and location rents. The overlapping of access and neighbourhood characteristics leads to highly complex influences on rent levels and values. For instance, accessibility factors impact differently on location rents depending on whether they operate at a regional or local level. Moreover, measuring accessibility to urban services is no simple task, since it involves both objective and subjective dimensions linked to household structure and individual mobility behavior. Finally, the combination of access and proximity influences is mirrored in the non-monotonicity of some of the distance functions which requires that specific transformations be applied before they can be adequately captured.

In this workshop, we will deal with the following issues, illustrated through a series of case studies:
- A few theoretical reminders: From Ricardo’s rent theory to the Alonso-Muth-Mills model;
- The concept of externalities and its application to location economics;
- Disentangling intrinsic and extrinsic property attributes: an introduction to the Hedonic Price Method;
- Measuring accessibility to services - some methodological issues;
- Sorting out access and neighbourhood factors in house price modelling;
- Measuring access versus proximity externalities – the choice of the functional form;
- Accessibility, property values and public transport infrastructures;
- Conclusion

Biography
Professor François Des Rosiers is an economist and urban planner and holds a Ph.D. degree in Urban and Regional Planning Studies from the London School of Economics, U.K. Since 1976, he has been teaching Urban and Real Estate Management at the Faculty of Business Administration, Laval University, where he is currently in charge of the Urban & Real Estate Management Program. Over the past decades, François Des Rosiers has authored or co-authored well over 100 articles, papers, monographs, research and consulting reports as well as book chapters in the field of urban and real estate management and planning issues and has acted as a speaker in as many academic and professional conferences, both at home and abroad. His academic realizations have earned him several prizes and awards. His main research area, which deals with hedonic price modelling and the measurement of urban externalities, brought him international recognition.
In July 2007, François Des Rosiers was elected a Fellow of the Academy for Social Sciences of the Royal Society of Canada, the highest academic accolade available to scientists and scholars in Canada. In July 2011, he was granted the 2011 Achievement Award of the International Real Estate Society (IRES) for his outstanding achievement in real estate research, education and practice at the international level. In April 2013, he also received the ARES 2013 Pioneer Award in recognition of his pioneering role in the property discipline and long life commitment to his student, his colleagues and the ARES organization.