Predicting House Prices with Spatial Dependence: A Comparison of Alternative Methods

This paper compares alternative methods for taking spatial dependence into account in house price prediction. We select hedonic methods that have been reported in the literature to perform relatively well in terms of ex-sample prediction accuracy. Because differences in performance may be due to differences in data, we compare the methods using a single data set. The estimation methods include simple OLS, a two-stage process incorporating nearest neighbors’ residuals in the second stage, geostatistical, and trend surface models. These models take into account submarkets by adding dummy variables or by estimating separate equations for each submarket. Based on data for approximately 13,000 transactions from Louisville, Kentucky, we conclude that a geostatistical model with disaggregated submarket variables performs best.

A model of housing tenure choice in Australia

This paper reports the results of an econometric analysis of housing tenure choice in Australia. The paper has several aims: (a) to determine the relative importance of the various economic and demographic determinants of die probability of home ownership in Australia; (b) to provide evidence relevant to the question whether Goodman (1988) incorrectly omits from his tenure choice model a measure of the user cost of owner-occupied housing, and (c) to serve as a basis for further studies of housing tenure choice and demand in Australia as well as possible comparative studies of ownership rates in Australia, the United States, and elsewhere.Australian Policy Online (APO)'s Linked Data II project, funded by the Australian Research Council, with partners at the ANU Library, Swinburne University and RMIT

La forme du mouvement (sur la notion de rythme)

Cette réflexion autour de la notion de rythme a été motivée par le désir d'expliciter le rôle qu'il joue dans l'organisation du sens des œuvres littéraires. Elle s'est imposée en particulier pour décrire des textes — poésies contemporaines, proses — qui, ne présentant aucun signe évident de mesure régulière, semblent mettre en échec une conception du rythme fondée sur la régularité, qui a longtemps prévalu dans le domaine de la poétique

Post-translational Regulation of Plant Fatty Acid Desaturases as Expressed in Saccharomyces cerevisiae

Differences have been shown in the steady-state accumulation and half-lives between Brassica FAD3 (BF3) and tung FAD3 (TF3) proteins expressed in yeast cells cultured at 30°C. TF3 has a greater steady-state accumulation and longer half-life than BF3. These differences are attributed to post-translational modification and have been shown to be controlled by an Nterminal element. I attempted to determine specific amino acids important for regulation, and further characterize the mechanism contributing to the differences. Through site-directed mutagenesis, it was shown that replacing lysine residues with asparagines in the BF3 and TF3 Ntermini increased protein stability, while replacing an asparagine with lysine in the TF3 Nterminus decreased its stability. Furthermore, I showed that the TF3 polyglutamic region (six consecutive glutamic acid residues) is primarily responsible for the higher steady-state amount of TF3 in comparison to BF3. This negatively charged region likely acts as an electrostatic shield protecting the protein from degradation

A Simple Alternative House Price Index Method

This paper presents the Sale Price Appraisal Ratio (SPAR) method for constructing house price indexes. The method, which uses ratios of transaction prices and previous appraised values to build up an index, has been applied since the early 1960s to produce semi-annual price indexes for regions and cities in New Zealand. We compare the official New Zealand indexes for three urban areas with repeat sales and hedonic indexes created from the same transactions data, and observe that the SPAR method produces an index very much like those produced by hedonic methods. Given the number of advantages and few disadvantages that we find for the SPAR method relative to the more traditional methods, we maintain that it should be considered by government agencies elsewhere when developing house price indexes.house price indexes