COURT,ANDREW AND THE INVENTION OF HEDONIC PRICE ANALYSIS

Although popularized by Griliches in the early 1960s, the pioneering h edonic price analysis dates back to a 1939 article by Andrew Court whi ch receives, at best, only perfunctory citations. This article revisit s and extends Court's 1939 analysis. By many standards of contemporary hedonic price analysis, Court's work stands up quite well. It address es problems of nonlinearity and changes in underlying goods, with circ umspect analysis and interpretation. The article evaluates Court's wor k, extends his analyses using data from his unpublished papers, and co njectures as to why the hedonic price method was unused for so many ye ars. (C) 1998 Academic Press.