The Application Of Hedonic Price Theory In Automobile Price Index Construction

As an important industry of national economy and an important part of resident consumption,the price fluctuation of vehicles attracts high attention from the government,vehicle manufacturers and residents.Vehicle is a typical heterogeneous product,whose quality changes over time and there are always new vehicle products constantly appearing in the market.Hedonic price method is an effective method for the compilation of heterogeneous product price index,which can effectively eliminate the impact of changes in the quality on product prices and compile the price index reflecting"pure price change" of a product.In view of this,this text applies the more mature overseas hedonic price theory in our new vehicle market and finally constructs three vehicle hedonic price indexes by selecting vehicle feature variables,selecting hedonic price functions,estimating marginal hedonic price and analyzing important factors of vehicle prices.This text introduces the background and significance,research framework and ideas and possible innovations of the paper.Secondly,the origin,development and application of foreign hedonic price theory is elaborated in a detailed manner and the research results of domestic scholars are given a more comprehensive analysis.Then,the concepts involved in this text are defined and compilation methods of four hedonic price indexes including sectional data hedonic price index method,combined data hedonic price index method,hedonic price quality adjustment method,and hedonic price simulation method are derived in detail.Then,this text uses 1,067 vehicle samples datas between 2012-2015 collected from vehicle information platform such as autohome,selects 23 vehicle feature variables from four aspects including comfort,controllability,safety and brand,uses an exponential model thereon to construct a vehicle hedonic price function,analyzes the impact of each feature variable on vehicle price,and finally uses sectional data method,data consolidation method and hedonic price quality adjustment method to compile three hedonic price indexes.Finally,it summarizes the main research results and deficiencies in this text.This text attempts to construct our vehicle hedonic price model,and carries out in-depth analysis of factors of vehicle prices and vehicle price indexes.The main conclusions in this text include the following three points.(1)Based on systematic analysis of several hedonic price index compilation methods,this text uses sectional data hedonic price method,combined data hedonic price method,and hedonic price quality adjustment method to compile our vehicle hedonic price method for 2012-2015.Sectional data vehicle hedonic price index shows that during 2012 to 2015,vehicle price fell by 8.09%,with an average of 2.77%per year;combined data vehicle hedonic price index shows that during 2012 to 2015,vehicle price fell by 7.53%,with an average of 2.58%per year;Hedonic price quality adjustment vehicle hedonic price index shows that during 2012 to 2015,vehicle price fell by 9.34%,with an average of 3.22%per year;Falling range of three vehicle hedonic price indexes is greater than that of the simple arithmetic average vehicle price index,it effectively eliminates the impact of changes in the quality of a vehicle on vehicle price and can effectively reflect the pure price changes of vehicles in China during this period;if the simple arithmetic average price index is used to measure the changes in vehicle price,the actual falling range of vehicle price will be underestimated.The research results in this text show that hedonic price method is indeed an effective method for compilation of heterogeneous product price index.At present,our official statistical agency has not compiled hedonic price index for heterogeneous products such as vehicles,whose main cause is imperfect construction of database,and to collect feature and price information about products will need a lot of resources.From the process of compilation of vehicle hedonic price index in this text,it is proposed that our official statistical agency cooperates with mainstream vehicle information platform and large vehicle dealers,vehicle feature datas are collected from the database on the vehicle information platform,vehicle transaction price datas are collected from vehicle dealers,and hedonic price method is used to compile vehicle hedonic price index.After conditions are mature,the product range can also be extended to the compilation of price indexes for heterogeneous products such as notebook computers,mobile phones,air conditioners,etc.(2)The sectional data model shows that the consumers are attaching more and more importance to vehicle brand,active safety performance of vehicle and driving convenience and are willing to pay a higher price for these features.Therefore,it is suggested that the vehicle manufacturers take initiatives to meet consumer preferences during the development of vehicles and make greater efforts on R&D of these features.(3)The combined data model shows that model,brand,type of gearbox,front head airbags,vehicle quality,vehicle width and maximum speed have greater impact on vehicle price and maximum horsepower,displacement and maximum torque have less impact on vehicle price.Therefore,it is suggested that the vehicle manufacturers give comprehensive consideration to the impact of feature variable on vehicle price during the development of product pricing strategy to obtain more excellent benefits.