Valuing buildings energy efficiency through Hedonic Prices Method: are spatial effects relevant?

The primary goal of this work is to employ a spatial econometric model joined with a basic Hedonic Prices Method (HPM) to estimate the implicit marginal price, as measure of willingness to pay for buildings energy performance in Turin City. The recent debate about environmental costs of energy waste justifies the implementation of different policies focused on buildings energy efficiency. The application of seven models on a large data–set of residential properties values shows the necessity to carefully control the coherence between spatial and econometric approaches. At the same time, findings of the exploration of an exemplary case study can help researchers and policymakers in the definition of innovative urban models in the context of the post-carbon city.