Understanding housing: The intellectual legacy of John Quigley

John Quigley was an important and beloved figure in housing and urban economics who died in 2012, but many non-specialists are only dimly aware of his contributions. This essay surveys his intellectual legacy, beginning with his early work with John Kain. Their research pioneered the application of hedonic price models to housing micro-data, and kicked off a literature that asked whether housing market discrimination led African-Americans to pay more for equivalent units. Over four decades, Quigley continued to develop housing price models, championing a hybrid approach that used both repeat sales and other transactions. Together with Robert Van Order, Quigley developed empirical tests of rational mortgage default and prepayments. Their work found that frictionless models are often rejected by the data. Quigley's work on green buildings documented their high economic returns; his work on homelessness pointed to high housing prices and overly restrictive supply regulations. Together with Karl Case and Robert Shiller, Quigley demonstrated the strong effects of housing wealth on consumption.