Ž . JOURNAL OF URBAN ECONOMICS 44, 291298 1998 ARTICLE NO. UE972071 Andrew Court and the Invention of Hedonic Price Analysis Allen C. Goodman* ,† Department of Economics, Wayne State Uni  ersity, 2145 FAB, Detroit, Michigan 48202 Received May 27, 1997; revised September 1997 Although popularized by Griliches in the early 1960s, the pioneering hedonic price analysis dates back to a 1939 article by Andrew Court which receives, at best, only perfunctory citations. This article revisits and extends Court’s 1939 analysis. By many standards of contemporary hedonic price analysis, Court’s work stands up quite well. It addresses problems of nonlinearity and changes in underlying goods, with circumspect analysis and interpretation. The article evaluates Court’s work, extends his analyses using data from his unpublished papers, and conjectures as to why the hedonic price method was unused for so many years.  1998 Academic Press INTRODUCTION One of the more unusual episodes in econometric work regards the invention, disappearance, and subsequent re-emergence of hedonic price analysis. Although popularized by Zvi Griliches in the early 1960s, the pioneering work, and apparently the coining of the term ‘‘hedonic,’’dates back to a 1939 article by Andrew Court. Court’s work generally receives, at best, a perfunctory citation in most articles. It deserves better. By many standards of contemporary hedonic price analysis, Court’s work stands up quite well. It deals with problems of nonlinearity, and with changes in underlying goods bundles. It addresses a substantive methodological problem with circumspect analysis and inter- pretation. Given the circumstances, it is useful to revisit the analysis and to re-examine the model, and to ask whyit was unused for 20 years after its inception. This article describes and evaluates Court’s work by the standards of contemporary hedonic price analysis. It then extends the work using data *I am grateful to the library staff at the Walter P. Reuther Library at Wayne State University for access to Andrew Court’s unpublished papers. I am grateful to Jan Brueckner and to two anonymous referees for their useful comments. I am also grateful to Jack Triplett for sharing thoughts and comments with me. Responsibility for errors is my own. † E-mail address: agoodman@econ.wayne.edu. 291 0094-119098 $25.00 Copyright  1998 by Academic Press All rights of reproduction in any form reserved.