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Thursday, January 08, 2015

Behomm Promotes Home Swaps Among the Sophisticated

Behomm connects sophisticated artists and design experts and creates a social network or a club whose members can swap homes.  I learned about Behomm from this NY Times article. Here is a quote:

"What makes Behomm different (and a likely harbinger of home-exchange sites to come) is its peer-to-peer network. All its members are visual artists, designers or allied professionals. To join, they must work in one of 98 creative disciplines listed on the application, from animator to window dresser."

 I don't believe that "economist" counts as one of the 98 "creative disciplines".  This screen clearly keeps out the proletariat.  From the photos I saw the homes that one can rent are really cool and distinctive.

A good revealed preference paper could be written if one could access all of the trade requests in the network.  Homes could be described by their physical attributes, city and location within the city or countryside.   No $ changes hands so if two people make a trade, you learn something about both of their preferences over housing and spatial attributes. From observing the universe of offers and accepted offers a good economist should learn something about the demand for these attributes.  A journal referee would complain that the preferences recovered represent those of an elite set of people who chose to join Behomm in the first place.