#07-28
Real Estate through the Ages: The Known, the Unknown and
the Unknowable
Ashok Bardhan and Robert Edelstein
Abstract: Real estate and land are among the oldest asset markets with which humans have had
extensive experience. The significance of agricultural, residential and commercial real
estate assets in mankind’s history can scarcely be exaggerated. Social structure, marriage
institutions, inter-state relations and, more broadly, socio-economic organization have
been affected by and simultaneously have influenced the nature and functioning of real
estate markets. The complex interaction of real estate markets with social, political,
cultural and economic institutions through the ages, combined with the impact of
technological changes, makes the task of assessing what is or was known, unknown and
unknowable in real estate economics and real estate investment a particularly daunting
task. As a directing principle of our analysis, we shall follow the taxonomy of the known
(K), the unknown (u), and the unknowable (U), or KuU, defined in terms of i) knowledge
as a measurement issue, and ii) knowledge as a theoretical construct.
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