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on Discrete Choice Models |
| By: | Alain Carpentier; Elodie Letort |
| Abstract: | The Multinomial Logit (MNL) framework has been used in the agricultural production economics literature to model acreage share choices, crop decisions or land use decisions. This article extends the pioneering works of Caswell and Zilberman (1985) and of Wu and Segerson (1995) by developing further the theoretical background of the MNL acreage share models. Two approaches are considered: the “cost function approach” and the “discrete choice approach”. It is then shown that MNL acreage share models can be used to define simple multi-crop econometric models with land as an allocatable fixed input. Finally several generalizations of the standard MNL acreage share model are proposed. |
| Keywords: | acreage share, discrete choice, multicrop econometric model, multinomial Logit |
| JEL: | D21 Q15 C51 |
| Date: | 2009 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:rae:wpaper:200917&r=dcm |
| By: | Abid Fourati, Yosr (National University of Ireland, Galway); O'Donoghue, Cathal (Teagasc Rural Economy Research Centre) |
| Abstract: | Pension systems have recently been under scrutiny because of the expected population ageing threatening its sustainability. This paper's contribution to the debate is from a political economic perspective as it uses data from a choice experiment to investigate individual preferences for an alternative state pension scheme based around preferences for cost, poverty, retirement age and pension parameters. Answers are used to estimate a lifecycle utility model of preferences towards pensions' parameters. Results suggest that individuals’ value orientation is an important determinant of their preferences. Respondents' income determines which degree of redistribution is preferred. However, preferences according to age are in contradiction with what is suggested in theory. |
| Keywords: | redistribution, pension system reform, population ageing, stated preferences |
| JEL: | H0 I3 |
| Date: | 2009–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp4479&r=dcm |
| By: | Simon Burgess; Ellen Greaves; Anna Vignoles; Deborah Wilson |
| Abstract: | Parental demand for academic performance is a key element in the view that strengthening school choice will drive up school performance. In this paper we analyse what parents look for in choosing schools. We assemble a unique dataset combining survey information on parents’ choices plus a rich set of socio-economic characteristics; administrative data on school characteristics, admissions criteria and allocation rules; and spatial data attached to a pupil census to define the de facto set of schools available to each family in the survey. To achieve identification, we focus on cities where the school place allocation system is truth-revealing (“equal preferences”). We take great care in trying to capture the set of schools that each family could realistically choose from. We also look at a large subset of parents who continued living in the same house as before the child was born, to avoid endogenous house/school moves. We then model the choices made in terms of the characteristics of schools and families and the distances involved. School characteristics include measures of academic performance, school socio-economic and ethnic composition, and its faith school status. Initial results showed strong differences in the set of choices available to parents in different socio-economic positions. Our central analysis uses multinomial logistic regression to show that families do indeed value academic performance in schools. They also value school composition – preferring schools with low fractions of children from poor families. We compute trade-offs between these characteristics as well as between these and distance travelled. We are able to compare these trade-offs for different families. Our results suggest that preferences do not vary greatly between different socio-economic groups once constraints are fully accounted for. |
| Keywords: | school preferences, school choice, parental choice |
| JEL: | I20 |
| Date: | 2009–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:bri:cmpowp:09/222&r=dcm |