nep-dcm New Economics Papers
on Discrete Choice Models
Issue of 2015‒02‒28
nine papers chosen by
Edoardo Marcucci
Università degli studi Roma Tre

  1. Demand systems for market shares By Fosgerau, Mogens ; de Palma, André
  2. Arbeitnehmerfreizügigkeit und Finanzkrise: Reagieren Migrationsströme tatsächlich nicht auf asymmetrische Schocks? By Brücker, Herbert
  3. The impact of body weight on occupational mobility and career development By Harris, Matthew
  4. Pro-environmental households and energy efficiency in Spain By Ramos, Ana ; Labandeira, Xavier ; Löschel, Andreas
  5. Airline strategic alliances in overlapping Markets: Should policymakers be concerned? By Gayle, Philip ; Brown, Dave
  6. Do agri-environmental schemes help reduce herbicide use? Evidence from a natural exp eriment in France By Laure Kuhfuss ; Raphaële Préget ; Sophie Thoyer ; Nick Hanley
  7. Spatial heterogeneity of willingness to pay for forest management By Mikołaj Czajkowski ; Wiktor Budziński ; Danny Campbell ; Marek Giergiczny ; Nick Hanley
  8. Spatial heterogeneity of willingness to pay for forest management By Mikolaj Czajkowski ; Wiktor Budzinski ; Danny Campbell ; Marek Giergiczny
  9. Wages Anatomy: Labor Supply of Nurses and a Comparison with Physicians By Andreassen, Leif ; Di Tpmmaso, Maria Laura ; Strøm, Steinar

  1. By: Fosgerau, Mogens ; de Palma, André
    Abstract: We formulate a family of direct utility functions for the consumption of a differentiated good. This is used to generate a family of demand systems with flexible substitution patterns. Demand models for market shares can be estimated by regression enabling the use of instrumental variables. Models for microdata can be estimated with maximum likelihood. Our direct utility functions are based on a generalization of the Shannon entropy. They include dual representations of all additive random utility discrete choice models and more.
    Keywords: market shares; product differentiation; duality; discrete choice; entropy
    JEL: C25 D01 L1
    Date: 2015–02–02
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:62106&r=dcm
  2. By: Brücker, Herbert
    Abstract: Dieser Beitrag untersucht die Auswirkungen der Finanz- und Wirtschaftskrise auf die Migration in Europa und nach Deutschland. Häufig wird argumentiert, dass die Arbeitsmobilität in Europa gering sei und sie folglich keinen Beitrag zur Absorbtion asymmetrischer Schocks leisten kann. Tatsächlich ist die internationale Migration von Staatsbürgern aus den Krisenstaaten in die weniger von der Krise betroffenen Staaten der Eurozone und die sonstigen Mitgliedsstaaten der EU gering. Dafür kann eine Umlenkung der Migrationsströme aus den neuen Mitgliedsstaaten der EU von den Krisenstaaten in Länder mit vergleichsweise günstigen Wirtschafts- und Arbeitsmarktbedingungen beobachtet werden, allen voran nach Deutschland. Neue Schätzverfahren, die systematisch den Einfluss wirtschaftlicher Variablen in alternativen Zielländern berücksichtigen, zeigen, dass der überwiegende Anteil des Anstiegs der Migration nach Deutschland auf die Verschlechterung der wirtschaftlichen Bedingungen in anderen Zielländern zurückzuführen ist. Damit ist der Beitrag der internationalen Arbeitsmobilität zur Absorbtion asymmetrischer Schocks größer als er auf den ersten Blick erscheint.
    Keywords: Internationale Migration,Migrationsumlenkung,Finanzkrise,Eurokrise,diskrete Entscheidungsmodelle,Panel-Ökonometrie,International migration,migration diversion,financial crisis,EURO crisis,discrete choice,panel econometrics
    Date: 2014
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:vswi14:107395&r=dcm
  3. By: Harris, Matthew
    Abstract: This paper examines the relationship between individuals' weight and their employment decisions over the life cycle. I estimate a dynamic stochastic model of individuals' annual joint decisions of occupation, hours worked, and schooling. The model allows body weight to affect non-monetary costs, switching costs, and distribution of wages for each occupation; and also allows individuals' employment decisions to affect body weight. I use conditional density estimation to formulate the distributions of wages and body weight evolution. I find that heavier individuals face higher switching costs when transitioning into white collar occupations, earn lower returns to experience in white-collar occupations, and earn lower wages in socially intensive jobs. Simulating the model with estimated parameters, decreased occupational mobility accounts for 10 percent of the obesity wage gap. While contemporaneous wage penalties for body weight are small, the cost over the life cycle is substantial. An exogenous increase in initial body mass by 20 percent leads to a 10 percent decrease in wages over the life course.
    Keywords: Labor, occupational choice, obesity, dynamic discrete choice, productivity, switching costs
    JEL: D91 I14 J24 J3 J31
    Date: 2015–01–28
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:61924&r=dcm
  4. By: Ramos, Ana ; Labandeira, Xavier ; Löschel, Andreas
    Abstract: The residential building sector is a major driver of current and future energy consumption and associated emissions, which can be potentially mitigated through significant energy-efficiency (EE) improvements in both emerging and developed countries. Yet, there are several persistent barriers that hinder the attainment of EE improvements in this area. Using data from a 2008 national representative survey of Spanish households, this paper is interested in the determinants of EE-related decisions. In particular, a discrete-choice model empirically analyzes whether proenvironmental households are more likely to invest in EE and to adopt daily energysaving habits. We show that households with eco-friendly behaviors are more likely to investment in well-differentiated EE measures as well as to steer daily habits towards energy savings. However, no effects are found for households with environmental attitudes based on stated willingness to pay to protect the environment. In addition to this, households belonging to higher income groups and education levels are more likely to invest in EE but not to adopt energy-saving habits; while households with older members are less likely to invest in EE and show fewer eco-friendly habits.
    Keywords: energy efficiency,investment,behavior,habits
    JEL: Q41 Q48 Q58
    Date: 2015
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:cawmdp:80&r=dcm
  5. By: Gayle, Philip ; Brown, Dave
    Abstract: When there is significant overlap in potential partner airlines' route networks, policymakers have expressed concern that an alliance between such airlines may facilitate collusion on price and/or service levels in the partners' overlapping markets. The contribution of our paper is to put together a structural econometric model that is able to explicitly disentangle the demand and supply effects associated with an alliance between such airlines. The estimates from our structural econometric model do identify demand-increasing effects associated with the Delta/Continental/Northwest alliance, but statistically reject collusive behavior between the partners.
    Keywords: Codeshare Alliance; Collusion; Airline Competition; Discrete Choice Demand Model; Nested Logit
    JEL: L13 L40 L93
    Date: 2015–01
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:62355&r=dcm
  6. By: Laure Kuhfuss (Department of Geography and Sustainable Development, University of St. Andrews ); Raphaële Préget (INRA, UMR 1135 LAMETA, F-34000 Montpellier, France ); Sophie Thoyer (Montpellier SupAgro, UMR 1135 LAMETA, F-34000 Montpellier, France ); Nick Hanley (Department of Geography and Sustainable Development, University of St. Andrews )
    Abstract: Using a choice experiment, this paper shows that the introduction of a conditional collective bonus in an agri-environmental scheme (AES) can improve farmers’ participation and increase land enrolment for lower overall budgetary costs. This monetary bonus is paid per hectare of enrolled land in addition to the usual agri-environmental payment if a given threshold is reached in terms of farmers’ participation in the region or catchment of interest. Using a choice experiment, we estimate the preferences of wine growers in the South of France for such a bonus. We show that it contributes to increased expectations of farmers on others’ participation, therefore changing the pro-environmental social norm and initiating group dynamics towards the adoption of less pesticide-intensive farming practices over time.
    Keywords: payment for environmental services, choice experiment, collective incentive, agri-environmental schemes, social norm, behaviour
    JEL: Q15 Q18 Q25 Q28 Q53
    Date: 2015–02
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:sss:wpaper:2015-06&r=dcm
  7. By: Mikołaj Czajkowski (Faculty of Economic Sciences, University of Warsaw ); Wiktor Budziński (Faculty of Economic Sciences, University of Warsaw ); Danny Campbell (University of Stirling, Stirling Management School, Economics Division ); Marek Giergiczny (Faculty of Economic Sciences, University of Warsaw ); Nick Hanley (University of St Andrews, School of Geography and Sustainable Development )
    Abstract: The paper investigates spatial heterogeneity of the public’s preferences for the implementation of a new country-wide forest management and protection program in Poland. Spatial econometric methods and high resolution geographical information system (GIS) data related to forest characteristics are used to explain individual-specific willingness to pay (WTP) values, derived from a discrete choice experiment (DCE) study. We find that respondents’ WTP is higher the closer they live to their nearest forest, and the scarcer forests are in the area where they live. Interestingly, the more highly ecologically valuable forests in respondents’ area, the more they prefer extending areas of national forest protection. In addition, we investigate spatial patterns in individual-specific WTP scores and in latent class membership probabilities, finding that preferences are indeed spatially clustered. We argue that this clustering should be taken into account in both benefits analysis and policy-making.
    Keywords: discrete choice experiment, contingent valuation, willingness to pay, spatial heterogeneity of preferences, forest management, passive protection, litter, tourist infrastructure, mixed logit, Kriging, spatial-lag
    JEL: Q23 Q28 I38 Q51 Q57 Q58
    Date: 2015
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:war:wpaper:2015-06&r=dcm
  8. By: Mikolaj Czajkowski (University of Warsaw, Department of Economic Sciences, Poland ); Wiktor Budzinski (University of Warsaw, Department of Economic Sciences, Poland ); Danny Campbell (University of Stirling, Stirling Management School, Economics Division, UK ); Marek Giergiczny (University of Warsaw, Department of Economic Sciences, Poland ; Department of Geography and Sustainable Development, University of St. Andrews )
    Abstract: The paper investigates spatial heterogeneity of the public’s preferences for the implementation of a new country-wide forest management and protection program in Poland. Spatial econometric methods and high resolution geographical information system (GIS) data related to forest characteristics are used to explain individual-specific willingness to pay (WTP) values, derived from a discrete choice experiment (DCE) study. We find that respondents’ WTP is higher the closer they live to their nearest forest, and the scarcer forests are in the area where they live. Interestingly, the more highly ecologically valuable forests in respondents’ area, the more they prefer extending areas of national forest protection. In addition, we investigate spatial patterns in individual-specific WTP scores and in latent class membership probabilities, finding that preferences are indeed spatially clustered. We argue that this clustering should be taken into account in both benefits analysis and policy-making.
    Keywords: discrete choice experiment, contingent valuation, willingness to pay, spatial heterogeneity of preferences, forest management, passive protection, litter, tourist infrastructure, mixed logit, Kriging, spatial-lag
    JEL: Q23 Q28 I38 Q51 Q57 Q58
    Date: 2015–02
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:sss:wpaper:2015-07&r=dcm
  9. By: Andreassen, Leif (Research Department, Statistics Norway, ); Di Tpmmaso, Maria Laura (Dept. of Economics and Statistics “Cognetti de Martiis”, University of Torino ); Strøm, Steinar (Dept. of Economics, University of Oslo )
    Abstract: We estimate a dynamic discrete choice model of Registered Nurses’ labor supply with random terms. A distinguished feature of our model is that random terms are correlated over time and jobs (habit persistence). Past options and not only the past optimal choices matter for the current choices. Given observed incentives, we find that nurses are mobile when they are young (less than physicians), but there is also a weak tendency of higher mobility again when they are approaching retirement age. Wage increases have a modest impact on labor supply. The overall elasticity for nurses is close to zero (like for physicians). These low elasticities shadow for stronger responses, shifting labor away from part time jobs in the public and private sector towards full time jobs in the private sector. A change in taxation away from the progressive tax system towards a flat tax of 28% gives Registered Nurses a very modest incentive to shift their job to private hospitals. For physicians the impact is stronger.
    Keywords: Nurses’ labor supply; multi-sector; panel data
    JEL: C35 I10 J22
    Date: 2014–11–30
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:osloec:2014_024&r=dcm

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