nep-dcm New Economics Papers
on Discrete Choice Models
Issue of 2022‒02‒07
four papers chosen by
Edoardo Marcucci
Università degli studi Roma Tre

  1. Identifying the Distribution of Welfare from Discrete Choice By Bart Capéau; Liebrecht De Sadeleer
  2. Spatial preferences for invasion management: a choice experiment on the control of Ludwigia grandiflora in a French regional park. By Douadia Bougherara; Pierre Courtois; Maia David; Joakim Weill
  3. Does charity begin at home for air pollution reductions? Unraveling intra familial altruism By Olivier Chanel; Stéphane Luchini; Jason Shogren
  4. Autonomous vehicle: attitude, activities, and feelings By Stéphanie Souche-Le Corvec; Florent Laroche

  1. By: Bart Capéau; Liebrecht De Sadeleer
    Abstract: Empirical welfare analyses often impose stringent parametric assumptions on individuals' preferences and neglect unobserved preference heterogeneity. In this paper, we develop a framework to conduct individual and social welfare analysis for discrete choice that does not suffer from these drawbacks. We first adapt the class of individual welfare measures introduced by Fleurbaey (2009) to settings where individual choice is discrete. Allowing for unrestricted, unobserved preference heterogeneity, these measures become random variables. We then show that the distribution of these objects can be derived from choice probabilities, which can be estimated nonparametrically from cross-sectional data. In addition, we derive nonparametric results for the joint distribution of welfare and welfare differences, as well as for social welfare. The former is an important tool in determining whether the winners of a price change belong disproportionately to those groups who were initially well-off. An empirical illustration demonstrates the relevance of the methods and the importance of considering welfare instead of income.
    Keywords: discrete choice, nonparametric welfare analysis, individual welfare, social welfare, money metric utility, compensating variation, equivalent variation
    Date: 2022–01
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:eca:wpaper:2013/338552&r=
  2. By: Douadia Bougherara (CEE-M - Centre d'Economie de l'Environnement - Montpellier - UMR 5211 - UM - Université de Montpellier - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique - Montpellier SupAgro - Institut national d’études supérieures agronomiques de Montpellier - Institut Agro - Institut national d'enseignement supérieur pour l'agriculture, l'alimentation et l'environnement - INRAE - Institut National de Recherche pour l’Agriculture, l’Alimentation et l’Environnement); Pierre Courtois (CEE-M - Centre d'Economie de l'Environnement - Montpellier - UMR 5211 - UM - Université de Montpellier - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique - Montpellier SupAgro - Institut national d’études supérieures agronomiques de Montpellier - Institut Agro - Institut national d'enseignement supérieur pour l'agriculture, l'alimentation et l'environnement - INRAE - Institut National de Recherche pour l’Agriculture, l’Alimentation et l’Environnement); Maia David (ECO-PUB - Economie Publique - INRA - Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique - AgroParisTech); Joakim Weill (UC Davis - University of California [Davis] - University of California)
    Abstract: If individuals have spatially dierentiated preferences for sites or areas im- 8 pacted by an invasive alien species, eective management must take this 9 heterogeneity into account and target sites or areas accordingly. In this 10 paper, we estimate spatially dierentiated preferences for the management 11 of primrose willow (Ludwigia grandiora), an invasive weed spreading in a 12 French regional park. We use an original spatially explicit discrete choice 13 experiment to evaluate individuals' willingness to pay (WTP) to control the 14 invasion in dierent areas of the regional park. Our results indicate that 15 WTP for management highly depends on the area considered, with areas 16 where it is three times higher than others. We analyze the main factors 17 explaining the heterogeneity of preferences and show that the closer respo n-18 dents live to the park, the more they visit and/or practice activities in it, the 19 higher their WTP and spatial preferences. Park residents and regular users 20 have highWTP and unambiguous preferences for targeting control to specic 21 areas. Non-residents and occasional users have much lower WTP and more 22 homogeneous spatial preferences. These results suggest that implementing 23 management strategies that spatially target invasion control according to 24 public preferences is likely to produce signicant utility gains. These gains 25 are all the more important as the preferences taken into account are those of the stakeholders directly concerned by the invasion, the residents and reg-27 ular park users. Ignoring these spatial preferences will lead to sub-optimal 28 invasion management.
    Keywords: Public preferences.,Discrete choice experiments,Spatial heterogeneity,Cost assess- 30 ment,Primrose willow,Invasive weed
    Date: 2021
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:journl:hal-03476692&r=
  3. By: Olivier Chanel (AMSE - Aix-Marseille Sciences Economiques - EHESS - École des hautes études en sciences sociales - ECM - École Centrale de Marseille - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique - AMU - Aix Marseille Université); Stéphane Luchini (AMSE - Aix-Marseille Sciences Economiques - EHESS - École des hautes études en sciences sociales - ECM - École Centrale de Marseille - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique - AMU - Aix Marseille Université); Jason Shogren (UW - University of Wyoming)
    Abstract: We propose a structural econometric model that incorporates altruism towards other household members into the willingness to pay for a public good. The model distinguishes preferences for public good improvements for oneself from preferences for improvements for other household members. We test for three different types of altruism - ‘pure self-interest', ‘pure altruism' and ‘public-good-focused non-pure altruism'. Using French contingent valuation data regarding air quality improvements, we find positive and significant degrees of concern for children under the age of 18, which are explained by determinants related to health and subjective air quality assessment. All other forms of pure or air-quality-focused altruism within the family are insignificant, including for children over 18, siblings, spouses, and parents. This result suggests that benefit estimates that do not consider altruism could undervalue improvements in air quality in France.
    Keywords: air pollution,familial altruism,field experiment,contingent valuation,willingness to pay
    Date: 2021–03
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:journl:hal-03180465&r=
  4. By: Stéphanie Souche-Le Corvec (LAET - Laboratoire Aménagement Économie Transports - UL2 - Université Lumière - Lyon 2 - ENTPE - École Nationale des Travaux Publics de l'État - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique); Florent Laroche (LAET - Laboratoire Aménagement Économie Transports - UL2 - Université Lumière - Lyon 2 - ENTPE - École Nationale des Travaux Publics de l'État - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique)
    Abstract: Between myth and reality, the concept of autonomous vehicle (AV) is becoming a credible alternative for the coming decades. The objective of this paper is to improve our knowledge about attitudes towards autonomous vehicles (AV). The first challenge is to identify the activities which could be performed in the AV. The second challenge is to characterise emotions towards the AV while the third is to better understand the link between the socio-demographic characteristics and attitudes towards the AV. The analysis is based on an online survey with a representative panel in France (1 100 respondents). The results show that car users are those who are the most interested in the autonomous vehicle. Also, they will not be ready to use the full potential of AV because 70% of them declare "watching the road" as their main activity. This can be explained by the fact that AV is associated with feelings of stress, being afraid and apprehension, even for people who already use driving assistance systems. Of the people questioned, those between 46 to 65 years old have a more positive attitude toward AV than others. Finally, the possibility of working inside an AV acts negatively on AV use through the risk of the added workload anticipated by individuals and by the fact that individuals do not perceive the interest of working inside a vehicle rather than at home or in the workplace.
    Keywords: Autonomous Vehicle,Value of Time,Activity non related to driving task (NDRT),emotion,Working Papers du LAET
    Date: 2021
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:wpaper:halshs-03488102&r=

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