nep-dcm New Economics Papers
on Discrete Choice Models
Issue of 2024‒01‒08
nine papers chosen by
Edoardo Marcucci, Università degli studi Roma Tre


  1. The impact of sensory characteristics on the willingness to pay for honey By Julia Zaripova; Ksenia Chuprianova; Irina Polyakova; Daria Semenova; Sofya Kulikova
  2. Estimating Mode Choice Inertia and Price Elasticities after a Price Intervention – Evidence from Three Months of almost Fare-free Public Transport in Germany By Maria Fernanda Guajardo Ortega; Heike Link
  3. Preference for meat substitute with plant-based proteins (PBP): An experiment with real product consumption By Mélody Leplat; Youenn Loheac; Eric Teillet
  4. Eliciting Willingness-to-Pay to Decompose Beliefs and Preferences that Determine Selection into Competition in Lab Experiments By Yvonne Jie Chen; Deniz Dutz; Li Li; Sarah Moon; Edward J. Vytlacil; Songfa Zhong
  5. Bootstrap Inference on Partially Linear Binary Choice Model By Wenzheng Gao; Zhenting Sun
  6. Natural meat vs. Plant-Based Protein : What drives consumer choice ? By Mélody Leplat; Youenn Loheac; Eric Teillet
  7. Decomposable Stochastic Choice By Fedor Sandomirskiy; Omer Tamuz
  8. Public preferences for marine park design in Western Australia By Spencer-Cotton, Alaya; Navarro, Matt; Hamre, Nicole
  9. Intertemporal Choice Lists and Maximal Likelihood Estimation of Discount Rates By Sommervoll, Dag Einar; Holden, Stein T.; Tilahun, Mesfin

  1. By: Julia Zaripova; Ksenia Chuprianova; Irina Polyakova; Daria Semenova; Sofya Kulikova
    Abstract: Honey consumption in Russia has been actively growing in recent years due to the increasing interest in healthy and environment-friendly food products. However, it remains an open question which characteristics of honey are the most significant for consumers and, more importantly, from an economic point of view, for which of them consumers are willing to pay. The purpose of this study was to investigate the role of sensory characteristics in assessing consumers' willingness to pay for honey and to determine which properties and characteristics "natural" honey should have to encourage repeated purchases by target consumers. The study involved a behavioral experiment that included a pre-test questionnaire, blind tasting of honey samples, an in-room test to assess perceived quality, and a closed auction using the Becker-DeGroote-Marschak method. As the result, it was revealed that the correspondence of the expected sensations to the actual taste, taste intensity, duration of the aftertaste and the sensations of tickling in the throat had a positive effect on both the perceived quality of the product and the willingness to pay for it, while perception of off-flavors or added sugar had a negative impact. Using factor analysis, we have combined 21 sensory characteristics of honey into eight components that were sufficient to obtain the flavor portrait of honey by Russian consumers.
    Date: 2023–11
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:arx:papers:2311.18269&r=dcm
  2. By: Maria Fernanda Guajardo Ortega; Heike Link
    Abstract: This study analyses the behavioural response of travellers on a temporal reduction of public transport prices in Germany through the so-called 9 Euro Ticket during summer 2022. The focus is on the inertia effect, e.g. the resistance to change behaviour, on people's travel mode decisions for commuter trips. We estimate mixed logit models for nearly 7, 000 commuter trips, based on GPS-tracking data collected as a panel dataset before and after the price intervention. We find significant inertia effects for all travel modes except walking, with negative effects for car and positive effects for public transport and cycling, indicating that car users are less willing to change travel mode while cyclists and public transport users tend to be less resistant. Cross-elasticities of car with respect to public transport attributes are higher than the cross-elasticities of public transport with respect to car attributes such as in-vehicle time and cost. This effect is even higher in the inertia model. Our modelling results suggest that car travel is inelastic and characterised by negative inertia, with a relationship between both effects. Future policy interventions such as the 49-Euro ticket should therefore not focus on price reductions alone, but need additionally to improve other attributes of public transport such as frequency, reliability, safety and comfort in order to incentivise motorists to shift from car to public transport.
    Keywords: Inertia, price elasticities, revealed preference, GPS panel data, mode choice
    JEL: C23 C25 R41
    Date: 2023
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:diw:diwwpp:dp2052&r=dcm
  3. By: Mélody Leplat (L@BISEN - Laboratoire ISEN - Institut supérieur de l'électronique et du numérique (ISEN) - YO - YNCREA OUEST); Youenn Loheac (CREM - Centre de recherche en économie et management - UNICAEN - Université de Caen Normandie - NU - Normandie Université - UR - Université de Rennes - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, ESC [Rennes] - ESC Rennes School of Business); Eric Teillet
    Abstract: People are interested by meat reduction or meat substitution for many arguments: health, environment, animal welfare. Firms explore new models and new supply (better meat or meat substitutes) to take, to keep or to increase market shares. What consumers really prefer and choose? In choice experiments…
    Date: 2023–08–29
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:journl:hal-04297302&r=dcm
  4. By: Yvonne Jie Chen; Deniz Dutz; Li Li; Sarah Moon; Edward J. Vytlacil; Songfa Zhong
    Abstract: This paper develops a partial-identification methodology for analyzing self-selection into alternative compensation schemes in a laboratory environment. We formulate a model of self-selection in which individuals select the compensation scheme with the largest expected valuation, which depends on individual- and scheme-specific beliefs and non-monetary preferences. We characterize the resulting sharp identified sets for individual-specific willingness-to-pay, subjective beliefs, and preferences, and develop conditions on the experimental design under which these identified sets are informative. We apply our methods to examine gender differences in preference for winner-take-all compensation schemes. We find that what has commonly been attributed to a gender difference in preference for performing in a competition is instead explained by men being more confident than women in their probability of winning a future (though not necessarily a past) competition.
    JEL: C25 C91 J16 J31
    Date: 2023–12
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:31930&r=dcm
  5. By: Wenzheng Gao; Zhenting Sun
    Abstract: The partially linear binary choice model can be used for estimating structural equations where nonlinearity may appear due to diminishing marginal returns, different life cycle regimes, or hectic physical phenomena. The inference procedure for this model based on the analytic asymptotic approximation could be unreliable in finite samples if the sample size is not sufficiently large. This paper proposes a bootstrap inference approach for the model. Monte Carlo simulations show that the proposed inference method performs well in finite samples compared to the procedure based on the asymptotic approximation.
    Date: 2023–11
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:arx:papers:2311.18759&r=dcm
  6. By: Mélody Leplat (L@BISEN - Laboratoire ISEN - Institut supérieur de l'électronique et du numérique (ISEN) - YO - YNCREA OUEST); Youenn Loheac (CREM - Centre de recherche en économie et management - UNICAEN - Université de Caen Normandie - NU - Normandie Université - UR - Université de Rennes - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, RTO - Rethinking Tomorrow’s Organisation - Rennes School of Business - ESC [Rennes] - ESC Rennes School of Business); Eric Teillet
    Abstract: People are interested by meat reduction or meat substitution for many arguments: health, environment, animal welfare. Firms explore new models and new supply (better meat or meat substitutes) to take, to keep or to increase market shares. What consumers really prefer and choose? In choice experiments…
    Date: 2023–08–20
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:journl:hal-04297270&r=dcm
  7. By: Fedor Sandomirskiy; Omer Tamuz
    Abstract: We investigate inherent stochasticity in individual choice behavior across diverse decisions. Each decision is modeled as a menu of actions with outcomes, and a stochastic choice rule assigns probabilities to actions based on the outcome profile. Outcomes can be monetary values, lotteries, or elements of an abstract outcome space. We characterize decomposable rules: those that predict independent choices across decisions not affecting each other. For monetary outcomes, such rules form the one-parametric family of multinomial logit rules. For general outcomes, there exists a universal utility function on the set of outcomes, such that choice follows multinomial logit with respect to this utility. The conclusions are robust to replacing strict decomposability with an approximate version or allowing minor dependencies on the actions' labels. Applications include choice over time, under risk, and with ambiguity.
    Date: 2023–12
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:arx:papers:2312.04827&r=dcm
  8. By: Spencer-Cotton, Alaya; Navarro, Matt; Hamre, Nicole
    Abstract: ● Effective design and planning of marine protected areas requires an understanding of the socioeconomic uses and values that exist for the proposed marine area. Inevitably, different stakeholders will have different preferences for the spatial design of the no-take sanctuary zones within a marine park. One key stakeholder group that is often missing from marine park planning is the broader community, or public. This group might currently visit and use the proposed marine park area, they might plan to visit in the future, and may also derive benefit from other non-use outcomes such as from marine ecosystem services. ● In 2023, Western Australia started consultation for the establishment of two new marine parks. The extension and rezoning of an existing marine park adjacent to metropolitan Perth, the Marmion Marine Park, and one new marine park on the south coast of the state, named here as the Proposed South Coast Marine Park. ● This working paper presents results from surveys of the Western Australian public that included two stated preference experiments, a single binary choice question and a multiple discrete choice experiment. ● Results demonstrate a strong public desire for world-class conservation outcomes for both the Marmion and the Proposed South Coast Marine Parks, with 75% of the general public supporting the creation of no-take sanctuary zones across at least 31% of both marine park areas. We estimate that Western Australian households are willing to pay more to achieve larger areas of no-take sanctuary zones - A$112 per household per year for 45% at Marmion Marine Park and A$123 per household per year for 45% at the Proposed South Coast Marine Park, for an aggregate value of A$84.3 million and A$92.3 million respectively. We also find that public valuation increases by between 19% and 57% when sanctuary zones include extensive shore protection enabling greater connection with the community.
    Keywords: Environmental Economics and Policy
    Date: 2023–12–13
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:uwauwp:339006&r=dcm
  9. By: Sommervoll, Dag Einar (Centre for Land Tenure Studies, Norwegian University of Life Sciences); Holden, Stein T. (Centre for Land Tenure Studies, Norwegian University of Life Sciences); Tilahun, Mesfin (Centre for Land Tenure Studies, Norwegian University of Life Sciences)
    Abstract: The experiments designed to estimate real-life discount rates in intertemporal choice often rely on ordered choice lists, where the list by design aims to capture a switch point between near- and far-future alternatives. Structural models like a Samuelson discounted utility model are often fitted to the model using maximal likelihood estimation. We show that dominated tasks, that is, choices that do not define the switch point, may bias ML estimates profoundly and predictably. More (less) dominated near future tasks give higher (lower) discount rates. Simulation analysis indicates estimates may remain largely unbiased using switch point-defining tasks only.
    Keywords: Choice lists; time discounting; maximal likelihood estimation
    JEL: C13 C81 C93 D91
    Date: 2023–12–19
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:nlsclt:2023_009&r=dcm

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