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on Discrete Choice Models |
| By: | Dodds, Kaylee |
| Abstract: | A new climate-smart wheat with biological nitrification inhibition (BNI) has the potential to increase the sustainability of Canadian agriculture by reducing nitrogen leaching into groundwater systems and nitrous oxide emissions from nitrogen fertilizer. On top of the fertilizer savings from growing BNI wheat, it may be possible for Canadian producers to earn a premium through a climate-smart certification. This thesis explores the consumer demand for a climate-smart certification on pasta. Current research shows evidence of willingness to pay (WTP) for environmentally friendly food products among several consumers groups, but the market potential of products bearing a new climate-smart certification has not been explored. If WTP for climate-smart certified food is found to be high, it may help to support the creation of a climate-smart certification which could help incentivize Canadian producers to adopt climate-smart agriculture production practices. In March 2025, an online survey of 5045 consumers across Canada, Italy, the United States, and the United Kingdom gathered consumer preferences through a discrete choice experiment (DCE) to evaluate WTP for climate-smart pasta. Attributes in the DCE included information on greenhouse gas emission reductions, presence or absence of a climate smart certification, and the organization providing certification. Prior to the DCE, respondents were randomly allocated to information treatments highlighting either local or global benefits of climate-smart agriculture or the control group. These information treatments were designed to assess whether the framing of climate-smart agriculture impacts consumer demand. Then, multinomial logit, mixed logit and latent class models were estimated in order to measure the consumer demand. Canadian consumers were found to be willing to pay an additional premium of 20% for a climate-smart label and 12% for a GHG emissions reduction claim. Similar premiums were found across all the countries studied. Additionally, we found that consumers had a strong dislike for climate-smart labels certified by the government and certified by retailers. Consumers were indifferent towards an environmental organization label and exhibited both positive and negative preferences for the pasta company certification, depending on the market. |
| Keywords: | Consumer/Household Economics |
| Date: | 2026–02 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:activa:397830 |
| By: | Helmut Elsinger (Oesterreichische Nationalbank, Economic Studies Division); Helmut Stix (Oesterreichische Nationalbank, Economic Studies Division); Martin Summer (Oesterreichische Nationalbank, Economic Studies Division) |
| Abstract: | This paper examines consumers intended adoption of a digital euro in Austria using a discrete choice experiment. We estimate a mixed logit model to quantify the role of key attributes such as privacy, offline functionality, security against financial loss, monetary incentives and payment form factors. Our findings indicate that security and financial incentives are the strongest drivers of adoption, while privacy plays a secondary role. We identify significant heterogeneity in adoption likelihood across socio-demographic groups. Simulations suggest that under realistic design assumptions, approximately 45% of individuals are found to have an intention to adopt a digital euro. |
| Keywords: | Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC), Consumer Adoption, Discrete Choice Experiment, Payment Preferences |
| JEL: | E42 D12 G21 C35 |
| Date: | 2025–07–08 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:onb:oenbwp:268 |
| By: | Maria A. Cattaneo; Stefan Wolter; Thea Zöllner |
| Abstract: | Switzerland features strong socio-economic segregation and no formal school choice, making residential relocation the only channel through which parents can access preferred schools. Identifying how parents value school attributes is therefore essential but challenging, given that choices bundle multiple characteristics. We address this by conducting a discrete choice experiment with nearly 2, 700 parents with school-aged children, allowing us to estimate willingness to pay (WTP) for individual and combined school attributes. We find that a substantial minority of parents value academic quality so highly that their preferences are effectively price-insensitive. Among price-sensitive parents, academic quality remains central, but they also exhibit positive WTP for schools with fewer students with special educational needs and fewer non-native-speaking peers. Interaction effects are strong: WTP for reductions in special-needs peers is highest if the school is among the academically strongest. Accounting for attribute interactions further reveals marked heterogeneity, with parents clustering into seven distinct preference types. |
| Keywords: | Discrete choice experiment, willingness to pay, special needs education, school quality |
| JEL: | C4 H4 I20 I24 |
| Date: | 2026–01 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:crm:wpaper:26018 |
| By: | Lydia Chikumbi; Milan Scasny |
| Keywords: | choice experiment, Quantitative Methods |
| JEL: | C25 D91 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:rza:ersawp:878 |
| By: | Peter Arcidiacono; Attila Gyetvai; Arnaud Maurel; Ekaterina Jardim |
| Abstract: | This paper applies some of the key insights of dynamic discrete choice models to continuous-time job search models. Our framework incorporates preference shocks into search models, resulting in a tight connection between value functions and conditional choice probabilities. In this environment, we establish constructive identification of the model parameters, including the wage offer distributions off- and on-the-job. Our framework makes it possible to estimate nonstationary search models in a simple and tractable way, without having to solve any differential equations. We apply our method using Hungarian administrative data. Longer unemployment durations are associated with lower offer arrival rates, resulting in accepted wages falling over time. Counterfactual simulations indicate that increasing unemployment benefits by 90 days results in a 14-day increase in expected unemployment duration. |
| Keywords: | Job search, Identification, dynamic discrete choice |
| JEL: | J64 C31 C41 J31 |
| Date: | 2025–12 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:crm:wpaper:25153 |
| By: | Caitlin Brown; Denni Tommasi |
| Abstract: | We study quality upgrading in informal street food markets - where food safety is a credence attribute and transactions are frequent, low-value, and weakly regulated - using two linked experiments with consumers and vendors in Kolkata, India. We firstly define and measure upgrading through a context-specific framework based on observable sanitation-related inputs and food-safety practices. Using a discrete choice experiment with consumers, we document a large willingness to pay for visibly cleaner kiosks and more hygienic vendors, highlighting the central role of observable signals. We then conduct a clustered randomized trial with vendors that subsidizes sanitation infrastructure and hygiene supplies, and cross-randomizes on-site training. The intervention increases the use of provided equipment and improves observed hygiene during the subsidy period, but effects fade after support ends and training adds little. Business outcomes improve through higher customer volume yielding increased profits, yet prices do not change. Moreover, untreated vendors near treated peers experience worse outcomes, consistent with demand reallocation and positional returns rather than market expansion. Follow-up surveys and qualitative evidence point to binding constraints from informal price coordination norms and a precarious operating environment, consistent with a moral hazard mechanism in which cleanliness is difficult to verify and not privately profitable to sustain. |
| Keywords: | Quality upgrading; street food; informal markets; food safety; randomized experiment; consumer preferences; hygiene practices; moral hazard; subsidy effectiveness; signaling; developing countries. |
| JEL: | D82 I18 L15 L31 O12 O33 |
| Date: | 2025–12 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:crm:wpaper:25163 |
| By: | Živa Alif (University of Ljubljana); Sophie Thoyer (CEE-M - Centre d'Economie de l'Environnement - Montpellier - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique - INRAE - Institut National de Recherche pour l’Agriculture, l’Alimentation et l’Environnement - Institut Agro Montpellier - Institut Agro - Institut national d'enseignement supérieur pour l'agriculture, l'alimentation et l'environnement - UM - Université de Montpellier); Raphaële Preget (CEE-M - Centre d'Economie de l'Environnement - Montpellier - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique - INRAE - Institut National de Recherche pour l’Agriculture, l’Alimentation et l’Environnement - Institut Agro Montpellier - Institut Agro - Institut national d'enseignement supérieur pour l'agriculture, l'alimentation et l'environnement - UM - Université de Montpellier); Tanja Šumrada (University of Ljubljana) |
| Abstract: | The EU has set an objective of reaching 10% of landscape features on its agricultural land by 2030 as part of its latest Biodiversity Strategy. This share is often considered the minimum amount of semi-natural habitats required to halt biodiversity declines and ensure the provision of ecosystem services. This policy objective has faced considerable political opposition due to potentially high budgetary and opportunity costs. We explore farmers' preferences towards hypothetical incentive schemes that ensure the provision of 10% of semi-natural habitats at the landscape level. We use the results of a discrete choice experiment to estimate the total budgetary costs of different schemes and potential strategies to reduce these costs. Finally, we examine regional patterns of farmers' enrolment under various policy scenarios. We find that farmers, on average, demand 21 €, 33 € and 29 € per ha of the entire farm to provide 1% of extensive meadows, woody landscape features and fallow land, respectively. While the total cost of reaching the 10% semi-natural habitat goal at the landscape level drastically exceeds the currently available budget when all farmers contribute equally, the costs can be considerably reduced if an auction-like mechanism is used. Our results show that to reach 10% of semi-natural habitats cost-effectively, careful policy design is required in terms of scheme flexibility and farm-level contributions that are aligned with local conservation targets and the desired scale of implementation. |
| Keywords: | Discrete choice experiment, Slovenia, Cost-effectiveness, Biodiversity conservation, Common agricultural policy, Semi-natural habitats, Agri-environmental schemes |
| Date: | 2026–09 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:journl:hal-05589889 |
| By: | Odermatt, Reto; Sisso, Itay; Brun, Fanny; Scheibehenne, Benjamin |
| Abstract: | A fundamental assumption in consumer behavior is that opportunity cost is only relevant in the decision-making process and does not matter for utility once the decision is made. In this study, we question this assumption and consider the possibility that opportunity cost negatively impacts the satisfaction derived from a chosen option. In a series of hypothetical and real choice experiments, we provide evidence that opportunity cost significantly decreases consumers’ happiness after the choice. |
| JEL: | D01 D12 I31 |
| Date: | 2026–04–07 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:bsl:wpaper:2026/01 |
| By: | Anne Brenøe; Daphne Rutnam |
| Abstract: | We study how adolescents' second-order beliefs about their parents' occupational preferences shape gendered career aspirations. In a consequential early-career choice setting, we combine a parental choice experiment with a randomized salience intervention among students. Parents give gendered recommendations, but students substantially overestimate fathers' preference for boys to choose male-dominated occupations as well as mothers' preference for girls to choose female-dominated occupations. Making the same-gender parent salient raises aspirations for gender-congruent occupations, while highlighting the opposite-gender parent and both parents has no effect. Salience does not shift perceived occupational fit, suggesting that identity-based second-order beliefs can reinforce occupational gender segregation. |
| Keywords: | gender norms; second-order beliefs; occupational aspirations; parental beliefs; identity and career choice; early-career choices; choice experiment; field experiment |
| JEL: | J16 J24 I21 C93 D91 |
| Date: | 2026–02 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:crm:wpaper:26057 |
| By: | Sarwar, Faiza; Siddiqu, Danish Ahmed |
| Abstract: | The purpose of this study is to examine how Green Restaurant Sustainable Practices including 1. sustainable food practices (FSP), food quality perception (FQ), food safety perception (FS), and environmental sensitivity (ES) influence consumer behavior, specifically including 1. revisit intentions (CRI), preferences (CP), and willingness to pay more for sustainable food (WTPM). We proposed that these effects are mediated by 1. hedonic (HV) and utilitarian values (UV). Design/Methodology/Approach: A mixed-method approach was used, combining online surveys and in-person interviews to gather data from experienced sustainable food consumers. This dual method helped capture both quantitative and qualitative insights into consumer perceptions and intentions. Findings: Consumers prioritize food quality and are willing to pay more for it. Sustainable practices and environmental sensitivity significantly increase revisit intentions and preferences. Hedonic value mediates the relationship between sustainable practices/food quality and consumer intention. Utilitarian value primarily mediates the effect of environmental sensitivity on consumer behavior. Practical Implications: The study suggests that businesses in the food industry, particularly in emerging markets like Pakistan, can gain a competitive advantage by incorporating sustainable practices. Doing so not only attracts environmentally conscious consumers but also boosts customer loyalty and profitability. Originality/Value: This paper contributes to the growing literature on sustainable consumption in the food industry, with a specific focus on emerging markets in Pakistan. It uniquely incorporates hedonic and utilitarian values as mediators in understanding green consumer behavior |
| Keywords: | Green restaurants, sustainable practices, consumer buying intention, hedonic value, utilitarian value, environmental sensitivity, Pakistan |
| Date: | 2026 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:esprep:340193 |
| By: | Rasmus Lentz; Jonas Maibom; Espen R. Moen |
| Abstract: | We present a tractable, hybrid framework that nests random and perfectly directed search, in which workers are more likely to direct their search toward submarkets with higher returns, while still searching in inferior submarkets with positive probability. The choice of submarket is governed by a logit choice model with noise parameter μ ∈ [0, ∞). In the respective limits, search becomes either completely random or perfectly directed. We characterize the model equilibrium and show that even the perfectly directed search limit is inefficient, in contrast to its otherwise close cousin, competitive search. We proceed to quantify the extent of directedness on Danish matched employer-employee data. Identification relies on the insight that the two benchmark models differ qualitatively in their implications for job-to-job worker reallocation. We find evidence of substantial directedness in search. Finally, we study the implications for underinvestment due to holdup problems and show that the observed degree of directedness substantially reduces underinvestment relative to a setting with random search. |
| Keywords: | Random search, directed search, partly directed search, structural estimation, efficiency |
| JEL: | J62 J63 D83 D4 |
| Date: | 2026–01 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:crm:wpaper:26022 |
| By: | Fiona Burlig; James Bushnell; David Rapson |
| Abstract: | Despite the importance of program participation for policy, treatment effects are often measured on self-selected samples. We study electric vehicle (EV) managed charging, intended to reduce electric grid strain by optimally allocating charging across EVs. Prior work finds large impacts of managed charging among households who volunteer for an RCT. In contrast, we test managed charging with an experiment including all EVs within a California utility. Enrollment is low even with high incentives, and we can reject even modest intent-to-treat effects on electricity consumption. Managed charging is less effective than previously thought, underscoring the value of population-wide experiments. |
| Keywords: | electric vehicles; managed EV charging; demand response; program take-up; field experiment; time-of-use pricing; electricity demand; load shifting |
| JEL: | Q41 Q48 C93 D12 |
| Date: | 2026–04–14 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fip:feddwp:103079 |
| By: | Ohyun Kwon (School of Economics, Drexel University); Mario Larch (University of Bayreuth); Jangsu Yoon (Department of Economics, University of Kentucky); Yoto Yotov (School of Economics, Drexel University) |
| Abstract: | We implement an instrumental-variable Poisson pseudo-maximum likelihood estimator with high-dimensional fixed effects (IV-PPML-HDFE). To correct for incidental parameter bias, we use a split-panel jackknife (SPJ) routine with bootstrapped standard errors. Monte Carlo simulations across the three most common fixed-effect structures confirm that SPJ reduces the mean absolute bias by 42% and raises mean bootstrap confidence-interval coverage from 69% to 92%. We provide a robust and user-friendly ‘ivppmlhdfe’ package, and deploy it in three empirical applications to establish the validity and usefulness of our methods. |
| Keywords: | Poisson pseudo-maximum likelihood, instrumental variables, high-dimensional fixed effects, incidental parameter problem, gravity model, split-panel jackknife. |
| JEL: | C13 C23 C26 F14 |
| Date: | 2026–04 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:drx:wpaper:202611 |
| By: | Vanthuyne, Cole |
| Abstract: | Currently, challenges associated with root rots and drought affect the relative advantage of field pea production, and the severity of these challenges is exacerbated by a changing climate. Advances in crop breeding offer potential solutions in the form of new varieties that address these biotic and environmental stressors, but producer adoption is key. In this research, I examine the opportunities and constraints to adoption of field pea in producers’ rotation decisions, with a focus on the impacts of producer perceptions, uncertainty preferences and technology acceptance. Data was collected through an online survey of 461 Western Canadian field crop producers that incorporated a discrete choice experiment (DCE), Tanaka et al.’s (2010) prospect theory game, and Ellsberg’s (1961) two-urns paradox. These methods allowed us to explore how risk, loss, and ambiguity aversion affected demand for varietal attributes—such as climate resilience (root rot resistance and drought tolerance), royalty models (e.g., Variety Use Agreements), and new technologies (e.g., gene editing). Analyzed through a mixed multinomial logit model, the results suggest the inclusion of field pea in the crop rotation is motivated by the benefits of diversification, but the benefits must outweigh the loss of financial certainty or incentives to justify their place in the crop rotation. This motivation is supported with a significant demand found for root rot resistance among risk and ambiguity averse producers within the full sample. Further, loss aversion was found to have significant positive impacts on demand for drought tolerance. The results point towards root rot challenging the financial certainty of pea, whereas in the case of drought tolerance, demand appears to be driven from a search for protection from overall losses, rather than a guarantee of gains. However, uncertainty behaviours are found to have mixed explanatory power over adoption decisions, likely driven by a heterogenous population. The influence of uncertainty is found to be variable between technologies, growing zones, and producer experience with pea. Sub-sample analysis by soil zone and grower type yielded significant but variable results regarding the impact of uncertainty behaviours. Risk, loss, and ambiguity aversion influenced the perceived utility of traits such as root rot resistance and drought tolerance, with the direction and magnitude of these effects differing across sub-samples and traits. A similar pattern is observed among producers exhibiting ambiguity aversion in relation to the adoption of gene-edited varieties, as adoption was found to be limited or increased by a gene-edited designation when ambiguity aversion was present. The presence of Varietal Use Agreements (VUAs) in new varieties is found to significantly limit adoption, with ambiguity aversion magnifying this effect. Overall, there is a demand for climate-resilient traits among sub-samples, however the usage of gene editing and VUA are found to limit adoption within the sample. The variable results by subanalysis highlight the potential importance of localized and heterogenous factors on the demand for agricultural technologies and practices. |
| Keywords: | Environmental Economics and Policy |
| Date: | 2025–11 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:peaceg:397831 |
| By: | Christopher Campos; Jesse Bruhn; Eric Chyn; Anh Tran |
| Abstract: | We study the distributional effects of remote learning using a novel approach combining preference data from a conjoint survey with administrative records. Experimentally derived preferences account for selection into remote learning and treatment effect heterogeneity. We validate the approach using random variation from school choice lotteries. On average, remote learning reduced reading and math achievement, but children whose parents showed strongest demand experienced positive effects. Parental concerns about bullying strongly predict demand, and remote learning consistently reduced bullying, partly offsetting learning losses. These results suggest that students who sort into post-pandemic remote learning may benefit from its expansion. |
| Keywords: | Remote learning, COVID-19, school match effects, self-selection, school choice, virtual schooling |
| JEL: | I21 I24 |
| Date: | 2026–01 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:crm:wpaper:26009 |
| By: | Jesper Akesson; Kush Amlani; Raul Cepeda Suarez; Emily Chissell; Stefan Hunt; Michael Luca; Gemma Petrie |
| Abstract: | Can active choice mitigate the effects of preset defaults? We study this question using a difference-in-differences design around the rollout of the EU’s Digital Markets Act, which required iOS and Android to display browser choice screens under certain conditions. We find large effects, with notable differences across platforms: from 15 months after the mandate onward, Firefox usage was 113 percent higher on iOS and 12 percent higher on Android relative to a no-mandate counterfactual. This gap is consistent with rollout differences, as Android showed choice screens primarily on new devices, whereas iOS also showed them on existing devices. |
| JEL: | D03 K0 |
| Date: | 2026–04 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:35112 |
| By: | Daisuke Adachi; Lars Skipper |
| Abstract: | Manufacturing job offshoring has displaced low-skilled workers lacking transition skills. Using Danish adult education and employer-employee data, we study how vocational training influences occupational choice and mitigates labor market shocks. Manufacturing workers trained in business services (BS) show a higher probability of transitioning to BS occupations via dynamic difference-in-difference analysis. We then propose and estimate a life-cycle model of training and occupation. Our model reveals that program take-up elasticity is lower than occupation choice elasticity, indicating insensitivity to program monetary value. Counterfactual wage subsidies tied to BS programs support manufacturing-to-BS transitions and reduce labor force exits, especially among older workers. |
| Keywords: | Adult vocational education, life-cycle discrete choice model, labor market resilience |
| JEL: | J24 J62 I21 |
| Date: | 2025–11 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:crm:wpaper:25114 |
| By: | Tiwari, Sapan (RMIT University); Jafari, Afshin; Pemberton, Steve; Ziemke, Dominik |
| Abstract: | Cycling network evaluation and agent-based transport simulations commonly rely on shortest-path routing, implicitly assuming that cyclists minimise travel distance. However, empirical evidence shows that cycling route choice reflects trade-offs between safety, comfort, infrastructure quality, and topography. This study develops a behaviourally informed cycling routing framework that integrates public participation GIS (PPGIS) based route-choice modelling with agent-based simulation. Marginal utilities estimated using a Path Size Logit (PSL) model are transformed into link-level impedance factors and embedded within the agent-based transport simulation model MATSim, enabling cyclists’ behavioural preferences to directly influence network-wide route assignment while holding travel demand constant. The framework is evaluated against both shortest-path routing and observed cycling routes using the same origin-destination pairs. Results show that impedance-based routing more closely reproduces observed route characteristics, particularly in terms of exposure to low-stress links, speed environments, and cycling infrastructure use. At the network level, behaviourally informed routing increases low-stress exposure by 31.4% and reduces high-stress exposure by 41.5%, while the use of off-road and protected cycling facilities increases by 118.5%. Average exposure to higher-speed traffic environments decreases by 21.3%, accompanied by a modest 3.9% increase in trip length. Embedding behavioural impedance within the agent-based model also substantially alters the emergent exposure of cyclists to motorised traffic, reducing total network-wide exposure by up to 43.5% relative to shortest-path assignment and redistributing cycling flows away from high-speed arterial corridors toward lower-stress alternatives. These findings demonstrate that conventional shortest-path routing in agent-based models can systematically misrepresent cyclist exposure and infrastructure utilisation. The proposed framework provides a practical method for integrating behavioural evidence into agent-based cycling routing, enabling more realistic evaluation of cycling networks, safety outcomes, and infrastructure investments. |
| Date: | 2026–04–18 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:osf:socarx:kt94s_v1 |