Essays on Individual Choice Modeling and Analysis

Essays on Individual Choice Modeling and Analysis PDF Author: Yulia Vorotyntseva
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Management science
Languages : en
Pages :

Get Book Here

Book Description
This dissertation includes three essays. The first two essays are concerned with empirical investigation of individual choice by means of laboratory experiment, and the third one is concerned with integrating one particular behavior pattern – consumer learning – into assortment decisions. The summaries of these essays are provided below. In the first essay, we study how customers are choosing prices in a Pay-What-You-Want (PWYW) business model. Under PWYW the price for a product is fully determined by a buyer: the seller cannot reject any offer. We study two factors that can potentially affect PWYW prices: the seller’s production costs and the buyer’s private valuation of the product. We hypothesize that buyers may anticipate the seller’s loss-aversion, so they will be reluctant to choose prices below the costs, and that the prices increase as the buyer’s valuation increases. We suggest a model that incorporates this hypothetical behavior and estimate it using the dataset from a previously published experimental study. Based on the preliminary insights we obtain, we design and conduct our own controlled laboratory experiment. Our findings suggest that PWYW prices are indeed increasing on average in the buyer’s valuation and seller’s costs. In the second essay we provide the results of empirical investigation of the behavior of human assortment planners. Assortment planning, that is, the selection of products to offer in a store or the design of a product line for a manufacturer, is often performed by managers without any support from computerized optimization algorithms. The goals of our study are (1) to find if human decision makers deviate from the expected profit-maximizing solution in some systematic way and (2) to investigate the effect of decision support tools on the efficacy of assortment planners. To do this, we develop and conduct a behavioral experiment, where the subjects are repeatedly picking assortments in a simplified computerized market environment. We find that the subjects perform better when the profit maximizing assortment consists of fewer products and that subjects improve their decisions over time. The effect of decision support is somewhat surprising: under certain conditions providing subjects with more information resulted in worse performance. In the third essay, we develop a model that explicitly incorporates consumer learning into a firm’s assortment problem. Consumer’s choice of a product from a particular category is influenced by her beliefs about how well the product fits her needs. When a consumer purchases a product repeatedly, her experience with it affects her beliefs and, consequently, her future choices. By providing the consumer with an assortment to choose from, the firm increases the chances that the consumer will find a product that is suitable for her and keep purchasing from the firm in the long term. However, by doing so the firm faces a risk that a less profitable product gets substituted for a more profitable one. The model we develop allows to investigate this tradeoff analytically.

Essays on Individual Choice Modeling and Analysis

Essays on Individual Choice Modeling and Analysis PDF Author: Yulia Vorotyntseva
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Management science
Languages : en
Pages :

Get Book Here

Book Description
This dissertation includes three essays. The first two essays are concerned with empirical investigation of individual choice by means of laboratory experiment, and the third one is concerned with integrating one particular behavior pattern – consumer learning – into assortment decisions. The summaries of these essays are provided below. In the first essay, we study how customers are choosing prices in a Pay-What-You-Want (PWYW) business model. Under PWYW the price for a product is fully determined by a buyer: the seller cannot reject any offer. We study two factors that can potentially affect PWYW prices: the seller’s production costs and the buyer’s private valuation of the product. We hypothesize that buyers may anticipate the seller’s loss-aversion, so they will be reluctant to choose prices below the costs, and that the prices increase as the buyer’s valuation increases. We suggest a model that incorporates this hypothetical behavior and estimate it using the dataset from a previously published experimental study. Based on the preliminary insights we obtain, we design and conduct our own controlled laboratory experiment. Our findings suggest that PWYW prices are indeed increasing on average in the buyer’s valuation and seller’s costs. In the second essay we provide the results of empirical investigation of the behavior of human assortment planners. Assortment planning, that is, the selection of products to offer in a store or the design of a product line for a manufacturer, is often performed by managers without any support from computerized optimization algorithms. The goals of our study are (1) to find if human decision makers deviate from the expected profit-maximizing solution in some systematic way and (2) to investigate the effect of decision support tools on the efficacy of assortment planners. To do this, we develop and conduct a behavioral experiment, where the subjects are repeatedly picking assortments in a simplified computerized market environment. We find that the subjects perform better when the profit maximizing assortment consists of fewer products and that subjects improve their decisions over time. The effect of decision support is somewhat surprising: under certain conditions providing subjects with more information resulted in worse performance. In the third essay, we develop a model that explicitly incorporates consumer learning into a firm’s assortment problem. Consumer’s choice of a product from a particular category is influenced by her beliefs about how well the product fits her needs. When a consumer purchases a product repeatedly, her experience with it affects her beliefs and, consequently, her future choices. By providing the consumer with an assortment to choose from, the firm increases the chances that the consumer will find a product that is suitable for her and keep purchasing from the firm in the long term. However, by doing so the firm faces a risk that a less profitable product gets substituted for a more profitable one. The model we develop allows to investigate this tradeoff analytically.

Choice Modelling

Choice Modelling PDF Author: Stephane Hess
Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing
ISBN: 1781007276
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 322

Get Book Here

Book Description
'This collection of papers, by leading researchers in the field, provides an excellent view of the current state of research and applications. Exciting new techniques are presented, and realistic solutions are offered to issues that arise in applied work. It is an admirably rich volume, offering valuable insights for all readers of choice modeling.' Kenneth Train, University of California, Berkeley and NERA Economic Consulting, Inc., San Francisco, California, US 'I'm an enthusiastic fan of the ICMC, where researchers are friendly, genuinely interested in learning from and helping one another. There is much to learn because each discipline brings a different perspective to the field and to theoretical and applied problems in decision-making and choice behavior. The ICMC embodies the philosophy that most real choice problems are complex and require a cross-disciplinary approach. The papers in this volume represent an eclectic cross-section of the topics covered by key researchers in the field. I look forward to getting our PhD students and postdocs stuck into them.' Jordan Louviere, University of Technology Sydney, Australia Choice modelling has been one of the most active fields in economics over recent years. This valuable new book contains leading contributions from academics and practitioners from across the different areas of study where choice modelling is a key analytical technique, drawn from a recent international conference. Choice models explain the behaviour of individuals by quantifying their values, responses and perceptions of attributes describing the various options (alternatives) available to them. Policy makers and planners have long since recognised the potential of using choice models for guidance purposes, with applications in fields as diverse as transport analysis, healthcare, telecommunications, public service evaluation and energy. The unique mix of theoretical and applied chapters will appeal to academics, students, researchers and practitioners in various fields, as well as anyone with a general interest in the subject.

Discrete Choice Methods with Simulation

Discrete Choice Methods with Simulation PDF Author: Kenneth Train
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 0521766559
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 399

Get Book Here

Book Description
This book describes the new generation of discrete choice methods, focusing on the many advances that are made possible by simulation. Researchers use these statistical methods to examine the choices that consumers, households, firms, and other agents make. Each of the major models is covered: logit, generalized extreme value, or GEV (including nested and cross-nested logits), probit, and mixed logit, plus a variety of specifications that build on these basics. Simulation-assisted estimation procedures are investigated and compared, including maximum stimulated likelihood, method of simulated moments, and method of simulated scores. Procedures for drawing from densities are described, including variance reduction techniques such as anithetics and Halton draws. Recent advances in Bayesian procedures are explored, including the use of the Metropolis-Hastings algorithm and its variant Gibbs sampling. The second edition adds chapters on endogeneity and expectation-maximization (EM) algorithms. No other book incorporates all these fields, which have arisen in the past 25 years. The procedures are applicable in many fields, including energy, transportation, environmental studies, health, labor, and marketing.

Three Essays on Discrete Choice Modeling with Latent Constructs

Three Essays on Discrete Choice Modeling with Latent Constructs PDF Author: Yutaka Motoaki
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 246

Get Book Here

Book Description
This dissertation consists of three individual studies that are concerned with discrete choice models with latent variables. In all three studies, a special attention is paid to specification and estimation of latent constructs. The first study aims to extends the methodological framework for latent class model by incorporating latent variables in the class assignment rule. The second study focuses on goodness of fit of discrete choice models with latent variables. The last study is concerned with discrete choice models with latent variables applied in the context of hurricane evacuation. The work presented here aims to explore the complexity and challenges of modeling latent constructs that are often overlooked.

Discrete Choice Analysis

Discrete Choice Analysis PDF Author: Moshe Ben-Akiva
Publisher: MIT Press
ISBN: 0262536404
Category : Architecture
Languages : en
Pages : 414

Get Book Here

Book Description
Discrete Choice Analysis presents these results in such a way that they are fully accessible to the range of students and professionals who are involved in modelling demand and consumer behavior in general or specifically in transportation - whether from the point of view of the design of transit systems, urban and transport economics, public policy, operations research, or systems management and planning. The methods of discrete choice analysis and their applications in the modelling of transportation systems constitute a comparatively new field that has largely evolved over the past 15 years. Since its inception, however, the field has developed rapidly, and this is the first text and reference work to cover the material systematically, bringing together the scattered and often inaccessible results for graduate students and professionals. Discrete Choice Analysis presents these results in such a way that they are fully accessible to the range of students and professionals who are involved in modelling demand and consumer behavior in general or specifically in transportation - whether from the point of view of the design of transit systems, urban and transport economics, public policy, operations research, or systems management and planning. The introductory chapter presents the background of discrete choice analysis and context of transportation demand forecasting. Subsequent chapters cover, among other topics, the theories of individual choice behavior, binary and multinomial choice models, aggregate forecasting techniques, estimation methods, tests used in the process of model development, sampling theory, the nested-logit model, and systems of models. Discrete Choice Analysis is ninth in the MIT Press Series in Transportation Studies, edited by Marvin Manheim.

Applied Discrete-choice Modelling

Applied Discrete-choice Modelling PDF Author: David A. Hensher
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
ISBN: 9780470270783
Category : Decision making
Languages : en
Pages : 468

Get Book Here

Book Description


Choice Modelling

Choice Modelling PDF Author: Stephane Hess
Publisher: Emerald Group Publishing
ISBN: 1849507724
Category : Transportation
Languages : en
Pages : 639

Get Book Here

Book Description
Contains a selection of the best theoretical and applied papers from the inaugural International Choice Modelling Conference. The conference was organised by the Institute for Transport Studies at the University of Leeds and held in Harrogate, North Yorkshire on 30 March to 1 April 2009.

Applied Choice Analysis

Applied Choice Analysis PDF Author: David A. Hensher
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1107092647
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 1219

Get Book Here

Book Description
A fully updated second edition of this popular introduction to applied choice analysis, written for graduate students, researchers, professionals and consultants.

Handbook of Choice Modelling

Handbook of Choice Modelling PDF Author: Stephane Hess
Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing
ISBN: 1781003157
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 721

Get Book Here

Book Description
The Handbook of Choice Modelling, composed of contributions from senior figures in the field, summarizes the essential analytical techniques and discusses the key current research issues. The book opens with Nobel Laureate Daniel McFadden calling for d

Essays on Discrete Choice Models

Essays on Discrete Choice Models PDF Author: Joonmo Kang
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 112

Get Book Here

Book Description
This dissertation consists of three essays divided into chapters. In chapter 1, I analyze the identification of a simultaneous binary response model without nonadditive unobservable random terms, and suggest an estimation method. In particular, the derivatives of structural equations are identified and estimated. The identification relies on a special regressor, which enters the underlying structural equation linearly. All other exogenous variables held constant, variation on this special regressor generates variation on the structural equation which determines the latent endogenous variable in a known way, so we can recover the conditional distribution of the structural equations. The estimator can be constructed using a least-squares method, after replacing the elements of a matrix with kernel density and density derivative estimates. The estimator is shown to be consistent and asymptotically normal. In chapter 2, I examine the determinants smartphone adoption among the elderly in South Korea. The advent of smartphones has caused a dramatic change in access to information and media, leading to a super-connected world of real-time services. Meanwhile, the constant dissemination of new technologies makes the digital divide multi-layered. In particular, older persons fall far behind the overall population in the access and use of new devices. To understand the technological environment following the introduction of smartphones and other smart mobile devices, I examine individual, household, and regional factors that can influence the preferences of the elderly with regard to obtaining a smartphone. I find that smartphone ownership among the elderly is mainly determined by personal rather than family characteristics. Also, I find that the area where a person lives has a significant effect on the probability of their owning a smartphone. In chapter 3, I analyze the evolution of preferences for brands in digital camera market. A consumer considers the value of a brand, as well as product characteristics when deciding which product to buy. One way to capture this effect is to use brand-specific dummy variables. However, including brand-specific dummy variables does not fully account for the variation of the unit sales of compact digital cameras, since the preference for digital camera brands evolves over time. Assuming that the brand preference is affected by the advertising expenditure of each brand and the reputation among consumers, I suggest a method to capture the time-varying brand preference under the specification of BLP model.