Efficient choice set designs for estimating availability cross-effects models

Batsell and Polking proposed a discrete choice model which incorporates the availability (presence or absence) of competing brands into the utility of each brand under study. The information on relative impacts of adding or deleting brands is of strategic interest, and models that do not incorporate such effects may be misleading. The designs suggested by Batsell and Polking have 2^m–m–1 choice sets. Even with as few as 10=m brands, this requires over 1000 choice sets. In this paper we provide a catalog of designs for estimating cross effects models in as few as 2m–1 choice sets. This will make cross effects modelling practical in a wide range of academic and commercial settings.     

Economic lessons from China

Based on China's recent experience, positive lessons are suggested that could potentially be transplanted to other countries, especially socialist developing countries. Six lessons and three corollaries are put forward. The first three lessons relate to principles of income distribution, motivation, and guidance in decentralized decision making: a ‘fair-shares’ principle of distribution, a way to cut the Gordian knot of the problem of success indicators, etc. The fourth lesson involves price stability and the aggregate balance between supply and demand. Other lessons treat sector priorities, industrial decentralization, and small-scale rural industry. These Chinese approaches increase some attractions and reduce some shortcomings of socialism.