Investigating cost non-attendance as a driver of inflated welfare estimates in mixed-logit models

Choice models are used by applied economists for many purposes, such as non-market valuation or estimating willingness to pay for novel food and product attributes. Mixed-logit models allow researchers to account for preference heterogeneity and complex decision-making processes when modelling choices. In mixed-logit models, parameters of monetary attributes such as prices typically are assumed to follow a negative lognormal random distribution to ensure that the marginal utility of a price increase is strictly negative. However, this practice can cause means and standard deviations of welfare estimates to ‘explode’ to unfeasibly large levels, as the model assumes there are some marginal utilities of cost approaching zero. This paper examines whether cost non-attendance, which occurs when respondents ignore costs in stated-preference studies, could be a cause of inflated welfare estimates when a lognormal cost parameter is used. A two-class equality-constrained latent-class model is proposed, in which the cost parameter is fixed at zero for a cost non-attender class and is specified as a random lognormal parameter for cost attenders. This proposed model produces mean welfare estimates that are 17 times lower than a mixed-logit model with a lognormal cost parameter, and 10% lower than a model with a non-random cost parameter. These results suggest that cost non-attendance can result in inflated welfare estimates when employing a lognormal cost parameter, and that accounting for cost non-attendance could be a simple, parsimonious solution to this problem.     

Who gets injured at home? Evidence from older people in France

The study analyses unintentional home and leisure injuries (HLIs) for the French senior population using data from the 2012 wave of the French health, health care and insurance survey. The results of our logit models reveal that health status, age, and risky attitudes are the main characteristics associated with HLIs for older people. When the severity of injuries is taken into consideration, the highest exposure to HLIs concerns the oldest seniors, aged 85 years old or older, with deteriorated health. This result is confirmed in the case of severe indoor HLIs, whereas for severe outdoor injuries, the most vulnerable individuals seem to be younger seniors, that is, 75–79 years old. Moreover, our findings suggest that HLIs, and mainly severe home HLIs, generate a short-term influence on a person's health.     

基于面板数据的我国制造业上市公司财务危机预警研究

以制造业上市公司为研究对象,基于Panel logit模型理论,考虑财务比率在时间序列上的趋势性和历史数据对结果的影响,构建了财务危机预警模型,分析了上市公司陷入财务危机的影响因素。实证结果表明:偿债因子、盈利因子、营运因子、资本运用因子和资本结构因子均与上市公司陷入财务危机负相关。     

The use of multinomial choice analysis in international business research

Many strategic decisions made by firms involve a choice among several discrete alternatives. International Business (IB) scholars are often interested in modelling the factors that potentially influence these (multinomial) choices: these factors might include not only characteristics of the firms making the choices but also attributes of the alternative choices. This paper provides a succinct and intuitive introduction to the possible applications of multinomial choice models in IB research. We briefly outline the theory behind discrete choice modelling, and then explain how multinomial choice models may be estimated (including how the datasets need to be formatted) and how the significance of the coefficient estimates as well as the diagnostic statistics may be tested and interpreted.     

实验经济学视角下中国家财险需求不足的实证研究

基于心理学注意衰减模型与内驱力降低理论，使用实验经济学处理效应检验和logit回归方法，探究中国家财险需求不足的问题。结果表明：潜在客户家财险决策以接受相关外部刺激为前提，第一阶段先感知家庭财产风险，第二阶段再评估家财险需求；绝大部分潜在客户难以接受到家财险相关外部刺激是导致保险需求不足的重要原因。鉴于此，可从转变财产险公司营销方式与经营理念、充分履行房地产与物业管理公司自身服务义务、有效发挥政府社会管理职能这三方面着手，将潜在需求逐步转化为家财险保单。     

Public support for economic transition

This paper focuses on the Czech economic transition and aims to identify the determinants of unusually high and long-lasting public support for market reforms. The study is based on a unique combination of statistical analysis of survey data and oral history (interviews with reformers, managers etc.), which has enabled us to depict the views of the general public as well as of many people involved in decision-making processes on both macro and micro levels. These findings allow us to propose recommendations on how to gain and maintain public support for economic reforms. Above all, reformers must utilize the period of euphoria and communicate the individual steps of reform with the public.