Allowing for heterogeneous decision rules in discrete choice models: an approach and four case studies |
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Authors: | Stephane Hess Amanda Stathopoulos Andrew Daly |
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Institution: | (1) Institute for Transport Studies, University of Leeds, Leeds, LS2 9JT, UK;(2) Department of Economics, Business, Mathematics and Statistics (DEAMS), University of Trieste, Piazzale Europa 1, 34127 Trieste, Italy;(3) RAND Europe, Westbrook Centre, Milton Road, Cambridge, CB4 1YG, UK |
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Abstract: | The study of respondent heterogeneity is one of the main areas of research in the field of choice modelling. The general emphasis
is on variations across respondents in relative taste parameters while maintaining the assumption of homogeneous utility maximising
decision rules. While recent work has allowed for differences in the utility specification across respondents in the context
of looking at heterogeneous information processing strategies, the underlying assumption that all respondents employ the same
choice paradigm remains. This is despite evidence in the literature that different paradigms work differently well on given
datasets. In this article, we argue that such differences may in fact extend to respondents within a single dataset. We accommodate
these differences in a latent class model, where individual classes make use of different underlying paradigms. We present
four applications using three different datasets, showing mixtures between “standard” random utility maximisation models and
lexicography based models, models with multiple reference points, elimination by aspects models and random regret minimisation
models. In each of the case studies, the behavioural mixing model obtains significant gains in fit over the base structure
where all respondents are hypothesised to use the same rule. The findings offer important further insights into the behavioural
patterns of respondents. There is also evidence that what is retrieved as taste heterogeneity in standard models may in fact
be heterogeneity in decision rules. |
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