Discrete Choice Methods with Simulation by Kenneth Train has been available in the second edition since 2009. The book is published by Cambridge University Press and is also available for download ...

Discrete Choice Methods with Simulation

Unobserved heterogeneity and the statistical analysis of highway accident data

Statistical Methods for the Analysis of Discrete Choice Experiments: A Report of the ISPOR Conjoint Analysis Good Research Practices Task Force

We analyze two experiments that provided direct information on school test scores to lower-income families in a public school choice plan. We find that receiving information significantly increases the fraction of parents choosing higher-performing schools. Parents with high-scoring alternatives nearby were more likely to choose non-guaranteed schools with higher test scores. Using random variation from each experiment, we find evidence that attending a higher-scoring school increases student test scores. The results imply that school choice will most effectively increase academic achievement for disadvantaged students when parents have easy access to test score information and have good options to choose from.

Information, School Choice, and Academic Achievement: Evidence from Two Experiments

We investigate the relation between ownership structure and firm performance in Continental Europe, using data from 675 publicly traded corporations in 11 countries. Our results confirm that families are the type of controlling shareholders that most recur to the control-enhancing devices which are associated with lower valuation and performance. However, even after taking into account that family-controlled corporations exhibit larger separation between control and cash-flow rights, our results do not support the hypothesis that family control hampers firm performance. Valuation and operating performance are significantly higher in founder-controlled corporations, and are at least not worse than average in descendants-controlled corporations. Thus, our results lead to the conclusion that family control is positive for firm value and operating performance in Continental European firms. This is true not only when the founder is still alive, but also when the controlling stake is held by descendants that sit on the board as non-executive directors. When a descendant takes the position of CEO, family-controlled companies are not statistically distinguishable from non-family ones in terms of valuation and performance.

/pdf/the-effect-of-family-control-on-firm-value-and-performance-4sbax1ml1i.pdf

The Effect of Family Control on Firm Value and Performance. Evidence from Continental Europe

https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-00501810/document

Likelihood approximation by numerical integration on sparse grids

Early results on the Medicare Part D prescription drug program, from a survey of people age sixty-five and older who were interviewed just before enrollment started and just after it ende...

Who Failed To Enroll In Medicare Part D, And Why? Early Results

The nested logit model has become an important tool for the empirical analysis of discrete outcomes. There is some confusion about its specification of the outcome probabilities. Two major variants show up in the literature. This paper compares both and finds that one of them (called random utility maximization nested logit, RUMNL )i s prefe rable in most situations. Since the command nlogit of Stata 7.0 implements the other variant (called non-normalized nested logit, NNNL), an implementation of RUMNL called nlogitrum is introduced. Numerous examples support and illustrate the differences between both specifications.

/pdf/structural-choice-analysis-with-nested-logit-models-znw1edjq34.pdf

Structural choice analysis with nested logit models

This paper discusses the consequences of population aging and a fundamental pen-
sion reform – that is, a shift towards more pre-funding – for capital markets in Germany. We
use a stylized closed-economy, overlapping-generations model to compare the effects of the
recent German pension reform with those of a more decisive reform that would freeze the cur-
rent pay-as-you-go contribution rate and thus result in a larger funded component of the pen-
sion system. We predict rates of return to capital under both reform scenarios over a long ho-
rizon, taking demographic projections as given. Our main finding is that the future decrease in
the rate of return is much smaller than often claimed in the public debate. Our simulations
show that the capital stock will decrease once the baby boom generations enter retirement
even if there were no fundamental pension reform. The corresponding decrease in the rate of
return, the direct effect of population aging, is around 0.7 percentage points. While the capital
market effects of the recent German pension reform are marginal, the rate of return to capital
would decrease by an additional 0.5 percentage points under the more decisive reform pro-
posal.

/pdf/pension-reform-capital-markets-and-the-rate-of-return-129m61zxga.pdf

Florian Heiss

Papers

Discrete Choice Methods with Simulation

Likelihood approximation by numerical integration on sparse grids

Who Failed To Enroll In Medicare Part D, And Why? Early Results

Structural choice analysis with nested logit models

Pension reform, capital markets, and the rate of return