External Validity of Hypothetical Surveys and Laboratory Experiments

Jae Bong Chang, Jayson Lusk and Bailey Norwood ()

No 43600, 2008 Annual Meeting, July 27-29, 2008, Orlando, Florida from American Agricultural Economics Association (New Name 2008: Agricultural and Applied Economics Association)

Abstract: We compare the ability of three preference elicitation methods (hypothetical choices, non-hypothetical choices, and non-hypothetical rankings) and three discrete-choice econometric models (the multinomial logit, the independent availability logit, and the random parameter logit) to predict actual retail shopping behavior in three different product categories (ground beef, wheat flour, and dishwashing liquid). Overall, across all methods, we find a reasonably high level of external validity. Our results suggest that the non-hypothetical elicitation approaches, especially the non-hypothetical ranking, outperformed the hypothetical choice experiment in predicting retail sales. We also find that the random parameter logit can have superior predictive performance, but that the multinomial logit predicts equally well in some circumstances.

Keywords: Agribusiness; Consumer/Household Economics; Marketing; Research Methods/ Statistical Methods (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 37
Date: 2008
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-dcm, nep-exp and nep-upt
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ags:aaea08:43600

DOI: 10.22004/ag.econ.43600

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