Are Preferences for Food Quality Attributes Really Normally Distributed? An Analysis Using Flexible Mixing Distributions

Vincenzina Caputo, Riccardo Scarpa, Rodolfo Nayga and David Ortega

Working Papers in Economics from University of Waikato

Abstract: We empirically question the commonly employed distributional assumption of normality of taste distribution in mixed logit models with continuous random parameters. We use a WTP-space random utility discrete choice model with flexible distributions (Train 2016) on data from two choice experiments regarding beef with nested set of quality attributes. We specifically address distributional features such as asymmetry, multi-modality and range of variation, and find little support for normality. Our results are robust to attribute dimensionality in experimental design. Implications of our results for practitioners in the field are discussed.

Keywords: flexible taste distributions; mixed logit; logit mixed logit; food preferences; preference heterogneity (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 26 pages
Date: 2017-11-30
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-agr, nep-dcm, nep-exp and nep-upt
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

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Related works:
Journal Article: Are preferences for food quality attributes really normally distributed? An analysis using flexible mixing distributions (2018)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:wai:econwp:17/27

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