Using conditioning on observed choices to retrieve individual-specific attribute processing strategies

Stephane Hess and David Hensher

Transportation Research Part B: Methodological, 2010, vol. 44, issue 6, 781-790

Abstract: With the growing reliance on Stated Choice (SC) data, researchers are increasingly interested in understanding how respondents process the information presented to them in such surveys. Specifically, it has been argued that some respondents may simplify the choice tasks by consistently ignoring one or more of the attributes describing the alternatives, and direct questions put to respondents after the completion of SC surveys support this hypothesis. However, in the general context of issues with response quality in SC data, there are certainly grounds for questioning the reliability of stated attribute processing strategies. In this paper, we take a different approach by attempting to infer attribute processing strategies through the analysis of respondent-specific coefficient distributions obtained through conditioning on observed choices. Our results suggest that a share of respondents do indeed ignore a subset of explanatory variables. However, there is also some evidence that the inferred attribute processing strategies are not necessarily consistent with the stated attribute processing strategies. Additionally, there is some evidence that respondents who claim to have ignored a certain attribute may simply have assigned it lesser importance. The results produced by the inferring approach not only lead to slightly better fit but also more consistent results.

Keywords: Stated; choice; Attribute; processing; Ignoring; attributes; Willingness; to; pay (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2010
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (97)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0191-2615(09)00136-2
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:transb:v:44:y:2010:i:6:p:781-790

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/supportfaq.cws_home/regional
https://shop.elsevie ... _01_ooc_1&version=01

Access Statistics for this article

Transportation Research Part B: Methodological is currently edited by Fred Mannering

More articles in Transportation Research Part B: Methodological from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().